AGE APPROPRIATE TRANSITION ASSESSMENT: A Tool for Helping Keep Youth in school

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AGE APPROPRIATE TRANSITION ASSESSMENT A Tool for
Helping Keep Youth in school

• Larry Kortering
• Pat Braziel
• Korteringlj_at_appstate.edu

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WHY DO AN AGE APPROPRIATE TRANSITION ASSESSMENT

• Efficient process that is predictive
• Great way to develop rapport w/ students
• Students enjoy it
• Generates useful and relevant information
• Legally required in meeting the requirements of
  Indicator 13 (see www.nsttac.org)
• Helps you understand the student in a new way

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AREAS OF ASSESSMENT INFORMATION (Where can you
get the information?)

• Achievement and Mental Ability scores from the
  students current psychological report (for
  general education students you can use other
  indices)
• Paper/pencil tests in the areas of interests,
  personality or values, career readiness, work
  adjustment, and aptitude
• Physical functioning (observation or tested)
• Family and student background (interview or
  survey)
• Job Samplings
• Work Site Evaluations

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VOCATIONAL ASSESSMENT and -

• Efficient process in terms of time and (cheap)
• Fairly predictive
• Fosters self-understanding
• Means for developing rapport
• Non-academic focus
• The right instruments are reliable and valid
• Students love it
• Indicator 13 requires it

• Snapshot of reality
• Requires training and experience for proper
  interpretation
• Requires a conceptual understanding of career
  development
• Norms are often dated and statistical properties
  are suspect for some instruments
• Many instruments promise to provide data on
  everything in a short time (think diet pills)

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CHALLENGES YOU WILL ENCOUNTER WHEN USING
VOCATIONAL ASSESSMENTS

• Response sets (e.g., flat score or other unique
  response patterns)
• Youths with little or now world of work
  knowledge or experience which affects scores
• Interests are the least stable of measures, yet
  the most often measured
• Impact of limited access to role models

• Impact of their handicap
• Impact of ones gender and culture
• Matching results to actual programs
• The issue of self-reported vs. performance
  measures
• Emerging sources of influence include television
  and the internet

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RECOMMENDED LEVEL ONE TESTS

• General interview or survey about school,
  interests, work history and family jobs
• Student Style Questionnaire (Psychological
  Corporation in San Antonio, TX)
• Self-Directed Search Forms Explorer, E, and R
  (several vendors)
• Transition Planning Inventory (Pro Ed in Austin,
  TX)
• Some measure of actual talents or aptitudes
• Information from current psychological report
  (e.g., IQ and achievement scores)

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TRANSITION ASSESSMENT GUIDE

• PROVIDING BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON ASSESSMENT
• PROVIDING JUST IN TIME ACCESS TO RESOURCES AND
  INFORMATION
• PROVIDING SAMPLE ASSESSMENT TOOLS
• GETTING FEEDBACK ON HOW TO DO IT BETTER

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CONTACT INFORMATION

• WWW.NSTTAC.ORG (sign up for NSTTAC Notes)
• Larry Kortering (korteringlj_at_appstate.edu)
• Patricia Braziel (brazielp_at_earthlink.net)