Preparing Students for College and Careers

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Preparing Students for College and Careers

• Everyday Matters
• Ensuring Success for Transition Aged Youth
• Texas Transition Conference
• Margo Vreeburg Izzo, PhD
• Izzo.1_at_osu.edu
• February 21, 2013

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21st Century Skills Defined

• The skills students need to succeed in the 21st
  Century
• Life and Career Skills
• Learning and Innovation Skills
• Information, Media, and Technology Skills
• Core Subjects with 21st Century Themes
  (Partnership for 21st Century Skills,
  www.21stcenturyskills.org)

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Need for Information andTechnological Literacy

• Defined as the set of skills needed to find,
  retrieve, analyze and use information.
• Individuals who are both technologically and
  information literate will be able to use
  computers effectively to find the information
  they need.
• Useful for people with disabilities because they
  enhance communication, learning, writing, and
  task management.
• Creates equal opportunities in education and aid
  in transition from school to work.

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Need for Career Planning

• Nearly 80 of students with disabilities plan to
  work after graduation
• Only 70 were actually employed one year after
  graduation, with many working part time
• 70 of students plan to pursue some type of
  postsecondary education
• Only 35 were actually enrolled one year post
  graduation
• Only about 20 of high school graduates live
  independently following graduation

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21st Century Curricula

• EnvisionIT and E-Mentoring Curricula
• Teach IT skills.
• Help students build a self-directed Transition
  Portfolio.
• Match students interests, abilities, and
  personality to career goals.

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Transition Curricula (cont.)

• Incorporates UDL Supports for all learners.
• Use the open source, fully accessible course
  management system, ATutor.
• Allow students to become more engaged and
  invested in their learning by using material that
  is relevant to their lives.

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21st Century Curricula
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Need for Mentoring

• Teachers are under pressure to provide one to one
  attention for at risk youth
• Mentoring can be useful for youth AND adults
• Youth involved in mentoring are
• 46 less likely to begin drug use
• 27 less likely to begin alcohol use
• 52 less likely to skip school
• 33 less likely to hit someone
• 59 get better grades
• 73 raise their goals

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Sample IT Objectives in Curricula

• Information Technology Objectives
• Use rules for communicating online by
  sending/receiving email.
• 2. Retrieve information from the Internet.
• 3. Determine meaning of unknown words using
  online dictionary.

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Sample Transition Objectives

• Complete three online self-assessments to
  identify preferred learning styles, personality
  traits, and career interests
• Create PowerPoint slides that describe two
  preferred personality traits
• Compare four career choices that match your
  personality traits
• 4. Summarize key point in a college preparation
  chart such as majors, application process,
  finances, student activities, campus visits and
  surrounding areas

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Age Appropriate Transition Assessments

• Develop realistic and meaningful goals
• Assist develop IEP postsecondary goals
• Provide information for present levels of
  performance
• Learn about the individual student, his/her
  strengths, needs, ambitions, interests,
  preferences
• Connect IEP with future plans
• Inform the Summary of Performance

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Online Assessments

• The VARK Questionnaire 
• http//www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp
• The Myers-Briggs Personality Test
• http//www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.
  html
• The Princeton Review
•  http//princetonreview.com/Careers.aspx

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Riley Guide

• Assignment Overview
• Students use The Riley Guide to find three
  websites related to their careers. Then the
  students write one to two sentences describing
  each website.

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Core Standards and Transition Assessment

• Princeton Review After completing the Princeton
  Review students will be able to analyze their
  Interest Color and list 4 occupations to explore
• Core Standard
• Reading Strand Cite strong and thorough textual
  evidence to support analysis of what the text
  says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from
  the text, including determining where the text
  leaves matters uncertain.

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Core Standards andTransition Assessment

• -Transition Portfolio, Activity 1a Self
  Assessment VARK -
• After completing the VARK students will be able
  to analyze their learning style and share
  strategies that enhance their learning
• -Common Core Standards
• Reading Strand Reading for Information 2,
  Determine two or more central ideas of a text and
  analyze their development over the course of the
  text.
• Writing Strand 2e, Use precise language,
  domain-specific vocabulary, and techniques such
  as metaphor, simile, and analogy to manage the
  complexity of the topic.
• Use technology, including the Internet, to
  produce, publish, and update individual or shared
  writing products in response to ongoing feedback.
• -

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Transition Portfolio

• Students create a Transition Portfolio that
  includes
• 1. PowerPoint Presentation
• 2. Job or College Comparison Chart
• Resume
• 4. Cover Letter
• 5. Career Narrative
• 6. Job or College Application
• 7. Interview with a Professional
• 8. Job or College Checklist
• 9. Bookmarks of websites visited in career search

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Portfolio PowerPoint

• Students include
• Results of online assessments
• VARK, Princeton Review, Myers-Briggs Personality
  Assessment
• Results of Internet Research on two four
  careers of interest
• Postsecondary goals
• Education/Training
• Employment
• Independent Living

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Universal Design for Learning

• Universal design is an approach to designing your
  teaching to benefit people of all learning styles
  without retrofitting
• In addition to the assistive technology supports,
  a variety of UDL supports are built into the
  E-Mentoring Program
• Teachers are encouraged to pick and choose the
  extent to which each student will use any of the
  supports

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UDL Guided Notes

• Guided notes are teacher-prepared handouts that
  guide students through course content with key
  items blanked out for the student to fill in
  the relevant term or idea.
• Students are prompted to download the guided
  notes at the beginning of each unit.
• Students may choose to print out and handwrite
  answers or simply fill them in electronically.
• The resulting product is a complete set of notes
  to study from that includes all critical content
  from the unit

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UDL - Review Sheets

• Many students dont have effective study skills.
  When preparing for quizzes students need to know
  how to go back into the course and look for
  important information.
• These scaffolded review sheets are designed to
  guide those information retrieval study skills by
  providing direct, explicit directions to find
  important information.
• Material on the review sheet directly reflects
  upcoming quiz content and is topics are weighted
  accordingly.

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UDL - Glossary Definitions

• The E-Mentoring Program will introduce words that
  the student may not be familiar with. Words that
  are highlighted with a superscript question mark
  will have text box definitions.
• Students must hover their mouse cursor over the
  question mark (not the whole word) to see the
  definition.
• Model this to students and encourage them to use
  this support to improve comprehension.

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E-Mentoring Sample Unit 1, Section 7
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UDL - Transition Portfolio

• A UDL approach to teaching encourages multiple
  means of student learning evaluations.
• In addition to quizzes, students complete many
  career exploration activities that are saved and
  printed to culminate in a student-centered career
  portfolio.
• These portfolios should be customized to the
  student and students are encouraged to
  personalize their materials to reflect their
  interests and personality.
• Note to teachers Make sure all students have a
  three ring binder to compile their materials in
  and access to a printer.

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Student Feedback of UDL Supports

• Of the students who used the supports in 2006-07
• 84.1 found Guided Notes either very helpful or
  helpful
• 76.7 found Review Sheets either very helpful or
  helpful
• 73.2 found the Glossary either very helpful or
  helpful

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Transition Gains Made through the EnvisionIT
Curriculum

• Knowledge of Finding Jobs
• Experimental students with and without
  disabilities had significant gains in knowledge
  in finding jobs post-test compared to control
  students.
• Finding information about colleges
• Experimental students with disabilities had
  greater gains in reported ability to find college
  information, compared to control students with
  disabilities.

Izzo, Yurick, Nagaraja Novak, (2010). Effects
of a 21st Century Curriculum on Students IT and
Transition Skills, Career Development for
Exceptional individuals
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Sample PowerPointMaggie

• My EnvisionIT PowerPoint Presentation

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VARK

• I have a Read Write Learning Style.
• I learn best by having something written down in
  front of me.
• I also learn best by writing things down because
  I cannot remember things if I dont
• I learn best by reading and writing.

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Personality Type

• I am a I.S.F.J. Personality Type.
• I have a practical and conservative approach to
  life.
• I am quiet and caring and possess a inner
  strength and depth.
• I naturally put a greater value on what I see,
  hear and feel, then on theories.
• I am protective of people who I am close to, and
  always use my personal values to make a choice
  that is right for me.
• I can be relied on to be thoughtful, cooperative
  and considerate in the way I deal with people in
  my life.

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My Style Color Yellow

• My style color is yellow.
• I perform my job responsibilities in a manner
  that is orderly and planned
• to meet a known schedule.
• I prefer to work where things get done with
  minimum interruption and change.

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My Interest Color Blue

• My interest color is blue.
• I like jobs and careers that involve creative,
  humanistic thoughtful, quiet types of
  activities.
• Some jobs that might suit me are child care
  worker or photographer.

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My Postsecondary Employment Goal

• After High School, I will obtain a job at a Child
  Care Center.
• I love to work with children and to travel.
• My second career interest is to be a
  photographer.
• I could take pictures of the kids and give them
  to their parents.

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Education/Training Goals and Services

• Postsecondary Education and Training Goal
• After high school, I will enroll in child care
  classes at Columbus State Community College.
• Annual Goal
• I will complete the Delaware Area Career Center
  course in childcare by completing all
  assignments/quizzes and planning lessons.
• Transition Services
• - Volunteer in our church preschool program
• - Apply for Rehabilitation Services

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EducationChild Care Worker

• Minimum Requirements- High School Diploma
• Maximum Requirements- Bachelors or Masters Degree
  in Child Care

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Effective Procedures Beyond the Classroom

• Linking up students with the districts
  Transition Coordinator to assist students with
  follow-up activities
• Sharing Transition portfolios PowerPoint
  presentations at IEP/IPE meetings

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Case Study Student 1

• African-American male
• Cognitively Delayed, Speech Disorder, ESL,
  Post-Traumatic Stress
• Before EnvisionIT - wanted to be a doctor
• After EnvisionIT - he is planning on attending
  the career center for Facility Maintenance (more
  realistic goal)

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Case Study Student 2

• White male
• Learning Disabilities in reading and writing
• Before EnvisionIT - no clue what he wanted to do
  for a career knew he wanted to attend OSU
• After EnvisionIT
• He feels that he knows what careers match his
  interests and preferences
• He wants to be a computer designer or a
  photographer
• Is working on scheduling job shadowing
  experiences with the districts Transition
  Coordinator

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EnvisionIT Pilot Sites2007-10

• Ohio State School for the Blind (OSSB).
• One Career Tech High School.
• Two large urban districts.
• Ideal implementation at OSSB integrated across
  9 12th grades!

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EnvisionIT Results

• Transition
• 61 of experimental students who were undecided
  at pretest had a career goal posttest.
• Only 5 of experimental students who had a career
  goal pretest reported being undecided posttest
  compared to 13 of control students.
• Information Literacy Results
• Experimental students performed significantly
  better on the IT Literacy posttest compared to
  control students
• F 10.99 (272), p.001.

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Pre-Post Mean Increase of Information Literacy by
Group, Reading Level and Setting

• Results for 2007-08
• Experimental n153
• Control n134
• -Statistical significance (p lt .05) for all
  categories except
• SwD and AIMS Intensive
• Raw data gains suggests that EnvisionIT
  increased IT literacy
• Izzo, Yurick, Nagaraja, Novak, 2010, Effects of a
  21st Century Curriculum on Students IT and
  Transition Skills.

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Pre-Post Mean Increase by GroupGoal Setting,
Finding Jobs College Info

• Results for 2007-08
• Experimental (n153)
• Control (n134)
• Statistical Significance (p.05)
• Goal setting for SwD
• Knowledge of finding jobs for Swd and SwoD,
• Knowledge of finding college info for SwD
• Izzo et al. 2010, CDEI 33(2)

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AIMSWeb Reading Results

• Six 9th graders who are deaf/HH, five 12th
  graders from tech program
• 8 of the 11 students moved at least 1
  classification posttest.
• 3 of the 11 students moved from intensive to
  benchmark.
• The range of improvement was 5 to 44.

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Pre-Post Reading Results of Students with HI or
LD using AIMSWeb Assessment
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E-Mentoring2009-2010 Results (N97)

• Information Technology Literacy gains
  statistically significant for experimental group
• Trend data reveals that Transition Knowledge did
  increase, just not enough to attain statistical
  significance for experimental group. Evidence to
  suggest that intervention helps students with and
  without disabilities improve Transition
  Knowledge.

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2010-11 Descriptive Characteristics by
Group(N120)
EXP (n38) CONT (n82)
Percent with Disabilities 31.58 28.05
Percent without Disabilities 68.42 71.95
Percent Male 44.74 47.56
Percent Female 55.26 52.44
Percent African American 44.74 46.34
Percent Caucasian 50.00 43.90
Percent Hispanic 2.63 3.66
Percent Asian American 0.00 1.22
Percent Other 2.63 4.88

• Conclusion Though CONT group is twice as big as
  EXP group, the groups are proportionately
  balanced in their composition.

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2010-2011 IT Literacy Gains
N120

• Conclusion Experimental group increased IT
  Literacy significantly compared to control group.

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2010-2011 Transition Knowledge (TK) Gains

• Conclusion Students in the experimental group
  increased their performance significantly on the
  Transition Knowledge test, as compared to the
  control group.

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2010-2011 AIMS Web Reading Gains

• Conclusion Intervention helps students with
  disabilities in reading as measured by their AIMS
  web score.
• For EXP group change in AIM score was similar
  between students with and without disabilities.
• For CONTROL group change in AIM score was much
  worse for students with disabilities.

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Scale-UP EnvisionIT 2012-2016

• 2013-14 Final Revisions to Curriculum
• Recruitment of Pilot Sites in 2012-13
• Title 1 districts
• TA provided by UCEDD and state dept
• Texas UCEDDs
• Center on Disability and Development, Texas AM,
  College Station TX
• Texas Center for Disability Studies, U of Texas
  at Austin

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Discussion

• E-Mentoring curriculum makes a positive
  difference in the lives of students with and
  without disabilities.
• Project utilizes experimental pretest-posttest
  design in school settings. Challenges
• Student attrition and engagement.
• Teacher fidelity.
• Technology access.
• Learning supports are essential as is teacher-led
  instruction in gaining positive results for
  students.

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Student Quotes about E-Mentoring

• I like having a mentor who understands me.
• My mentor gave me motivation, I learned about
  college.
• We taught each other things.
• It is helpful to be encouraged.
• My mentor gives me helpful feedback on my
  coursework.

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Mentor Quotes about E-Mentoring

• Being blind growing up, without any blind/VI
  mentors around, I really felt like I wanted to
  contribute in some way. I think this program is
  great and I hope it continues.
• The mentor role is rewarding.
• Teachers are reporting gains in student progress
  in school and other areas.

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Student Comments

• Before E-Mentoring, I had no idea what I wanted
  to do, I was interested in so many different
  things. It helped me decide what careers best
  suited my skills.
• E-Mentoring allows me to have some flexibility
  to change my mind in the future.
• Before I wasnt searching the Internet in the
  right way, but E-Mentoring taught me how to
  search differently.

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Additional Resources

• Nisonger Center
• http//www.nisonger.osu.edu/specialed-transition
• NSTTAC http//www.nsttac.org/
• DCDT www.dcdt.org