Supporting the transition from high school to adult life

by Carolyn Hughes

For many students, high school may not be a positive experience leading to a successful transition to adult life. A promising career, satisfying personal relationships, a comfortable home, leisure-time activities -- the expectations many of us hold for adulthood -- do not materialize for a sizable number of students who leave high school. Instead, the outcomes faced by many students when they leave high school are unemployment, financial dependence and few social relationships.

Three to five years after leaving school, fewer than 8 percent of young persons with disabilities are reported to be fully employed or enrolled in postsecondary education, active socially and living independently in the community. In addition, students with disabilities who are from high poverty and culturally diverse backgrounds are more likely to drop out of or be expelled from school and to be economically unengaged as adults.

A concept that is just coming of age in the field of secondary transition is "educational supports" -- services and assistance individually tailored to promote successful educational and postschool outcomes for students. The concept of transition support is based on the same philosophical principles of support that have been applied to supported employment and supported living arrangements. That is, support is designed to meet individual needs of people, rather than to try to "fix" or "cure" them.

A philosophy of transition support accepts that all people need support -- just in varying degrees and in differing areas of life. The idea behind a model of support is that no one can be expected to be considered "competent" in all environments or under all circumstances. In fact, some students may acquire only a limited repertoire of skills during their high school careers.

To enable students to develop competence to the maximum extent possible on an individual basis requires individually designed programs of support that address each student's specific strengths, needs, preferences and interests in the context of each student's particular educational and postschool environments, including home, work and community. For example, transition support might include a co-worker giving a student a ride to work, a peer helping a student with limited use of her hands to eat lunch, or a vocational rehabilitation counselor assisting a student to develop a resume.

Unfortunately, the traditional secondary school curriculum does not provide the support that many students need to achieve adult outcomes that many of us take for granted such as a job, a car or personal relationships. Consequently, my colleagues and I sought to develop a model of transition support for students that may improve their outcomes during and after high school.

The model is based on an interactive process of research-to-practice that was both empirically based and practitioner-tested. The transition model that resulted is unique because support strategies it contains were developed through an interactive collaboration between teachers and researchers. The model is a result of more than five years of a cooperative effort between researchers and teachers to develop and package field-tested and research-based strategies of secondary transition support. Our efforts were supported by funds from the U.S. Department of Education and the John F. Kennedy Center at Vanderbilt.

The Transition Support Model resulted from the interactive research process. The model is divided into two main goals: developing support in the environment and increasing students' competence.

The strategies that comprise the goal of developing support in the environment allow practitioners to "tap-in" to and maximize support in an environment, as well as to build support and acceptance in environments in which they are lacking, in order to support students in the transition from school to adult life.

The second goal of the Transition Support Model is increasing students' competence. "Competence" is judged within the context of an environment. Being considered competent in one environment, such as when someone consistently hits home runs on a baseball team, does not mean the same person would be considered competent in another environment, such as a member of a spacecraft launching crew. The strategies that comprise increasing students' competence help practitioners build the competence of students within their everyday environments and to teach skills and arrange environments to support and maintain their competence.

Because providing support to students in the transition to employment and adult life is an individual matter, the Transition Support Model should be adapted on a case-by-case basis for each student. Some students will need support in some areas, and not in others.

In using the Transition Support Model in the transition planning process, practitioners should assess each student's individual strengths, needs, interests and preferences and develop a transition support plan customized to each student's individual profile. Widespread application of transition support in high schools may allow students to experience the adult outcomes we all seek: a fulfilling career, satisfying interpersonal relationships and a sense of belonging and contributing to a community.

Carolyn Hughes is an associate professor of special education, and an investigator and fellow at the John F. Kennedy Center.