Transition Services for Urban Students: Expanding Special Ed Programs

Introduction and Context

A wide variety of thoughtful and useful programs exist within today's educational system. Individual fields, such as special education, feature approaches and ideas that appear uniquely tailored to students' special needs. Techniques and policies are designed to work with pupils at their own level, and educators are provided with the means and materials to help young people reach their fullest potential regardless of any perceived external or internal limitations. One program does not suit all, but interestingly, many programs may possess a wider appeal than is readily apparent.

Programs geared toward special education students might, in reality, be applicable across a broader spectrum of young men and women. The skills required to teach students with special developmental and cognitive needs might indeed be applicable to students with other difficulties and requirements. One such approach is that of Transition Services and Programs. Though generally considered to belong to the field of special education, transition services and programs offer an abundance of possibilities for those with other needs and concerns.

Transition programs and services can potentially be of great help to economically disadvantaged individuals growing up in the nation's inner cities. America is filled with blighted neighborhoods that are home to youth who have, seemingly, been witness to every hardship in life. Many of these young people possess negative attitudes or simply feel hopeless — powerless to change or rise above their circumstances. Transition programs and services can be modified to aid these very boys and girls, men and women. It is the aim of this study to discover how transition programs might assist people in these situations. The researcher will study these individuals and suggest possibilities for modifying these programs and services to suit their needs, and hopefully help break the cycle of failure and despair. Adaptation and attention to new possibilities can be the way forward.

Statement of the Problem

The study of the effects of transition services and programs on non-special education populations requires first a look at the goals of those approaches in relation to the original target population. In serving special education students, transition programs and services are meant to accomplish specific ends — namely, assisting students in attaining a level of true self-awareness so that they are ultimately enabled to help themselves by setting their own short-term and long-term goals (Kohler & Field, 2003). Social skills, academic experience, job search, and work-related skills all help students with disabilities to achieve their life goals (Kohler & Field, 2003). Each is a step on the road to self-discovery, a building block in the construction of a firm foundation on which to build one's life. Each of the skills named serves both to direct the search for identity and to assist in the actual fashioning of that identity.

As an example, a student who hopes eventually to be an artist will need to learn all of the potentialities of such a career, as well as the particular skills that go into achieving success in that field. These skills would include not only the knowledge of how to physically create something in a given artistic medium, but also how to sell the finished work. Salesmanship itself would encompass skills in getting along with other people, presenting oneself in a confident and capable manner, understanding what others want and expect, and so forth.

Similarly, students who are disadvantaged in other ways must also learn to discover their true identities and goals. They must comprehend how to achieve those aims and construct all-important visualizations of self. They must learn how to interact with the wider world, and in doing so cultivate many of the same skills and talents as young men and women with physical disabilities. The transition programs and services that offer so much to special education students can also make a significant difference for non-special education students who come from disadvantaged socioeconomic and familial backgrounds — including dysfunctional homes, abusive parents or guardians, and neighborhoods rife with crime.

Significance of the Research

This research will contribute firstly to an understanding of the interrelatedness of different education fields and programs. The application of techniques developed in connection with special education to non-special education populations reveals the potential utility of narrowly conceived programs and services for atypical wider populations. Furthermore, by applying transition programs and services to other categories of disadvantaged students, the techniques and skills involved may be better discerned and understood. Using these approaches on variant populations compels a close examination of the real and inner effects of the methods employed — one must look at what is actually happening, not merely at the theory.

The study can be useful in determining which techniques work best across the board and can suggest improved approaches for both special education and non-special education populations. Lastly, the use of transition services and programs to help non-special education disadvantaged students can also lead to new ways of tackling the problems of that group, whether or not the ultimate solutions involve transition programs and services or ideas derived from those approaches. By studying the effects of transition services and programs on non-special education students, the researcher hopes to open up potential new avenues of assistance and to lay the groundwork for future research and discussion.

Review of the Literature

Transition programs and services for students with disabilities have been the focus of considerable effort and research ever since 1984, when the United States government began to emphasize school-to-work programs in special education (Benz, Lindstrom, Unruh, & Waintrup, 2004). Ideally, programs are carefully tailored to suit the needs of individuals and specific groups of students. Student characteristics must be taken into account, with attention paid to prior educational and personal experience as well as future goals:

(a) Students' previous and current secondary school experiences; (b) barriers to success that students bring to the program. The secondary and postsecondary goals that individual students themselves desire to achieve also influence mutual adaptation and sustainability (Benz, Lindstrom, Unruh, & Waintrup, 2004).

The idea is to establish a system of transitional instruction whereby students work to overcome existing difficulties and limitations as they move toward achievable aims. The ultimate goal is the creation of a productive and functional member of adult society — one who makes as seamless a transition as possible from the world of school to the world of work, and who develops his or her own unique talents and capacities. Transition programs and services speak to ideals of self-realization in combination with societal aims and goals of personal independence within the larger society.

With their emphasis on self-realization as the primary motive force in achieving the goals of transition from school to work, transition programs and services have increasingly emphasized a formal Steps to Self-Determination curriculum. The federal government has actively encouraged and funded the Steps to Self-Determination Curriculum since the early 1990s, sponsoring further research into the theories behind the concept and the ways in which these ideas can best be implemented (Field & Hoffman, 2002). Sharon Field and Alan Hoffman identify five major components within the curriculum: Know Yourself, Value Yourself, Plan, Act, and Experience Outcomes and Learn (Field & Hoffman, 2002).

Each component represents a logical stage in the process of understanding what makes up the self. Students must first look at who they are as individuals before they can begin to consider future goals or methods of overcoming present limitations. Self-discovery includes becoming aware of the things that hold one back — those factors that, consciously or unconsciously, internally or externally, restrict one's freedom of choice and development. Once aware of these factors, young men and women can seek to value their true selves, having separated all of the restrictions from the core person. They can identify and emphasize their hidden talents and abilities. Armed with a sense of self-worth, the maturing individual can plan reasonably for the future and pursue a career path that holds potential for success. With a plan, one can act, taking concrete steps toward realistic goals. And once these actions are undertaken, there will be results and lessons to be learned. Even if one does not succeed immediately, it is possible to analyze the outcome, understand what mistakes were made, and recognize where new limitations — internal or external — may have been imposed. Grounding transitional programs in a curriculum of self-determination is a productive and holistic approach to overcoming disabilities and integrating students into the adult world.

As transition programs and services are designed to ease students in their transition from one environment to another, it is easy to conceive of areas other than special education where such programs and services might be of use. Transitions occur in many different educational, societal, and familial situations. Among the more common situations where problems of adjustment might be encountered are changing from one school to another, a change in grade level, the shift to regular participation in afterschool programs and childcare, and going from school into the workplace (Taylor & Adelman, 2003, p. 122).

Children with emotional or behavioral disorders may be as much in need of transition services and programs as those challenged by physical or cognitive disabilities. Children with such conditions are frequently moved from school to school, or from program to program, either through the actions of their own families or in an attempt to find the right form of treatment for the difficulties they face. These constant changes may, in and of themselves, result in almost insurmountable pressures on developing youngsters. Heather M. Baltodano and Robert M. Gable et al. cite the importance of interventions in a variety of settings, including within the family, the school, and the community (Hester, Baltodano, Gable, Tonelson, & Hendrickson, 2003). Treatment of children with emotional or behavioral problems necessitates close attention to a set of pre-existing characteristics that together create the social and familial background to each child's situation. In addition, patterns of interaction — how ideas and goals are communicated from authority figures to children — play a role in either helping children toward developmental goals or keeping them from those goals:

Child characteristics, parent characteristics, the dynamics of the interaction between the parent and child, and how that relationship is influenced by economic, cultural, and social circumstances… all impinge on the development of children. The long-term efficacy of that intervention process is dependent largely on its continuity and consistency across persons, across settings, and over time. Various authorities assert it is the complex interplay between child and child-partner (parent/teacher/peer), along with variables within the context of the setting that shape the quality of behavior. (Hester, Baltodano, Gable, Tonelson, & Hendrickson, 2003)

In terms of when to conduct interventions, the younger the child the better. Hanna Wasik reports that a program for children aged four to eighteen months, called the Abecedarian Project, has seen remarkable success in increasing IQ and language scores. Such programs are accompanied by transition programs in order to ensure that these gains are carried over into actual school (Fuligni & Brooks-Gunn, 2004, p. 119). The transition program or service represents a way of linking together the lessons of an earlier environment with those of a later, yet-to-be-experienced environment. In this way, transition programs and services assist individuals in a wide variety of circumstances, helping them to move forward with their lives in a productive fashion.

Transition programs, in the form of intensive counseling, have been used to assist students at inner-city schools in making the leap from school to work. In one program described by Paul J. Hartung and David L. Blustein, young men and women are taught to locate their "true reasoning" within the context of their own lives (Hartung & Blustein, 2002). Counselors intervene by helping the student in need "locate a mentor" (Hartung & Blustein, 2002). Through such a program, young people are enabled to take charge of their own lives through a process of introspection. By discovering how they view the world and how they make decisions, these students can — in true transition fashion — work toward the goals of the future. They can see where their own ideas do or do not fit in the world of the workplace, and take the attitudes of high school and modify them in ways that enable them to emerge from the school experience as competent, goal-oriented adults. The program provides students with written assignments that cause them to come up with clear definitions of work, to focus on their own backgrounds and experiences through autobiographical essays, and to enhance basic skills that will enable them to achieve success in any future career (Hartung & Blustein, 2002).

Transition programs and services geared toward assisting minorities in finding the right job after school are especially important given the racial disparities that exist in employment levels between African Americans and whites. Deirdre A. Royster found that Black men were ten percent more likely to be unemployed than their white counterparts, and also earned only seventy-three percent of what white men earned (Royster, 2003, pp. 60–61). In many formerly heavily industrialized inner-city areas, jobs are difficult to find. The old, almost automatic transition from school to factory has become nearly impossible. At one time, young people could easily gain access to reasonably well-paid and secure positions simply with the help of a little training and an introduction from a relative or family friend. With the departure of manufacturing industries, the situation has changed dramatically for minorities graduating from school into the workforce (Royster, 2003, p. 40).

These changes in the socioeconomic picture have made the opportunities presented by transition services and programs all the more worthy of investigation and consideration. As these programs and services can assist young people in grappling with the new dynamics of the workplace, it is essential that they be explored in greater depth to develop the means to help these disadvantaged youngsters. No man or woman should be held back because he or she was born in the "wrong" place, in the "wrong" ethnic or racial group, or attended the "wrong" school. Through transition programs and with the aid of transition services, minority men and women can learn to value themselves and their skills and talents, and learn to find their way in the workplace. They too can become successful, productive, and fulfilled adults.