How Public Input Shapes the Clerc Center's Priorities:

Identifying Critical Needs in Transition from School
to Postsecondary Education and Employment

By Judith M. LeNard, M.Ed.

Request for Collaboration

Collecting public input on critical unmet needs is not an end in itself. The purpose is to guide the Clerc Center's research, development, and dissemination. To accomplish this objective, Partners for Progress works collaboratively with programs and individuals to develop projects that impact unmet needs. Information about these projects is disseminated in a Request for Collaboration (RFC) that invites programs to collaborate with the Clerc Center. The Clerc Center uses the following criteria for identifying projects for collaboration. They must:

• be responsive to needs identified in the public input process;
• be applicable to all educational settings;
• supplement, not duplicate, other ongoing work;
• focus on target groups as much as possible; and
• lead to an impact.

The RFC process within Partners for Progress is most appropriate for projects directed to the school, classroom, or individual.

Of particular importance to the Clerc Center's national mission is identifying "best practices" in the area of transition. To avoid duplication, the Clerc Center reviewed other national projects. Since there were already two ongoing projects investigating "best practices" in the education of deaf and hard of hearing students, it was decided not to develop any project that would overlap with them.

As part of the public input process, the Clerc Center shared the information gathered on transition with the National Mission Advisory Panel (N-MAP). The presentation focused most closely on student needs. The feedback from N-MAP indicated that the picture described by the public input was reflective of what they had experienced in their programs. One N-MAP participant stressed that what schools and programs would find helpful is information about how well they are preparing students for life after graduation and tools to help schools evaluate their programs. This idea resonated with responses from the Priority Feedback Project and Danek and Busby's stimulus paper. Follow-up research on graduates is needed to find out how well they are doing in postsecondary life. An internal survey at MSSD also identified the need for information from graduates to use as a potential tool to guide program change.

In response to this feedback on student and program evaluation needs, the Clerc Center developed two related projects based on the real-life experiences of recent graduates who are deaf and hard of hearing. First, a research study was developed that seeks to better understand transition from the perspectives of deaf and hard of hearing graduates. This study also explores graduate follow-up as a possible tool to use in program evaluation and a guide for curriculum change.

To address the concern that students are not prepared to make decisions, set realistic goals, or advocate for themselves, a second project is directed at students in high school classrooms. This is an instructional package for teachers who will work with small groups to enhance self-determination by teaching planning and decision-making skills.

Both projects derive from the needs described in the public input process as well as the needs found at KDES and MSSD. Both projects are applicable to all educational settings, including the Clerc Center's target groups, and are designed to directly impact critical needs identified in transition.

Transition Collaborations

Selecting Collaborators. To select collaborators for these projects, the Clerc Center undertook the application, review, and selection phase of the Partners for Progress process. As a first step, the Clerc Center wrote a RFC that described the two projects in depth. The RFC included an application form and criteria for a proposal. These same criteria were used in the review and selection process. A key criterion was inclusion of one or more of the Clerc Center's five special target populations: students who are lower achieving academically, who come from non-English speaking homes, who have secondary disabilities, who are from diverse cultures, or who are from rural areas.

In an effort to reach those parties whose applications would be eligible, a flier that briefly described the two projects (with a return request for an application) was sent to 2,110 individuals and programs serving deaf and hard of hearing students and their families. In addition, the Clerc Center mailed the RFC directly to all individuals who expressed an interest in transition on a general flier about family involvement that was distributed earlier. Applications were also distributed through the Gallaudet University Regional Centers.

The Clerc Center received 15 applications, about equally divided between center schools and mainstream schools. Extending public input to the review and selection process, the Clerc Center asked four external reviewers to serve on an External Review Committee. To maintain continuity, a member of the National Dialogue was named one of the reviewers. Transition specialists, a researcher, a parent, and a member of the Deaf community were represented in the group. The External Review Committee reviewed the applications individually. Based on feedback from the committee that reviewed the family involvement RFCs earlier, members of the transition External Review Committee met for one day to discuss their individual recommendations and to develop group recommendations. This modification of the external review process proved very satisfactory, as reported by the committee members. The transition committee also recommended future changes to improve the review process, including giving more time for individual reviews and standardizing the application format for easier reading. The external group's recommendations on the 15 applications went to the Clerc Center's vice president's team for an internal review. Based on the recommendations of the external and internal review groups, the vice president made the final selections: the Illinois School for the Deaf in Jacksonville, Illinois, and South Hills High School in West Covina, California.

Implementing the Collaborations. The Longitudinal Graduate Study (LGS) is a three-year follow-up of selected samples of recent graduates of MSSD, the Illinois School for the Deaf, and South Hills High School. It is a qualitative research study to explore the question, "What is transition from high school to postsecondary life from the graduate's perspective?" The study uses in-depth, face-to-face interviews to ask the graduates to tell their stories about school, work, and life experiences they've had since graduation. It also asks graduates to compare their lives at school before graduation with their lives after graduation. The purpose of the study is threefold:

• to provide information to the collaborating programs about the effectiveness of their own transition programs,
• to provide the Clerc Center with information about the value of the process as a program evaluation tool and its transportability, and
• to explore common themes or patterns that define the early postsecondary experience for deaf and hard of hearing young adults.

To provide continuity of the public input process, a participant from the National Dialogue is a member of the group that is analyzing the LGS interviews from MSSD.

The Transition Instruction Package for Students (TIPS) is being pilot-tested in 2001 as an instructional package for high school-aged deaf and hard of hearing students. The package includes an instructional guide for the teacher or facilitator and videotapes that capture the real-life experiences of recent graduates of MSSD, the Illinois School for the Deaf, and South Hills High School. TIPS is intended to increase students' self-determination. The materials focus on the decision-making process and the tapes will be used as a stimulus for discussion, critical thinking, and conceptual applications. In structuring the classroom instruction, TIPS emphasizes choice and responsibility. It also uses a multiple-intelligence framework in constructing assessment of performance so that students learn alternate ways of expressing themselves and explore their own particular interests and strengths. To continue to provide continuity in the public input process, a member from the National Dialogue is one of five members in a TIPS External Advisory Group.

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