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.

The Public Input Process

The Clerc Center has been charged by the Congress of the United States "to establish and publish priorities for research, development, and demonstration through a process that allows public input" (Education of the Deaf Act Amendments of 1992). Since 1994, the Clerc Center has devoted significant resources toward developing and implementing a structured process for gathering public input, starting with the establishment of the National Mission Advisory Panel (N-MAP), whose membership represents the constituencies served by the Clerc Center. The constituencies include center and residential schools for the deaf, day schools for the deaf, mainstream programs with deaf and hard of hearing students, regular elementary and secondary education programs, university programs, members of the Deaf community, former students of Kendall Demonstration Elementary School (KDES) and the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD), and parents of deaf and hard of hearing students. Sixteen constituency representatives were selected to act in an advisory capacity to the vice president. N-MAP narrowed the priority areas to three: literacy for all, family involvement, and transition from school to postsecondary education and employment. The Clerc Center has the responsibility to define and expand each of these priorities.

The Clerc Center developed Partners for Progress, a mechanism through which it identifies widely accepted critical needs in each of the three priority areas and identifies collaborating programs and individuals to make an impact on these needs. Each time the process is used, it is assessed, modified, and expanded.

Throughout the public input process, the Clerc Center makes a significant effort to assure the broadest representation among the constituent groups that serve or advocate for deaf and hard of hearing children and their families. The Clerc Center has used a variety of strategies to obtain public input from the constituent groups. They are:

• N-MAP — This committee is composed of representatives from the Clerc Center's constituency groups and was established to advise the Clerc Center's vice president in carrying out the Education of the Deaf Act's national mission responsibilities.
  
• Frequently Asked Questions — This document is a compilation of those questions most frequently asked of the Clerc Center staff by parents and educators.
  
• Priority Feedback Project — This project includes in-depth phone and TTY interviews with representative constituents about needs in the three priority areas.
  
• Stimulus Paper — This is a comprehensive paper on each of the priority areas based on research and current practice that has been developed by experts to stimulate thought and discussion in the public input process.
  
• National Dialogue — This meeting is composed of transition experts and parents who gather to discuss the issues and critical unmet needs in one of the priority areas.
  
• Questionnaire Surveys — Printed questionnaires are structured to elicit opinions and comments from parents, educators, researchers, vocational rehabilitation and personal counselors, administrators, and others.

The stimulus papers for each priority area have been found to be valuable tools for stimulating thought and discussion about current issues, especially when used in conjunction with the National Dialogue. Of the other public input strategies the Clerc Center has used, N-MAP, the Priority Feedback Project, and the experience-based questionnaire surveys have provided the most useful information about current needs of parents and practitioners in the field. The power of the public input process is magnified by using a variety of strategies to collect information that identifies needs appearing across constituency groups. Information from one source validates findings from other groups.

Meeting Critical Needs in the Transition from School to Work

With a backdrop of dramatic change in transition-related legislation impacting schools and a complex competitive marketplace, the Clerc Center used the public input strategies to identify and develop a clearer understanding of needs in the area of transition for deaf and hard of hearing students. Critical needs were defined as those needs expressed most frequently by the broadest constituency. Ideally, transition skills should be taught through a developmental, comprehensive curriculum that relates school to work and provides opportunities for work-based learning. A number of efforts seek legislative and curriculum change, but these long-term solutions are difficult to implement.

The long-term developmental approach to transition programming does not help the many students currently in junior high or high school. The Clerc Center found a number of areas that were identified by many sources as important unmet needs in the area of transition programming for deaf and hard of hearing youth:

Student Needs:

• Opportunities for work-based learning, exposure to work, and for paid and volunteer work
• Opportunities to learn explicitly what they have missed, especially in the areas of skills that underlie decision-making and goal-setting
• Opportunities to make age-appropriate choices and assume responsibilities from the earliest age
• Opportunities to learn his or her rights and needs as a deaf or hard of hearing individual and learn how to advocate for him- or herself
• Opportunities to work with staff that have the communication skills and other specialized training to meet his or her transition needs
• Opportunities for exposure to deaf and hard of hearing role models and contact with the Deaf community
• Opportunities for improving literacy skills in transition-related programs

School and School System Needs:

• Developmental, comprehensive curriculum starting in kindergarten that relates school to work and offers work-based learning and opportunities for volunteer and paid work
• Classrooms and school policy that incorporate independence and choice into the everyday curriculum for deaf and hard of hearing youth
• More and better information and training for staff and administrators responsible for the transition programming of deaf and hard of hearing students
• More trained staff to work with deaf and hard of hearing youth
• More qualified deaf and hard of hearing staff to work with deaf and hard of hearing youth in a variety of capacities
  
• Connection with the Deaf community
  
• More information and opportunities for developmental tasks

Parent Needs:

• More information about transition programming as it applies to their son or daughter
• More information about the rights of deaf and hard of hearing students and adults and about services available
• More opportunities to be involved with the school
• More information about incorporating independence and choice into their parenting

The Clerc Center used the results from the public input process to develop two projects:

1. an instructional package for students to enhance self-determination through decision-making skills, and
2. a longitudinal graduate study to understand the transition from high school to postsecondary life from the graduate's perspective and to explore a new evaluation tool for transition programs.

Collaborators were selected in a competitive review and selection process that expanded the public input process by including external reviewers. The Illinois School for the Deaf and South Hills High School were selected to work with MSSD. These three-year projects were in their first full year of implementation in 2001.

Go to References

Copyright © 2002 Gallaudet University Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center
800 Florida Ave. NE
Washington, DC 20002
Key Clerc Center Contact Information
Contact Information Systems and Computer Support if you have any difficulty viewing this page.