January, 2007

Capacity-Building Institute (CBI) Update
The Capacity Building Panel engaged in the following activities over the past two months. They worked on developing the National Secondary Transition State Planning Institute, for May 2-4, 2007 in Charlotte, NC at the University Hilton, and began planning the Secondary Transition Mid-Year activity, October 17^th, 2007 in Orlando, FL. They also continued their capacity building efforts with New Mexico (intensive NSTTAC TA state) in preparation for cadre meetings in January, 2007, hosted Capacity Building Expert Panel meeting on December, 12^th and furthered plans for the State Planning Institute in May, 2007 and began contacting state and territory liaisons regarding configuring state teams for the State Planning Institute in May, 2007

Dissemination Update
The Dissemination Panel has created an initial draft for the Transition Assessment Guide. The draft is being reviewed and we plan to have it posted by the first of the year. The guide will provide background information on age appropriate transition assessment and resources. We have also produced our third newsletter, surveyed the states as to their transition conferences, and conducted workshops for local teachers in North Carolina. Finally, we posted the audio podcasts along with the power point slides from our Denver Capacity Building Institute on our website at www.nsttac.org.
 

The National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange has Three New Resources related to Youth with Disabilities Mobility International USA (MIUSA) announces the latest issue of "A World Awaits You." The publication is for parents, teachers, and other professionals and helps support teens to go abroad on international exchange programs. Read the press release online at: http://www.miusa.org/newsitems/awayyouthinfluencers 
or go directly to webpage linking this and past issues at: http://www.miusa.org/ncde/away

On November 3, 2006, The National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange hosted a teleconference, "Independence Beyond Borders: A Teleconference for Parents of Children with Disabilities and Youth Influencers." If you are a parent or work with youth with disabilities, learn how international exchange can be part of their life experiences by reading the transcript posted online at:  http://www.miusa.org/ncde/tipsheets/parentteleconference.

Finally, browse the updated list of international exchange and international development organizations that offer internships at their U.S. offices. People with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Read more about these opportunities at http://www.miusa.org/ncde/intlopportunities/internships.

National Clearinghouse on Disability & Exchange:
Since 1995 MIUSA has served as the National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange (NCDE). The NCDE is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State and managed by MIUSA to educate people with disabilities and related organizations about international exchange opportunities; increase the participation of people with disabilities in the full range of international volunteer, study, work and research programs; advise international exchange organizations about the Americans with Disabilities Act; and facilitate partnerships between people with disabilities, disability-related organizations and international exchange organizations.

The National Institute for Urban School Improvement
The mission of the National Institute for Urban School Improvement (NIUSI) is to develop powerful networks of urban districts and schools that implement a data-based, continuous improvement approach for inclusive practices. NIUSI hopes that its advocacy for inclusive schooling (good for kids, families, and communities) engages professionals in understanding the multifaceted cultures and histories that urban school children and their families bring to the educational process.  http://www.urbanschools.org/

A Summary of Research on the Effects of Test Accommodations
This report, from the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO), summarizes 49 empirical research studies on test accommodations completed between 2002 and 2004. The report provides direction on the design of critically needed future research on accommodations.  http://education.umn.edu/nceo/OnlinePubs/Tech45/

Are They Really Ready to Work? Employers’ Perspectives on the Basic Knowledge and Applied Skills of New Entrants to the 21st Century Workforce
The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, and The Society for Human Resource Management conducted a study of corporate perspectives on the readiness of new workforce entrants by level of educational attainment. This report details findings and includes a workforce readiness report card that summarizes the basic knowledge and applied skills that are either “deficient” or “excellent” and areas that employer respondents rated as “very important”. http://www.conference-board.org/pdf_free/BED-06-Workforce.pdf

The Social Security Definition of Disability
In its October 2003 report, the Social Security Advisory Board observed that, "The original Social Security disability programs were for those who had no realistic expectation of a return to the workforce because of a combination of severity of disability and the attainment of near-retirement age." That report raised the question of whether the Social Security definition of disability facilitates an appropriate approach to supporting and enabling persons with disabilities. After three years of intensive study of this question, the Board has issued a follow-up report outlining its vision of a disability system for the 21^st century that aligns with the Americans With Disabilities Act. http://www.ssab.gov/Disability-System-for-the-21st-century.htm

Online Learning Opportunities from Partners in Policymaking
Partners in Policymaking offers four free on-line courses for parents and self-advocates including:

• "Partners in Time" -  a tutorial on the history of people with disabilities from ancient times until today;
• "Partners in Education" - a discussion on special education options to help parents get the most out of the school system for their kids;
• "Making Your Case" - education on the legislative process and how to effectively communicate with public officials; and
• "Partners in Employment" - a career planning class for persons with disabilities, including assistance with resume and portfolio development.

Statewide Professional Development focused on Secondary Transition:

If your state is hosting a secondary transition focused conference, please let us know and we’ll include the information in our next newsletter, korteringlj@appstate.edu.

Wisconsin Transition Conference
February 15 & 16^th, 2007, Stevens Point
http://dpi.state.wi.us/sped/transition.html

Arkansas Transition Summit
February 21 & 22, 2007, Little Rock
http://arkedu.state.ar.us/commemos/custview.cgi?filename=3230&sortby=subject

Alabama Transition Conference
March 12 -14, 2007, Auburn
http://education.auburn.edu/academics/depts/rse/outreach/transitioninstitute/transitionconference/
index.html

Kansas Transition Summit 2007
March 13 - 14, 2007, Wichita
http://conferences.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=512
 

The NSTTAC Indicator 13 Checklist Frequently Asked Questions document was approved by OSEP on November 17^th, 2006 and is available on the website at http://www.nsttac.org/pdf/i13checklistqa.pdf.

SharedWork.org
SharedWork.org is a website funded by the U. S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and sponsored by the IDEA Partnership at the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE). The site supports and facilitates the shared work that occurs among individuals, organizations and agencies at the local, district, state, and national levels. The comments, thoughts, observations, or opinions offered on the website are meant for communication across individuals in a variety of roles and locations that share the goal of improving outcomes for youth with disabilities.  http://www.sharedwork.org/index.cfm

The OJJDP Model Programs Guide (MPG)
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's MPG assists practitioners and communities in implementing evidence-based prevention and intervention programs that can make a difference in the lives of children and communities. The MPG database of evidence-based programs covers the entire continuum of youth services from prevention through sanctions to reentry. The MPG assists juvenile justice practitioners, administrators, and researchers to enhance accountability, ensure public safety, and reduce recidivism. The MPG is an easy-to-use tool that offers the first and only database of scientifically-proven programs across the spectrum of youth services.  http://www.dsgonline.com/mpg2.5/mpg_index.htm

The National Standards and Quality Indicators: Transition Toolkit for Systems Improvement
This comprehensive document, compiled by the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition (NCSET), includes the standards and quality indicators, information on supporting research and best practices, and specific system tools to support state and community interagency planning groups. The system tools include a self-assessment process for identifying state and local needs, a process for building consensus and setting priorities in relation to specific identified needs, and a process to support state and community-level action planning. http://www.nasetalliance.org/toolkit/index.htm

NICHCY Connections... to Transition 101
A web resource page of the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHCY). This resource will help you learn more about transition, what the law requires, what information a typical transition plan contains, and how transition plans are developed. Because transition is such a broad topic, the information is organized as a "suite" of pages that break the topic down into some of its distinct aspects. More pages may be added to the suite in the future. http://www.nichcy.org/resources/transition101.asp
 

Making access to mental health and substance abuse treatment available to those affected by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma
The Red Cross is offering $1000 for mental health treatment to people from hurricane impacted zip codes. The program will help people without insurance or those with large co-pays access the mental health treatment they need in the private sector. http://www.a2care.org
 

Cornell University ILR School, Employment and Disability Institute (EDI) is advancing knowledge, policies, and practices to enhance the opportunities of people with disabilities. EDI conducts research and provides continuing education and technical assistance on many aspects of disability in the workplace. Since 1968, researchers and practitioners at the Cornell ILR School with expertise in disability have helped companies, labor organizations, government agencies, schools, and communities throughout the United States and abroad to accommodate and integrate individuals with disabilities. http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/edi/

US Army/The Ad Council – Boostup.org is an outlet for students to show how they feel about high school. This site will be a place where students can express themselves freely, and show who they are and what they go through.
Their manifesto:
There are thousands of brave students who struggle just to make it through the day. These are the kids who turn off their alarm and dread the very idea of Math or English. But they go anyway…most of the time. They persevere despite crowded classrooms, work through learning disabilities and fight to realize their dreams. To do better than the people that came before them. You won't be able to spot them by looking at them but they know who they are. They're independent. They're gutsy. They're determined to prove the system wrong and get their diploma. But sometimes they need to feel like there's someone in their corner.
They're braver than you think. http://www.boostup.org/flash/index.html

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) review of dropout prevention examines secondary school (middle school, junior high school, and high school) as well as community-based interventions designed to help students stay in school and/or complete school. It was established in 2002 by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences to provide educators, policymakers, researchers, and the public with a central and trusted source of scientific evidence of what works in education. The WWC  promotes informed education decision making through a set of easily accessible databases and user-friendly reports that provide education consumers with high-quality reviews of the effectiveness of replicable educational interventions (programs, products, practices, and policies) that intend to improve student outcomes. http://www.whatworks.ed.gov/Topic.asp?tid=06&ReturnPage=default.asp

Vocational Rehabilitation State Offices enable you to tap into a wealth of resources related to employment options for people with disabilities. Vocational Rehabilitation (VR), a state-supported division of services, assists individuals with disabilities who are pursuing meaningful careers. VR assists those individuals to secure gainful employment commensurate with their abilities and capabilities through local job searches and awareness of self-employment and telecommuting opportunities. http://www.jan.wvu.edu/SBSES/VOCREHAB.HTM

Vocational Information Center explores vocational and technical careers, check out the skills employers really want, find a trade school, research technical topics and take a look at the current job market. Making existing career and technical online resources easier to find, contributing to a greater awareness of the Vocational /Career and Technical education system, and creating a central location for Career and Technical Education resources for students and educational professionals. http://www.khake.com/index.html
 

Kentucky Department of Education, Individual Learning Plan. Beginning the 2006-2007 school year, middle and high school students in Kentucky schools have a new online education planning tool at their fingertips. The new web-enabled Individual Learning Plan (ILP) will help secondary students (grades 6-12) better focus their coursework on individual goals as they prepare for postsecondary studies and careers. The ILP will help parents and teachers provide every graduate with an informed plan for transitioning to the next level of learning and ready to perform at a high level in a chosen career field. The ILP will give new relevance to what students learn in the classroom and provide more connectedness to the world that awaits them.  http://www.education.ky.gov/KDE/Instructional+Resources/Individual+Learning+Plan/ default.htm
 

A Few Steps to Better Data
This report discusses strategies states can use to improve the quality of their dropout-related data and get the greatest utility from those data. This is the NDPC-SD's first offering in their State Performance Plan (SPP) Toolkit Series. The SPP Toolkit Series will contain this and other practical guides to assist state education agencies in their development and implementation of improvement activities associated with school completion. http://www.ndpc-sd.org/assistance/docs/A_Few_Steps_to_Better_Data.pdf

Blogging now begins young
The word blog — short for weblog, an online journal that can be written by many contributors — didn't even appear in the dictionary until 2005, but now even kindergarten teachers are incorporating blogs into the classroom. Will Richardson, author of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom, says students can improve their reasoning skills, as well as their writing, if they are given the opportunity to think about and respond to topics on their own time, in their own way.  http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-11-14-blogs-education_x.htm

School promotes high-tech tip line
A new web site offers students a way to report their personal troubles, and dangerous peers. "This is a new way for people around the school to tell things they think are going wrong around here," John Maldonado, a 16-year-old in a letterman's jacket, told a senior economics class. At a private web site, students can now send secret messages to staff at the Spring school about their own — and other people's — problems. With nearly 90 percent of teens online, adults are shifting both how they reach out to and monitor the under-18 set. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4329783.html

Special-education students get help planning ahead
Preparing for life after high school can be tough for just about any student. But for students with special needs, the process of transitioning into the next phase of their lives can be especially daunting. http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006611220346

IBM Aims Translation-By-Email Service at Teachers
IBM recently added email translation to their Tradúcelo Ahora (Translate It Now) translation program so that school teachers can communicate with their pupils' Spanish-speaking parents.  http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2035882,00.asp
 

All things are possible
until they are proved impossible -
and even the impossible
may be only so, as of now.
Pearl S. Buck