Transition Strengths and Needs of High School Students With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Abstract

A strengths-based approach to transition assessment and planning can ensure that special education services are person-centered. To better understand the strengths and needs of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), we compared the perceptions of students and their teachers from three public high schools. A convergent mixed-methods analysis of transition assessments, interviews, and educational documents revealed significant differences between perspectives. On the Transition Planning Inventory–2, student ratings ( n = 8) were higher than teacher ratings ( n = 8) on eight out of 11 domains. Interview transcripts and transition plan documents revealed differences in strengths and needs related to career-related skills, academic subjects and skills, and personal characteristics. Based on these findings, we provide suggestions for further research and implications for practice.

Validity and Reliability Evidence for Use of the Teacher-Rated Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale with Transition-Age Students

“…In addition, with recent calls (e.g., Trainor et al, 2020; Yeager et al, 2021) for strength-based approaches to transition assessment and planning, these findings suggest that the BERS-3 TRS would be an acceptable assessment for educators to use to identify behavioral and emotional strengths and support transition planning. The five subscales (a) Interpersonal Strengths, (b) Family Involvement, (c) Intrapersonal Strengths, (d) School Functioning, and (e) Affective Strength are all critical in understanding each student wholistically.…”

“…The five subscales (a) Interpersonal Strengths, (b) Family Involvement, (c) Intrapersonal Strengths, (d) School Functioning, and (e) Affective Strength are all critical in understanding each student wholistically. By assessing a student’s strengths in these categories and comparing their strengths to others within a local context, special educators have an ability to plan for instructional and alternative learning opportunities in school to support student growth (Yeager et al, 2021). For example, transition assessment is suggested to occur at least annually but is preferred to be ongoing throughout the year (Mazzotti et al, 2009; Morningstar & Liss, 2008).…”

“…Second, several professionals have advocated for the use of strength-based assessments during transition planning (Trainor et al, 2020; Yeager et al, 2021). Further research is needed to identify how strength-based assessment instruments would be selected and how assessment data from multiple stakeholders would be used in transition planning.…”

Validation of the Arabic Version of the Transition Planning Inventory (TPI-AR)

“…Having an Arabic version of the TPI would help schools to bring together multiple points of view (school, home, and student), thus providing a comprehensive perception about the students' performance levels. It also fulfills the desires of families to participate in and express their aspirations and expectations about the students' future and provides the student an opportunity to express their desires and needs, which raises their competence in self-awareness [34,46]. It can be used for all categories, including students with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities, with the exception of students with autism and severe disabilities.…”

“…For Model 1, it was assumed that the 11 subscales are independent scales, as each subscale measures a distinct variable [37]. Other researchers have also implied the same by using means on all subscales rather than an overall mean of all items [31,32,35,45,46]. In addition, there are researchers who have not used all subscales to measure the mean for these subscales [20,28,30].…”