Self Determination Synthesis Project Exemplar Site: Transition Program, Fountain-Fort Carson High School Colorado
Community Setting
Fountain-Fort Carson High School serves students in a small town just south of a major metropolitan area. The community includes a large military population.
Population Served
The transition program serves high school students with disabilities, including learning disabilities, mental retardation, hearing impairment, serious emotional disturbance, and orthopedic impairment. Half of the students receive free or reduced lunch. The racial composition of the student population is 70% White, 20% African American, 8% Hispanic, and 2% Asian. Students in upper elementary and middle school (grades 4-8) also receive instruction that enhances some components of self-determination.
Program Description
The transition program includes opportunities for students to learn and apply self-advocacy, goal-setting, problem-solving, self-awareness, and decision making skills through direct instruction in classes, participation in Individualized Educational Program (IEP) planning, vocational and post-secondary exploration, and application of skills in other settings. Students enroll in a Self-Advocacy course as a freshman or sophomore, and then in a Transition Issues course in their junior or senior year. Students begin attending their IEP meetings as early as fourth grade (but typically in ninth grade), provide input into their IEP goals and objectives by their freshman year, and as seniors are expected to lead their IEP meeting. Students have the option to participate in vocational exploration through a partnership with the School-to-Work Alliance Program (SWAP), and in community-based activities provided by Fountain-Fort Carson High School. Students in upper elementary grades are taught about learning style differences and learning disabilities to increase their self-awareness.
Exemplary Self-Determination Practices
- Self-Advocacy Class
A semester-long class on self-advocacy includes units on self-awareness, self-disclosure, recognizing and setting goals, IEP process participation, and developing a plan of action. Lessons are drawn from a variety of curricula, including the ChoiceMaker series (Self-Directed IEP, Choosing Employment Goals, and Take Action), Become Your Own Expert, and F. A. T. City, as well as teacher-developed materials. Students take this class as high school freshmen or sophomores so they can apply the skills they learned in their junior and senior years.
- Student participation in the IEP
Students gradually develop the skills and knowledge they need to participate in the development of their Individualized Education Program plan. Students begin by working with their teachers to develop an awareness of their strengths and needs, and to develop their goals. Students are responsible for inviting teachers to their IEP meeting, and for transmitting related paperwork between their teachers and their case manager. Within the IEP meeting, or annual review, student participation can vary from simply introducing the participants to leading the entire meeting. A checklist is kept in the student’s permanent record to document each student’s level of participation in their IEP so teachers can work with them to move to the next level of participation each year.
Self-determination skills integrated into other courses
Self-determination skills are embedded in other classes, both in self-contained settings and in general education environments. For example, English teachers use newspapers in a current event unit, but also as a springboard to help students identify their own interests via comparison to what they read in the newspaper. Students in a general education math class develop problem-solving skills and learn about the relationship between the math skills they will need in the future and their career goals. The Transition Teacher also teaches a semester-long class on transition issues. A major focus of these class activities is a life issues simulation game called "Get a Life" in which students apply decision-making, self-management, problem-solving, goal setting and attainment, and other self-determination skills to issues such as independent living, post-secondary education, and career planning.
Collaboration
The School-to-Work Alliance Program is an organization that provides vocational assessment and experiential opportunities to students in four area school districts, and helps link students to adult vocational rehabilitation services. Staff emphasize student accountability and help students find jobs in their area of interest.
The Pikes Peak Interagency Transition Team, which includes representatives from agencies in the area who serve clients with special needs, meets monthly to discuss current issues in the field of special education, changes taking place in adult services, and new programs in the Colorado Springs area.
What Makes it Work?
- Teachers respect students and believe they are capable of succeeding. They often take on the role of mentor, and try to temper their own tendencies to "do for" students rather than promote self-determination
- There is consistent and open communication between parents, students, and teachers about both positive and negative events
- Students are responsible for transmitting their own IEP paperwork among teachers and other staff
- Administration allows staff the freedom to try new approaches to teaching
- Direct instruction on self-determinaion via Self-Advocacy and Transition Issues Courses, as well as participating in the IEP process.
Staff
One full-time special education teacher serves as the Transition Teacher, and teaches both the Transition Issues and Self-Advocacy classes. The Transition Teacher also works with teachers at the elementary and middle school level to help ease the transition for students between school levels, and to provide mentoring and information about self-determination as requested. Each special education teacher serves as a case manager for a group of students and is responsible for helping students develop their IEPs.
What People Say About Self-Determination and the Transition Program
Once you start [self-advocating], it’s really nothing…it’s just like "I could have did this a long time ago," because it’s not that hard when you start doing it for yourself." - High School Senior
If you want to succeed in life, if you want to accomplish your goals, do it for yourself. Don’t do it for anyone else but you. You have to want it bad enough. And I mean, as soon as you start thinking like that, then it’s like it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. You know, I’m doing this for me to better myself. I’m not living my life for anyone but me. - High School Senior
Right now, I’m actually kind of excited about graduating, because now I know what I want to do. I know what my goals are. Now I know how to reach them. I feel that’s going to be exciting. I feel that I have a lot more to learn… I want to see how far I can go now. - High School Senior
They’ve been little spokespeople for their group. And this has given my daughter a tremendous amount of confidence in herself. She’s very confident…she doesn’t carry herself like she’s inferior to anyone else just because she has a problem. I’m really happy for that. – Mother
I feel that if my son had been in a different school, with a lesser effective program, he wouldn’t have the self-esteem that he has. – Father
I think with the questions and just being excited about knowing how to get an answer and knowing how to resolve a problem, and knowing how to figure out what they are doing, and knowing ways to get to the end of the task. That is more important than any math I could ever teach them. – Math teacher
I saw the [regular classroom] teacher a lot happier with the student [once the student started to speak up for herself]. There weren’t as many conflicts within the classroom. The student felt a lot more success and she wasn’t as intimidated… so she just became a little more self-confident on a daily basis…I didn’t have to intervene as much for her. – Elementary special education teacher
I experienced what it did for kids after doing the work study program and the "Self-Directed IEP." I just saw what confidence it gave the kids. It changed their outlook- their whole outlook about themselves and their learning disability. They accepted the fact that they learn differently. – Special education teacher
For more information about the program, please contact:
Wanda Hughes
Fountain-Fort Carson High School
900 Jimmy Camp Road
Fountain, CO 80817Phone: 719-382-1640