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These assessments provide valuable information about the student’s interests, aptitudes, needs for accommodations/modifications, attitude toward work, work habits and behaviors, tolerance for work, and self-concept. And the assessment process provides a circle of feedback where the student learns about him/herself and the parents and professionals learn about the student.

The vocational assessment process can take place at different points in a student’s life. However, IDEA ’97 requires the IEP team to consider the vocational needs of all students and to address these needs in IEP development and implementation.

Uses of Vocational Assessment Data Assessment Instruments for Transition Planning

Category

Description

Determination of Career Development

To find out where the student stands in terms of: career awareness, orientation, exploration, preparation, placement, or growth/maintenance. Appropriate for middle school/early junior high and beyond (Neubeert, 1985).

Measurement

To identify abilities, interests, capabilities, strengths, needs, potentials, and behaviors within the areas of personal/social functional/academic, community/ independent, employment and employability areas. Initial testing appropriate for middle school; more involved analyses appropriate for high school and beyond (Neubeert, 1985).

Prediction

To match an individual’s interests and abilities with appropriate vocational training, community employment, or postsecondary training. Appropriate for high school (Neubeert, 1985).

Prescription

To identify strengths and needs, and to recommend types of adaptive techniques and/or remedial strategies that will lead to improved career development and vocational preparation. Appropriate for high school and young adults and beyond (Neubeert, 1985).

Exploration

To “try out” different work-related tasks or vocational activities and to determine how interests match abilities for vocational education programs, community jobs, postsecondary, or other adult activities. Appropriate for high school and young adults (Neubeert, 1985).

Intervention

To implement the techniques or remedial strategies that will help a student explore vocational or work options. Appropriate for high school and beyond (Leconte, 1986).

Advocacy

To develop a vocational profile to help students, their families, and others identify concrete ways to assist students in achieving their goals. Appropriate for high school and beyond (Leconte, 1986). -NICHCY, Interstate Research Associates, Washington DC

The following list of resources is intended to provide a “starting point” for IEP teams to use when determining what type of vocational assessment tool to choose. (No endorsement of any instrument

is intended or implied.)

Arc’s Self-Determination Scale

The Arc of the United States 500 E Border St, Suite 300 Arlington TX 76010

BRIGANCE

Life Skills Inventory Curriculum Associates, Inc. PO Box 2001 North Billerica MA 01862

Enderle-Severson Transition Scales

Practical Press PO Box 455 Moorhead MN 56561

Checklist of Adaptive Living Skills (CALS)

Riverside Publishing Co. 8420 Bryn Mawr Blvd Chicago IL 60631

Functional Skills Assessment and Programming Catalog

Milligan Catalogs 11212 S Hawk Hwy Sandy UT 84094

Inventory for Client and Agency Planning (ICAP)

Riverside Publishing Co. 8420 Bryn Mawr Blvd. Chicago IL 60631

Life-Centered Career Education (LCCE) Knowledge and Performance Batteries

Council for Exceptional Children 1110 N Glebe Rd Arlington VA 22201-5704

Self-Determination Knowledge Scale

Wayne State University Office of the Dean 441 Education Bldg. Detroit MI 48202

Independent Living Behavior Checklist

West Virginia Research and Training Ctr One Dunbar Plaza, Suite E Dunbar WV 25064

Tests for Everyday Living

CTB/McGraw-Hill 20 Ryan Ranch Rd Monterey CA 93940

Transition Behavior Scale

Hawthorne Educational Services, Inc. PO Box 7570 Columbia MO 65205

Transition Planning Inventory

PRO-ED, Inc. 8700 Shoal Creek Blvd Austin TX 78757

Transition Skills Inventory

PRO-ED, Inc. 8700 Shoal Creek Blvd Austin TX 78757

Work Adjustment Rating Form

Educational Testing Service Princeton NJ 08541

Work Adjustment Scale

Hawthorne Educational Services, Inc. PO Box 7570 Columbia MO 65205

Taken in part from Assessment for Transitions Planning, Clark, 1998, PRO-ED.

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special education program that includes the appropriate accommodations and modifications necessary for the student to learn. The PLEP should be consistent with the information derived from assessments conducted and/or observations made of the student.

Conclusion

Early vocational skill building and ongoing vocational assessment can and will support students to make a successful transition from school to the world of work. Vocational assessment can assist parents, professionals and the student to think strategically and plan thoughtfully and carefully about the future.  

NETCAST

sponsored by the Department of Education/Office of Special Education and the Department of Human Services through a grant from the Rehabilitation Services Administration

The fifth NetCast transition broadcast—Self-Determination: Supporting Students to Become SelfAdvocates—is scheduled for Wednesday, December 17, 2003. Broadcast time is 4:00 to 5:00 p.m., with set up and sign in beginning at 3:30 p.m. at the viewing sites listed on the DHS registration page. The four previous sessions were well received and informative, with participants from across the state.

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