The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) high school test is administered to all Bay State students--both those intending to enroll in college and the many with no such intention. The MCAS high school test is a retrospectively focused standards-based achievement test, designed to measure how well students have mastered the material…

In 2012, in more than one-third of OECD countries, over half of all upper secondary students participated in pre-vocational or vocational programmes but less than 30% of those students were exposed to work-based learning. Countries with well-established and high-quality vocational and apprenticeship programmes have improved youth employment…

Many students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have specialized interests and passions that are highly reinforcing. Such special interest areas (SIAs) are more than mere hobbies or simple curiosities. Rather, the SIAs of an individual with autism may be characterized by (a) significant depth and breadth of knowledge about the area, (b)…

Special education teachers are mandated to implement supports and services for students with an intellectual disability so that they can successfully transition into the adult world. However, special education teachers often have difficulty focusing on teaching the necessary transition skills for success due to balancing other curricular demands.…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to produce an overview of topics and practical recommendations that have been presented for teaching for students with intellectual disabilities in educational research articles published from 2000 to 2013. The sample of peer-reviewed research articles considering this topic was selected using a database…

Preparing deaf and hard of hearing students for transition is a unique challenge in North Dakota, a rural state in which the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction has identified only 32 transition-age students as "deaf" or "hearing impaired." Additional students who are deaf or hard of hearing may be being served via…

The Internationals Network for Public Schools has a reputation for engaging in culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy with immigrant youth. The 19 schools in the internationals school network serve the unique academic and emotional needs of recently arrived immigrant youth who are English language learners. INPS schools are in New York,…

Promoting child mental wellbeing is an important part of UK early intervention policy. Children with poor physical or mental health have significantly lower educational attainment and lower social status as adults. "Activity" projects are one form of early intervention used to try and help vulnerable children. Evidence relating to the…

Autistic children, characterized by impaired social interactions, impaired communication, repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behaviors, are also entitled to education just like the other children in the society. It is therefore important that primary schools in Kenya get prepared so that the children are able to transit to schools from their…

Through Job For the Future's (JFF's) work with communities around the country on the Back on Track model, postsecondary bridging strategies have emerged as a particularly critical and especially replicable component of programming for vulnerable youth. This issue brief offers a typology of evidence-informed bridge programming, drawing on…

Data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 were used to examine the effect of academic and career or technical education course taking in high school on deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) youth's postsecondary enrollment in 2-year, 4-year, and career or technical education (CTE) institutions. The analyses included a nationally…

Large numbers of young people in the United States were in foster care or in juvenile justice custody as teenagers, and many of them have a difficult time making a successful transition to independent adulthood as they leave these systems. Most of them faced a number of disadvantages during childhood and often have poor outcomes across several…

Although reentry education is well documented as an evidence-based, cost-effective approach to preparing incarcerated adults for release (Davis et al. 2014), education services offered by correctional facilities often are disconnected from community-based education programs and other support. This lack of communication and coordination can make it…

A nationwide discussion that is currently taking place related to student loan debt; a number of presidential candidates are discussing ideas for student loan forgiveness. Some states have offered free community college as a possible solution. Free community college would allow students to save money for two years before transferring to a…

English learners (ELs) are students whose primary language is not English and are eligible for English language development services through the Transitional Bilingual Instruction Program (TBIP). Washington state's TBIP has existed since the passage of Senate Bill 2149 in 1979, and is codified in the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) Chapter…