Authors

Sarah G. Driver

Document Type

Honors Project

First Advisor

Dr. Laura Desportes

Degree Award Date

Spring 2001

Keywords

Duration of Education, Transition, Educable Mentally Retarded, School to Work, Valley Association for Independent Living, Vector Industries, survey

Disciplines

Education | Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Special Education and Teaching

Abstract

This pilot study is laying the foundations for a research project that would try to determine if the duration of education has any effect on the transition of EMR students into work and the community. The research is focusing on the duration of education as an independent variable because it is something that, if found to have a positive effect on transition, can be easily implemented by all school systems. The independent variable of duration of education of the EMR participants will be divided into four groups ( dropouts, graduates, graduates with failure, and age-outs). Transition success will be measured by the dependent variables of employment, salary, benefits, post-secondary education, mobility, and recreational/social domains. The data was gathered from the Valley Association for Independent Living (VAIL) as well as a local sheltered workshop, Vector Industries. Each participant was interviewed in person and only three secondary guardian surveys were collected. The data was found to be insignificant due to low numbers of participants. As a pilot study the research was effective in learning more about the survey instrument that was created in order to conduct a larger project in the future.

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