Portland State University

The goal of this project is to design and test a team-based professional development intervention for transition educators—secondary special educators, transition specialists, related services, and support staff. An initial professional development (PD) model, the Transition Coalition Self-Study (TCSS), has shown emerging promise for increasing educators' knowledge of transition assessment with the potential to improve transition IEPs. The original TCSS was a team-based model that used a t...

This project evaluated the efficacy of MindUP, a mindfulness-based social emotional learning (SEL) program, on a set of key social emotional learning competencies (i.e., attention skills and social skills) that are associated with kindergarten readiness and later academic success.

In order to help improve policy and practice for educating and training adults, we need a broad, multi-disciplinary field of trained researchers. This training program aimed to help develop such researchers by providing in-depth, hands-on training with the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) data. The PIAAC is a large, international assessment of adults (16- to 65-years old) that aims to assess and compare the basic skills and the broad range of competencie...

Enhanced self-determination has been shown to be associated with transition success for students with disabilities. Self-determination may be even more important for students with disabilities in foster care settings who are transitioning into adulthood. Although interventions have been developed to address self-determination among students with disabilities, there is a lack of empirical evidence to conclude that such interventions directly lead to better transition outcomes such as employme...

With an increasing number of young children with autism spectrum disorders in public schools, local and state education agencies must find cost-effective, research-based preschool programs that educators can use. To date, many programs for children with autism spectrum disorders have not been empirically evaluated. Minimal guidance is therefore available for educators and other school personnel for determining which approaches may be best to use with children with autism spectrum disorders....

The purpose of Project Success is to implement the TAKE CHARGE model for enhancing the self-determination of foster youth with disabilities and to systematically evaluate the efficacy of the model in improving educational outcomes. Statistics reveal that approximately 40% of foster care youth have a disability, and that youth in foster care are three times more likely to be referred for special education services. Educators are frequently unaware of the unique issues facing special educatio...