Due to an increase in enrollment of African American students with disabilities in postsecondary education, there is a need to identify strategies that may lead to improved transition and self-advocacy skills for these students. These strategies include teaching students to request academic accommodations and to have an understanding of how their disability affects their academic learning. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to provide an in-depth explanation of a self-advocacy strategy that was used to teach three African American male college students how to request their academic accommodations. Results indicated this strategy may be a promising intervention for African American college students with disabilities.

Ai community-based, instruction has been recognized as a variable leading to postschool success for all students with disabilities, early transition planning has become vital in students' preparation for adulthood. Based upon the need and importance of students receiving community-based instruction, this literature review examined 23 transition intervention studies to identify vocational, community, daily living, and recreation skills taught across grade levels using CBI. The majority of studies included in the review showed positive results for all participants while more than half of the studies were conducted at the high school level. In addition, findings indicated mixed generalization and maintenance results. These findings suggest the need for practitioners to use evidence-based strategies in the community across grade levels.

Approximately 28% of students with disabilities do not complete high school (National Longitudinal Transition Study-2, 2005). This increases the likelihood that these students will experience low wages, high rates of incarceration, and limited access to postsecondary education. This article reviews evidence-based secondary transition practices that show promise for enhancing school completion of students with disabilities. For conceptual purposes, the article uses and describes evidence using the Taxonomy for Transition Programming (Kohler, 1996) which includes (a) student focused-planning, (b) student development, (c) interagency collaboration, (d) family involvement, and (e) program structures. Suggestions for practice and future research are provided.

A literature review was conducted to identify evidence-based practices in secondary transition using quality indicator checklists for experimental research. Practices were categorized by the Taxonomy for Transition Programming. Overall, 32 secondary transition evidence-based practices were identified. Two practices had a strong level of evidence, 28 had a moderate level of evidence, and 2 had a potential level of evidence. The majority of practices represented instruction of skills within the category of Student Development. No evidence-based practices were identified in the category of Interagency Collaboration. Findings provide practitioners with a set of evidence-based practices for improving transition services and researchers with an agenda for conducting future research.

Ms. Smith and Ms. Alvarez, special education teachers at Harris Middle School, have had many conversations about how to balance all their responsibilities. They are accountable for teaching academic content standards, and they also must address their students' individual needs, including self-determination skills. They often wonder, “How can we do it all given our limited time and resources?”

Federal laws mandate that students with cognitive disabilities receive instruction in academic skills and also support the importance of teaching self-determination. The Purpose of this literature review was to synthesize intervention research examining effects of self-determination interventions on academic skills for students with cognitive disabilities. Findings indicated that the majority of self-determination interventions affected skills that directly support academic performance (e.g., organization of academic assignments); however, traditional academic skills such as math productivity and spelling accuracy were also positively affected. The review included analysis of the strength of results, research design quality, and discussion of implications for researchers and practitioners.

Given the importance of both academic and self-determination skills for students with disabilities, it is important to identify efficient ways to deliver instruction in these essential areas. This literature review synthesizes intervention research that has examined the effects of self-determination interventions on academic skills for students with learning disabilities (LD) and/or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Our findings revealed that self-management interventions were most often studied, followed by interventions that combined self-management with one or more other self-determination components. Effects ranged from very weak to very strong. Effects were strongest when (a) interventions that combined self-management with goal setting were used to increase students' productivity, and (b) goal-setting interventions were used to improve math skills. Most of the studies included in the review were of high quality; however, some areas could be improved.

Research continues to document the lack of widespread classroom implementation of self-determination instruction. One reason given for why self-determination skills are not being taught is the lack of readily available and affordable instructional resources. The IEP process is one vehicle that all teachers can use to teach self-determination. Research has demonstrated that students with disabilities can participate in each stage, including planning, drafting, meeting to revise the draft, and implementing the plan. This article provides an overview of student involvement in the IEP process and describes “no-cost” resources that teachers can use to involve their students in the IEP process.