JOHNSON CITY – (Feb. 3, 2021) A faculty member at East Tennessee State University is participating in a major research project helping persons with disabilities transition from the K-12 environment to new settings such as independent living, employment or post-secondary education.
ETSU is part of the National Technical Assistance Center on Transition for Students and Youth with Disabilities, an initiative led by the University of North Carolina-Charlotte that also includes researchers from George Washington University, University of Kansas, Portland State University, University of Maryland and University of Oregon. The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
The team is focusing their efforts on supporting the infrastructures of and building capacity within state departments of education and vocational rehabilitation agencies that serve this population. They will be working with agencies in all 50 states as well as other territories, such as Marshall Islands, Guam, Federated States of Micronesia, Bureau of Indian Education, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.
“We recognize that states are in different places in terms of their infrastructures and the services available,” said Dr. Dawn Rowe, interim chair of Educational Foundations and Special Education in ETSU’s Clemmer College. “As agencies come to us seeking support, we will begin by developing an understanding of their unique needs.”
Rowe explained these might include coordinating services with agencies, developing systems for collecting data related to student and teacher needs, improving access to best-practice information, measuring student performance and producing accurate graduation data.
ETSU’s specific role in the grant project is to help disseminate best-practice information to those “in the field.”
“We will be conducting a systemic review of the literature to identify evidence-based practices in the field of secondary special education and transition as well as vocational rehabilitation and making sure this information reaches practitioners and decision-makers,” Rowe added.
The total grant award from the U.S. Department of Education is $4 million, including $331,000 going directly to ETSU in support of the knowledge translation component that Rowe will lead.
Rowe is also editor of TEACHING Exceptional Children, a top-tier, peer-review journal produced by the Council for Exceptional Children, which has over 30,000 members.
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