CASE Conf 2025

TAGG, You're It!: Using the TAGG Assessment Suite for IDEA Compliant Secondary Transition Planning (Room 103 first floor)

05 Nov 25
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Tracks: Transition from School to Work

Speaker(s): Kendra Williams-Diehm, Professor of Special Education; Director Zarrow Institute on Transition & Self-Determination, University of Oklahoma; Zarrow Institute on Transition & Self-Determination ; Malarie Deardorff, Assistant Director, Zarrow Institute on Transition & Self-Determination, University of Oklahoma; Zarrow Institute on Transition & Self-Determination ; Stacie Dojonovic, Associate Teaching Professor, University of Kansas

Research spanning 40 years shows students with disabilities continue to experience poorer post-school outcomes in the areas of education and employment compared to peers without disabilities (Blackorby & Wagner, 1996; Newman et al., 2011). Students with disabilities are less likely to graduate high school and attend or complete postsecondary education programs than peers (BLS, 2020). Effective transition planning practices, which pivots upon appropriate transition assessment, lead to favorable transition outcomes for students with disabilities (Schall et al., 2012) and improved outcomes in post-school education (Test et al., 2009) and employment (Brooke et al., 2009). As current postsecondary outcomes show, more must be done to better support effective transition planning, and more must be done earlier. Federal law requires using transition assessments to identify students’ strengths, needs, and interests for transition planning by age 16. Prince et al. (2014) provided guidance on transition assessment and specifically linked the lack of appropriate transition assessment to a denial of IDEA’s Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) mandate. This denial of FAPE occurred because appropriate goals and objectives could not be individualized to student needs without an appropriate transition assessment (Deardorff, Peltier et al., 2020). Prince et al. (2014) went on to make clear recommendations for transition assessment: (a) it is necessary to use more than one transition assessment, and (b) at least one measure should have sufficient reliability and validity evidence (i.e., a formal assessment). These results should be clearly incorporated into the transition plan. As such, educators must learn about the TAGG assessment suite. Which adheres to the recommendations set forth by (Prince et al. 2014) to qualify as a formal transition assessment. In addition, it provides suggested annual transition goals based upon validated results ensuring maximized compliance.