The Job Coaching Academy for Transition Educators: A Preliminary Evaluation

Abstract

There is a growing urgency to equip transition-age students with intellectual and developmental disabilities for competitive, integrated employment. Prior research demonstrates the positive effects of job coaching, yet no known training exists for educators to learn how to provide appropriate employment-related supports to promote student independence and social integration. We conducted a stratified quasi-experimental design to evaluate the efficacy and social validity of a professional development pilot program for 46 transition educators across three school districts. Our findings indicate the Job Coaching Academy contributed to increased feelings of self-efficacy related to job coaching and modest growth in educators’ coaching behaviors. We share implications for practice and research in expanding targeted training opportunities for transition educators.

Keywords

transition job coach intellectual and developmental disabilities Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Employment First

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bassett

D. S.

Patton

J. R.

White

Blalock

Smith

T. E. C.

(1997). Research issues in career development and transition: An exploratory survey of professionals in the field. Career Development for Exceptional Individuals, 20(1), 81–100. https://doi.org/10.1177/088572889702000107

Bennett

Brady

M. P.

Scott

Dukes

Frain

(2010). The effects of covert audio coaching on the job performance of supported employees. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 25(3), 173–185. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088357610371636

Blalock

(1991). Paraprofessionals: Critical team members in our special education programs—How to successfully utilize the paraprofessional in the special education setting. Intervention in School and Clinic, 26(4), 200–215. https://doi.org/10.1177/105345129102600404

Blanchett

W. J.

(2001). Importance of teacher transition competencies as rated by special educators. Teacher Education and Special Education, 24(1), 3–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/088840640102400103

Bryant

(2013, March 30). Want to know me? Just read my user manual. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/business/questbacks-lead-strategist-on-his-user-manual.html

Carter

E. W.

Sisco

L. G.

Brown

Brickham

Al-Khabbaz

Z. A.

(2008). Peer interactions and academic engagement of youth with developmental disabilities in inclusive middle and high school classrooms. American Journal of Mental Retardation, 113(6), 479–494. https://doi.org/10.1352/2008.113:479-494

Carter

E. W.

Wehby

J. H.

(2003). Job performance of transition-age youth with emotional and behavioral disorders. Exceptional Children, 69(4), 449–465. https://doi.org/10.1177/001440290306900404

Gilson

C. B.

Carter

E. W.

(2016). Promoting social interactions and job independence for college students with autism or intellectual disability: A pilot study. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 46, 3583–3596. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2894-2

Gilson

C. B.

Carter

E. W.

(2018). Video-based instruction to promote employment-related social behaviors for high school students with intellectual disability. Inclusion, 6(3), 175–193. https://doi.org/10.1352/2326-6988-6.3

10.

Gilson

C. B.

Carter

E. W.

Biggs

E. E.

(2017). A systematic review of instructional methods to teach employment skills to secondary students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Research and Practice for Persons With Severe Disabilities, 42, 89–107. https://doi.org/10.1177/1540796917698831

11.

GovTrack.us. (2020). H.R. 803—113th Congress: Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr803

12.

Hart Barnett

J. E.

Crippen

. (2014). Eight steps to school-based employment training for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability. Physical Disabilities: Education and Related Services, 33(2), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.14434/pders.v33i2.5186

13.

Hollander

Wolfe

D. A.

Chicken

(2014). Nonparametric statistical methods (3rd ed.). John Wiley.

14.

IBM Corp. (2016). IBM SPSS statistics for windows (Version 24.0).

15.

Zhang

Pacha

(2012). Employability skills valued by employers as important for entry-level employees with and without disabilities. Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals, 35(1), 29–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/0885728811419167

16.

Klayman

Coughlin

(2017). Summative evaluation of the Employment First State Leadership Mentoring Project 2015 program year. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 47(1), 25–45. https://doi.org/10.3233/JVR-170881

17.

Kraus

(2017). 2016 disability statistics annual report. University of New Hampshire. https://disabilitycompendium.org/sites/default/files/user-uploads/2016_AnnualReport.pdf

18.

LeMahieu

P. G.

Edwards

A. R.

Gomez

L. M.

(2015). At the nexus of improvement science and teaching: Introduction to a special section of the Journal of Teacher Education. Journal of Teacher Education, 66(5), 446–449. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487115602125

19.

Luckasson

Schalock

R. L.

(2013). Defining and applying a functionality approach to intellectual disability. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 57(7), 657–668. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2788.2012.01575.x

20.

Moher

Schulz

K. F.

Altman

D. G.

& CONSORT Group. (2003). The CONSORT statement: Revised recommendations for improving the quality of reports of parallel-group randomised trials. Clinical Oral Investigations, 7, 2–7. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00784-002-0188-x

21.

Monahan

Lombardi

Madaus

(2018). Promoting college and career readiness: Practical strategies for the classroom. Teaching Exceptional Children, 51(2), 144–154. https://doi.org/10.1177/0040059918802579

22.

Morningstar

M. E.

Benitez

D. T.

(2013). Teacher training matters: The results of a multi-state survey of secondary special educators regarding transition from school to adulthood. Teacher Education and Special Education, 36(1), 51–64. https://doi.org/10.1177/0888406412474022

23.

National Center for Learning Disabilities. (2006). IDEA parent guide: A comprehensive guide to your rights and responsibilities under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004). https://www.ncld.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/IDEA-Parent-Guide1.pdf

24.

National Technical Assistance Center on Transition. (2018). Effective practices and predictors matrix. https://transitionta.org/effectivepractices

25.

Office of Disability Employment Policy. (2019). Employment first. https://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/EmploymentFirst.htm

26.

Parsons

M. B.

Reid

D. H.

Green

C. W.

Browning

L. B.

(2001). Reducing job coach assistance for supported workers with severe multiple disabilities: An alternative off-site/on-site model. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 22(2), 151–164. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0891-4222(01)00064-6

27.

R Development Core Team. (2019). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. http://www.R-project.org

28.

Riesen

Jameson

J. M.

(2018). Comparison of prompting procedures to teach work tasks to transition-aged students with disabilities. Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 53, 100–110.

29.

Rogan

P. M.

Held

(1999). Paraprofessionals in job coach roles. Journal of the Association for Persons With Severe Handicaps, 24(4), 273–280. https://doi.org/10.2511/rpsd.24.4.273

30.

Schroeder

(2014). Summary of changes in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. National Rehabilitation Association.

31.

Simplican

S. C.

Leader

Kosciulek

Leahy

(2015). Defining social inclusion of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities: An ecological model of social networks and community participation. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 38, 18–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2014.10.008

32.

Smith

T. J.

Dillahunt-Aspillaga

C. J.

Kenney

R. M.

(2017). Implementation of customized employment provisions of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act within vocational rehabilitation systems. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 27(4), 195–202. https://doi.org/10.1177/1044207316644412

33.

Valente

Montiero

A. P.

Lourenḉo

A. A.

(2019). The relationship between teachers’ emotional intelligence and classroom discipline management. Psychology in the Schools, 56(5), 741–750. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22218

34.

Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014, PL 113-128, 29 U.S.C. §§ 3101 et seq. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-113publ128/pdf/PLAW-113publ128.pdf

35.

Zhang

Yuan

K.-H.

(2015). coefficientalpha: Robust coefficient alpha and omega with missing and non-normal data (R Package Version 0.5). https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=coefficientalpha