Students with disabilities often require accommodations for academic performance that are similar to those required to function effectively in the workplace. The Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS) has developed and validated a Workplace Literacy Analysis for Adults with special Learning Needs that identifies various accommodations needed to perform functional basic skills in the workplace.
CASAS has also developed and validated comprehensive employability and life skills assessment systems that are used with students who have a wide range of disabilities. The overall objective of this project is to develop a comprehensive assessment that transfers the accommocations or adaptations used for effective classroom performance to the employment setting.
Activities: The workplace analysis developed by CASAS serves as a communication and organizational tool to identify the competencies and accommodations needed by the student to function in the classroom as well as the workplace. The assessment model to be developed through this project will enhance collaborative efforts among service representatives (teachers, job developers, counselors) from an instutition's program, the State vocational rehabilitation agency [for vocational rehabilitation (VR) sponsored students] and business and industry.
It will also be used to assess functional life skills of reading, math and communication in an employability context as well as skills needed to obtain and maintain a job. The model incorporates an individual planning strategy that uses the assessment information for determining appropriate instructional and job placement goals and instructional outcomes. It will be field tested and validated with secondary students transitioning to postsecondary settings in two major urban areas in the states of Arizona and California
Outcomes: The intent of this project is to improve the potential of students with disabilities for achieving successful postsecondary outcomes. A comprehensive assessment model that enables the student and service representatives to identify needed basic skill instructional and workplace competencies as well as the accommodations needed to perform these competencies will be developed, field tested, evaluated and disseminated nationally.
Provisions will be made for additional accommodations needed for success on specific jobs or professions. The model will facilitate communication between the student and service representatives as well as facilitate a reciprocal assessment process between the secondary and postsecondary institutions/adult service agencies represented in the transition process for the student.