Transition Assessment
Defining Transition Assessment
Transition assessment is an ongoing process of gathering information that will help students, educators, and family members make informed decisions about life, during and after high school.
The results in a student’s transition assessment will fuel the development of meaningful goals and objectives on the IEP (Individualized Education Program). Functional literacy and numeracy, basic computer competence and self-advocacy are foundational skills that each student needs to learn.
The purpose of transition assessment is to identify a student’s strengths, preferences, interests, and needs and then assimilate these findings into a rigorous school program complete with realistic postsecondary goals, a challenging course of study, practical real-life community experiences, extra-curricular activities, and paid work, as appropriate, for an individual student. What and how many different transition assessments will be used will vary from student to student. The findings of one assessment, for example, may indicate the need for another assessment in an area that the initial assessment identified. No one size fits all.
One’s preferences and interests also may change over time. Transition assessment will guide a student from self-awareness to career awareness to career exploration and ultimately, to career decision making. At any time along this continuum, a student may discover an interest, previously unexplored, that may lead to a new postsecondary goal. A student may also change his/her mind several times during the high school years when given the opportunity to explore various post-school options.
(Excerpt from CSDE Transition Assessment Resource Manual, 2008)
Related Resources
- NCWD/Youth – Career Planning Begins with Assessment: A Guide for Professionals Serving Youth with Educational and Career Development Challenges (2005)
- NTACT:C - Age Appropriate Transition Assessment Toolkit 4.0 (2016)
- NTACT:C – Monitoring Student Progress for Transition: A Toolkit for Collecting Student Level Transition-Related Data (2018)
- Transition Services Liaison Project - QuickBook of Transition Assessments (2005)