1. Transition Assessment and Goal Generator TAGG Overview
Transition Network
Kathryn Schallmo
September 28, 2016
Welcome to our first Transition Network Meeting for the school year
We are pleased to have such a great turn out
No cost PD MUST Register for an accurate count of materials and food
Review Agenda for the day and Yellow folder- walk through

2. Creating a Culture of Collaboration
Demonstrate respect for one another and for our mutual learning
Listen fully with the intention to understand
Participate actively in learning and seeking possibilities
Set aside judgments
Share air-time
Be responsible for assuring that our norms are followed
So we are going to do a lot of active participations interactions, and you need a partner
Partners 1 and 2 Raise your hand if you’re a 1 raise your hand if you’re a 2 and so forth

3. The Purpose of SPED
. . . a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet students’ unique needs and to
prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living.
Transition Planning begins with Transition Assessment
Share how we got to here Ad Hoc Committee MCAASE
Prepare student with disabilities for adult living
What students do are coordinated activities
College career tech, job coach customized for each students
2004 IDEA Changed Secondary SPED

4. IDEA 2004 Goals
IEPs must include postsecondary and annual transition goals
based upon age-appropriate transition assessments
related to training, education, employment, and independent living (when needed)
Consider independent living is always needed unless data say otherwise
Multi- assessments
Independent living look at doing for everyone coordinated living skills can be taught at home or independent living center

5. Goals of Transition Assessment
Make informed choices and identify needed skills
Provides opportunity for students to become actively involved
Students and families can learn to understand the skills needed for post- school environments
Identify chooses for the future /learning what are assessment strengthens and needs?
Getting students involved in the process

6. Transition & The Courts
Prince, Plotner, & Yell (2014) examined district court findings
Use multiple assessments across transition domains
DO not solely use informal assessments
This means one assessments need supporting validity evidence
Maximize student participation in the transition planning process
2014 district court cases Due Process Hearing send the
Number one use one with formal and other informal assessments
Need the validate of a formal assessment
Involve students in the assessment process
Let students present
Meaningful non-academic goals

7. Case Law Decision
Case involved not conducting adequate transition assessments. Decision:
Told school to focus on meaningful non-academic goals to prepare students for post-school life.
Ordered two additional years of meaningful transition services despite the fact the student had passed exams and was eligible for his high school diploma.
Massachusetts Bureau Of Special Education Appeals And Currently Under Appeal In Federal Court, Dracut Public Schools, BSEA # , 15 MSER 78 (2009).

8. Basic Validity and Reliability Assessment Questions
What is the purpose?
Who was it designed for?
Where did items come from?
Does ample evidence exist for
Firm factor structure
Internal reliability
Test-retest reliability
No or minimal bias by gender, placement, GPA, grade, disability category, SES
Predictive validity
Do assessments have predictability and validity? Field of Transition Assessments is still very new, data supporting their use is still being gathered

9. Facing Reality
Law requiring use of transition assessments still fairly recent
Only a few transition assessments or assessment processes have ample validity evidence to support use
If using assessment without ample validity evidence should acknowledge this limitation when discussing results with IEP team.
Need to develop a Transition Assessment Guide for school or district
When we ask about validity- think is the assessment fair? Does evidence exist that no major differences exist across
Race, ethnic groups, gender, and SES
Does evidence exist that assessment results match those from another assessment that examines the same concept? Correlation between Weschler IQ and Standford-Binet IQ
District Assessment Guide for your District spell out what you recommend be done

10. TAGG Purpose
Assess non-academic skills associated with and predictive of post-school further education and employment
Provide IEP team lists of greatest and relative student strengths and needs, a written summary, and annual transition goals matched to common core standards to facilitate writing I-13 compliant IEPs
Common Core can also be turned off
Purpose of TAGG to identify students’ strengths and needs and produce annual transition goals referenced to common core standards IEP teams may use for transition planning-
Skill Assessments Predictive of Positive Post-School Outcomes
Non-academic goals list of strengthens and needs copy and paste Common Core Standards
Results in a useable way
Drop into IEP

11. Whom? TAGG Designed to Assess
Secondary-aged students with IEPs who plan to be competitively employed and/or enrolled in further education after graduation
Each TAGG set includes 3 versions
Student
Family
Professional
Secondary-aged students with mild to moderate disabilities who plan to attend post-secondary education and/or become competitively employed
Print off paper version Parent and Student and Family ask groups at table to examine
Non-academics skills

12. Versions and Format On-line written English
May be printed and taken by hand, but item scores must be entered into website to produce results
In next few months TAGG versions in Spanish will be added
If needed now we have paper versions
Users may choose to listen to audio or watch ASL videos for TAGG instructions and items

13. TAGG Web Site Location The OU Zarrow Center’s Web Page
The TAGG Section of the ZC Web Page
Gives a number for each construct above at average or below Graphs
Areas of greatest strengthen relative strengthen and needs Present Level of performance
Annual goals
Can be ed or printed off
Professional information
Audio and Sign- Language version 34 items Student Version

14. TAGG Constructs Strengths and Limitations Disability Awareness
Student Involvement in the IEP
Persistence
Goal setting and attainment
Interacting with Others
Employment
Support Community
TAGG assessment includes 34 items across these 8 contracts identified from transition education research associated with post high school employment and further education of former students with mild to moderate disablities

15. Reading Level Professional 10.4 grade level Family 5.7 grade level
Student 4.8 grade level
Test re-test satisfactory Reliability .89

16. Development of TAGG Items
TAGG items derived from research studies that identified behaviors of former students with disabilities engaged in post-high school employment and/or further education
15 iterative TAGG versions were created before field testing began

17. Generally, a score between .7 and .8 is considered “good”
Internal Reliability
Generally, a score between and .8 is considered “good”
Each TAGG version has great overall internal consistency and satisfactory subscale consistency (ranging from α = .89 to α = .95)
Jim

18. Test-Retest Reliability
Scores of .7 or higher represent good or satisfactory test-retest reliability
14 weeks after the first TAGG was completed, same users completed the TAGG again
A large correlation was found between the first and second administrations
.80 for professional TAGG
.70 for family TAGG
.70 for student TAGG
Jim

19. Fairness Validity Evidence: Gender
Do differences exist by gender?
No overall difference by gender on TAGG-P, TAGG-S
On TAGG-F small overall differences
Some construct differences exist. On TAGG-S
females rated themselves higher on student involvement in IEP than males
males rated higher on employment
Jim
Boys have more experience in employment areas

20. Fairness Validity Evidence: SES
Free/reduced lunch eligibility
No significant differences for construct scores on TAGG-P or TAGG-S. Only small differences for TAGG-F scores.
Family employment
No significant differences for construct scores
Family education
Significant differences- Highest family education lower TAGG scores
SES higher family SES lower score for their students

21. How Close Are Students, Professionals, and Family TAGG Scores?
How closely do the different TAGG versions assess the same student?
Medium correlations across Parent, Educator, and Student versions when assessing the same student
This is excellent for this type of assessment
Jim

22. TAGG Web-Generated Results Profile
Graphic results by constructs
Written summary
Relative and greatest strengths
Relative and greatest needs
Annual transition goals
Components may be copied and pasted into IEP
Have groups look at their folder page of Profile Results

23. Predictive Validity Process
Follow-up of 297 former high school students who completed the TAGG while in high school
Logistic regressions examined relations between TAGG non-academic behavior constructs and postsecondary education and employment
Jim

24. Constructs Predicting Further Education
Interacting with Others Construct
Student Involvement in the IEP Construct
Support Community Construct
Goal Setting and Attainment Construct

25. Employment Predictors
Employment Construct
Student Involvement in IEP Construct
Support Community Construct
Interacting with Others Construct

26. Item Response Theory The ability to scale different item types
Advantages of IRT include
The ability to scale different item types
Provides a common metric for scales with different number of items
Weights items differentially by their validity for assessing the construct of interest
Jim
To address these scaling issues with the TAGG (all three versions), we employed Item Response Theory (IRT) to score each subscale of the TAGG. IRT scaling has certain advantages to the classical rules of scoring tests by summing items. These advantages include the ability to scale different item types, to provide a common metric for scales with different number of items, to weight items differentially by their validity for assessing the construct of interest, and the ability to obtain sample-invariant estimates of the item parameters used in creating scores.

27. TAGG Details $3 per set (Professional, Student, Family versions)
Used to pay for on-going TAGG development and operational costs
TAGG profiles saved for 7 years
Data kept on OU high-speed secure cloud servers
Purchased credits may be transferred to other registered TAGG users
One use TAGG $3.00 to be given annually
Family and Professional education and income demographic is not part of the score but is saved to see if this information is keep to inform the design of the test
On-line test does not show demographic 7th or 8th grade designed to be done annually
Teacher and Student Version may not give Family but should give other two
ASL video or on-line version that can be read

35. OU Zarrow Center for Learning Enrichment
TAGG.OU.EDU/TAGG
For more information, please view the TAGG User’s Guide and Technical Manual at TAGG.OU.EDU/TAGG
OU Zarrow Center for Learning Enrichment
(405)

36. TAGG Resources

37. Resources for low incidence disabilities-

38. Table Talk- current practices
What does transition assessment look like in your district/setting?
Is one person in charge?
How does the team plan assessment activities?
What kind of assessments have typically been done?
What happens with results? What’s share at IEP meetings?