Centre for Students with Disabilities

0Centre for Students with Disabilities

Evaluating Postsecondary Supports For Ontario Students With Learning Disabilities , Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario

Centre for Students with Disabilities

Evaluating Postsecondary Supports For Ontario Students With Learning Disabilities , HEQCO

• Outline • Review reference and access to study• Outline research purpose, method and key findings• Describe Summer Transition program • Model of use of service • Highlighted recommendation • Discussion how to start a STP


Evaluating Postsecondary Supports For Ontario Students With Learning Disabilities , HEQCO

• The purpose of this study was to evaluate the educational quality of the existing student service programs designed to ensure PSE access for students with LD and/or ADHD, who are an under-represented and at-risk population at a Ontario College and University.

• Full Report: Released April 16, 2012 via the Web: www.heqco.ca

• http://heqco.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/EvaluatingPSESupportsForStudentsWithLearningDisabilities.pdf

http://www.heqco.ca/

http://heqco.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/EvaluatingPSESupportsForStudentsWithLearningDisabilities.pdf

http://heqco.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/EvaluatingPSESupportsForStudentsWithLearningDisabilities.pdf


Why services for Student with LD in PSE?

Fewer students with LD attend PSE and are less likely to be retained until graduation compared with their peers without disabilities. (Gregg, 2007; Horn & Berktold, 1999; Newman, , Wagner, Cameto, &. Knokey, 2009)

Postsecondary completion has been found to have an equalizing effect on employment outcomes for persons with LD. (Madaus, 2006)

Persons with disabilities account for an estimated 10 per cent of the postsecondary population, and approximately half of this population are persons with LD (Henderson, 2001; LOTF, 2002; Murray, Goldstein, Nourse & Edgar, 2000).


History Of LD and PSE Ontario • 1997, $30 million Learning Opportunities Task Force (LOTF),under the

leadership of Dr. Bette Stephenson

• 1998-2002 --Eight pilot projects are chosen at 13 institutions, which are intensely

research focused and outcome driven in terms of documentation

• 2002- LOTF report and recommendations

• 2002- Learning strategist and Assistive Technologists hired across province

• 2003- Durham College and UOIT first summer transition program(pilot institution)

• 2004- The Transitions Longitudinal Study began , completed in 2011

• 2006 – provincial funding for Transition programs

• 2008 - HEQCO research project


Research Design and Purpose

Research Design • Qualitative and quantitative • Research was conducted over

2 and a half years • Study conducted on a shared

campus environment at Durham College and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT).

• 151 students participated /117 interviewed or focus Group

Research Question 1) College and University difference Do the 2) STP and/or enhanced services for LD and/or

ADHD students positively affect their academic performance as well as their engagement and retention rates?

3) Did successful students with LD and/or ADHD report enhanced institutional engagement, and more proactive behaviours in seeking supports, than unsuccessful students?

4) Did any specific intervention or instructional component correlate positively with students’ experiences or outcomes?

5) Did students who created a web page (student homepage) report experiencing any differences in their engagement with

professors?


Key findings that we learned

Summer Transition Program enhanced engagement

STP and ongoing counselling

improved academic performance

DisabilityService engagement matters

Learning supports engagement matters

Professors engagement matters

College and University students experience barriers

and there are solutions

Students are perseverant and make multiple attempts College and University


Registration VS USE of Service

Registration • Registration with the

Disability Centre does not imply that students seek accommodations, disclose to professors or use services.

• The related factors that may encourage registration are parental cohesion(Tsagris, 2010)

Barriers to engagement • Documentation/assessment• Willingness to seek service

willingness to disclose to professor

• fear of discrimination from peers or professors; all of these influence students’ willingness to use

service and disclose – what service? .


Are your barriers similar? • Experienced Barriers:

– Intake and documentation, assessments– These barrier were increased for students not

transitioning directly from high school. ie from workplace or alternative high school programs

What are the intake barriers experience at other institutions?

Is the assessment issue reliant in your province?


Summer Transition Program

• College and university students with LD and/or AD/HD share similar benefits from STP.

• The study’s findings demonstrate that the STP improves the quality of students’ transition to PSE by first facilitating an earlier intake requirement and then helping students acquire psychoeducational assessments.

• STP students complete this process before the academic year begins in September.


Additional effort and time• Students attending both kinds of institutions reported that their disabilities

increased their academic demands.- time management and organization

• They need to make additional effort and time commitments, as well as making additional use of supports and accommodations to help compensate and accommodate these disability-related challenges.

• Upton and Harper (2002) surveyed 937 students with LD and ADHD and documented how they had to work harder and spend more time to fulfill the same expectations as their non-disabled peers, despite their equal cognitive ability.

• DuPaul (2006) reported that students with ADHD described experiencing more academic problems than students without the disorder and they had less adaptive academic coping behaviour.


Student evaluation process and points of intervention

Independenc

e and Decision-making

• Cost-benefit analysis• Lessened transactional

friction & barriers• Professor training • Improved campus

accessibility

Trial and Error

• Disability counselling • Updated assessment • Improved disability

knowledge/awareness Disability

Acceptance

• Summer transition outreach• Engagement with campus

student services, professors , schools/faculty advisor

• Public awareness


Self-Determination


Self-Determination

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wPxq-NOZjg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wPxq-NOZjg


Summer Program Plus Service • For STP students with enhanced services increase

academic positive outcomes • academically successful, their services use

decreases on average across semesters. • Conversely, for STP students who are categorized as

academically unsuccessful, their enhanced services use increases on average across semesters.

• This pattern is not seen among NSTP participants. • Attending the STP Lowers Barriers


Student Homepage : Integrating Technology and Content


What is a ‘student Hompage ’?• A Student Homepage is electronic file – designed by

students to share information with their professors

• Why use a student Profile?


Why a Student Homepage ?• Engagement Tool: technology generation• Instructional method: assistive technology and

disability awareness• Communication method: as a self- advocacy tool

between students/faculty • Training method: used for faculty • Laptop Institution: integration with curriculum• Homepage improved motivation/interest


Motivation and Perseverance

• An overarching trend in both college and university students’ stories was their determination to achieve their goals regardless of the time or effort required.

• Their persistence is evident instatements such as the following:

“I’m going to keep going until there’s no other way [but] that I have to drop out, until I’ve failed every single course. Otherwise, I’m going to stay in, and I’m going to do my best”(Ernesto: University, NSTP).


Previous Attempts

• For many participants with LD and/or ADHD, their academic journeys often included multiple attempts at PSE; 42.4 per cent of college students and 23.1 per cent of university students had made a previous PSE attempt.

• “Future Research” Particular attention should be paid to issues related to academic performance, retention, delayed entry to PSE, prolonged time to complete programs and multiple PSE attempts.


Best Practices: Articulation • A substantial portion of our college cohort stated

that they planned to complete college and then attend university.

• This approach, which helped compensate for their disability, was sometimes a formally arranged bridge program, sometimes a student’s own plan.

• This “stepping stone” approach was a method used by participants to ensure success by pursuing their education in increments.


Comparison of College and University

• University students more frequently reported an experiencing of professor resistance when requesting accommodations compared with college sample

• College and university student expressed how neutral professor made them uncomfortable and viewed them as a lack of interest or not caring- (findings similar to Skinner, 2010)


Areas For Growth• Lobby regarding Assessment issues• Share with professors importance of their response

in enhancing service use and overall disability acceptance

• Colleges and universities must plan to support LD and/or ADHD students who are not transitioning from high school and those who make multiple attempts at postsecondary education

• Developing a Transition program at your institution?


Starting your own STP • Start small• Get other departments and team members

involved• Chart a small Fee• Use the report to get administrative support• Request curriculum materials from form

colleges and universities and use what you do one on one with students already


References

Gregg, N. (2007). Underserved and unprepared: Postsecondary learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 22(4), 219–228. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5826.2007.00250.x

Henderson, C. (2001). College Freshmen with Disabilities, 2001: Biennial Statistical Profile. Washington, DC: American Council on Education, HEATH Resource Center.

Horn, L., & Berktold, J. (1999). Students with disabilities in postsecondary education: A profile of preparation, participation, and outcomes. Washington, DC: U.S. National Center for Education Statistics.

Madaus, J. (2006). Employment outcomes of university graduates with learning disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, 29(1), 19–31

Murray, C., Goldstein, D., Nourse, S., & Edgar, E. (2000). The Postsecondary School Attendance and Completion Rates of High School Graduates with Learning Disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research, 15(3), 119–127.

Newman, L., Wagner, M., Cameto, R., Knokey, A.-M. (2009). The Post-High School Outcomes of Youth With Disabilities up to 4 Years After High School. A Report From the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2) (NCSER 2009-3017). Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.

Nichols, E., Harrison, A., McCloskey, L., & Weintraub, L. (2002). Learning Opportunities Task Force, 1997 to 2002: Final Report. Toronto, ON

Tsagris, D . ( 2010) . Tsagris, D. (2010). Exploring the use of an internal student homepage for students with learning disabilities in a postsecondary web community. Unpublished doctoral thesis. University of Calgary, Alberta.

Tsagris, D., Muirhead, B. (2012). Evaluating Postsecondary Supports for Ontario Students with Learning Disabilities. Toronto: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.


Deborah Tsagris EdDDisability CounsellorCentre for Students with DisabilitiesDurham College and University of

Ontario Institute of TechnologyT: 905-721-2000 ext. 2006 E: [email protected]

Bill Muirhead PhDAssociate Provost Academic and

Information TechnologyUniversity of Ontario Institute of

TechnologyT: 905-721-3163E: [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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