Zarrow Center Receives $2 Million Grant
Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education Professor Kendra Williams-Diehm is the principal investigator on a $1.998 million grant from the Institute of Education Sciences, the statistics, research and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Education. Co-PIs include Associate Professor Meaghan Hennessey and Research Assistant Professor Malarie Deadorff. The study is being run through the OU Zarrow Center for Learning Enrichment, where Williams-Diehm serves as director.
This is a four-year project beginning in August 2021 and running through July 2025.
“The Zarrow Center began working on the Transition Assessment and Goal Generator in 2012,” Diehm said. “We have developed two assessments so far, and this new project will help us develop and validate a third assessment. It is so exciting to have an entire assessment suite that can reach all students with disabilities of transition age (typically defined as secondary years). This assessment it critical because it will lay the foundation of transition planning for students at the middle school level.”
TAGG-MS: Development and Validation of the Transition Assessment and Goal Generator (TAGG) for Middle School Students with Disabilities
The purpose of this project is to develop the web-based transition assessment, Transition Assessment and Goal Generator-Middle School. Although the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act mandates that transition planning for students with disabilities begin by the age of 16 years, most states begin transition planning earlier than the federally required age. However, no existing transition assessment for middle school students with disabilities measures behaviors associated with early transition skills and high school and postschool success. Thus, a middle school transition assessment with ample validity and reliability evidence supporting its use in transition planning is needed. The TAGG-MS will assess skills and experiences related to high school readiness and postschool success and be designed for middle school students with a disability who ultimately desire to be competitively employed and/or attend further education following high school.