Secondary students with moderate/severe intellectual disability: considerations of curriculum and post-school outcomes from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2.
For teens with moderate or severe ID, taking life-skills or academic classes did not change later jobs, independence, or college attendance.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers looked at high-school students with moderate or severe intellectual disability. They used data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2.
They asked what kind of classes the kids got and what happened after graduation.
What they found
Most students spent the day in pull-out rooms learning life skills. A smaller group got academic classes.
Ten years later the type of class did not predict who had a job, lived on their own, or went to college.
How this fits with other research
Lerman et al. (1995) showed that four high-schoolers with ID quickly learned to chat with peers after a short self-instruction program. That small study says skills can change fast, yet Farmer (2012) shows the big picture stays flat.
McCarron et al. (2022) kept 87% of adults with ID in a study for eleven years. Like Farmer (2012), they proved large longitudinal samples are possible and that adult paths remain stable.
Reid et al. (2005) tracked challenging behavior for twelve years and saw only modest decline. Together with Farmer (2012) the message is clear: severe ID predicts long-term stability, not sudden jumps, no matter what curriculum is used.
Why it matters
Stop arguing over functional versus academic syllabi for students with moderate/severe ID. Pick the curriculum that fits the learner’s day-to-day needs and your state standards. Spend your energy on real work experiences, community travel, and self-advocacy while the student is still in school. Those activities may matter more than the label on the lesson plan.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: A conversation currently exists regarding secondary curriculum (e.g. academics, functional) for students with moderate/severe intellectual disability (ID) without a large research base connecting curriculum to outcomes. METHOD: This study represented a secondary analysis of the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2) data to understand in-school curriculum and educational programming for secondary students with moderate/severe ID as well as the relationship between curriculum and students' post-school outcomes. Statistical procedures such as frequency distributions, a significance test and logistic regression were utilised to analyse secondary data from the NLTS2. RESULTS: The results suggest the majority of students with moderate/severe ID received a functional curriculum as well as instruction in core content areas; however, their instruction primarily occurred in pull-out educational settings. The students also reported low rates for the post-school outcomes examined (i.e. independent living, employment and post-secondary attendance). Finally, curriculum (functional vs. academics) was not related to any post-school outcome examined (e.g. independent living, employment). CONCLUSIONS: The data suggest additional research is needed to understand what factors impact post-school outcomes for students with moderate/severe ID. Yet - and regardless of the lack of impact - additional work is needed to help students achieve better post-school outcomes, including further examination of curriculum and instructional environments.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2012 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2011.01517.x