| The Ohio Common Core curriculum requires such academic rigor that students with learning disabilities that they do not always receive the vocational, social, and functional skills required to help gain employment after high school graduation. However, few studies have actually been conducted to determine if, in fact, these high school programs are in place to teach the aforementioned skills, and if a relationship may exist between the programs and employment or post-secondary education after high school graduation. The lack of empirical data measuring these relationships could result in a school district potentially missing the opportunity to meet the goals of a student's Individual Education Plan (IEP) and the Common Core curriculum. Missing this opportunity could ultimately cause students with learning disabilities the change to be financially secure, self-sufficient, the ability to identify self-worth, and the ability to become productive members of society. This quantitative, non-experimental, logistic regression study compared high school transition programs for students with learning disabilities from 177 school districts to the employment outcomes for these students who exited high school between the years of 2007-2008. The transition services included work-study, career and technical education, and job training programs. The services each district offered during this period was compared to the post-graduation employment outcomes for students with learning disabilities. This study proved that high school students with learning disabilities that participated in a work-study or a job training program in high school were 1.727 to 1.755 times more likely to be employed after graduation. Therefore, students that are only included in a full academic high school career may not have the same employment outcomes after graduation. |
