Group Offers Tools for Postsecondary Success

The National Alliance for Secondary Education and Transition (NASET) is offering a toolkit to help districts evaluate and improve secondary education and better prepare all students, including those with disabilities, so they can succeed in the future.

NEA is an active member of NASET, a national coalition of more than 40 organizations formed to identify what students need to succeed in "postsecondary education and training, civic engagement, meaningful employment, and adult life."

The National Standards and Quality Indicators: Transition Toolkit for Systems Improvement  uses current research on five standards -- effective schooling, career preparatory experiences, youth development and youth leadership, family involvement and connecting activities -- combined with the expertise of those who work in these fields to help districts:

• better understand their current operations
• identify areas of strength, weakness, and opportunity
• create action for improving and scaling up systems
• assess progress

Included in the Transition Toolkit is a Self-Assessment Tool to help identify how evident certain quality indicators are in a state or community based on a four-point scale. Respondents then communicate individual ratings to reach a consensus and calculate a score for each of the five standards.

Following the "Self-Assessment" is a "Priority Setting" worksheet to rate the importance of each of the standards. Combined, these two tools can provide school districts with useful information for both short-term and long-term planning.

November 2005