Effectively helping students with disabilities transition to life after high school depends heavily on professionals’ transition practices. This study examined how teachers’ training in effective transition practices and their perceptions of student characteristics influenced their ratings of students’ non-academic skills. We analyzed variations in 138 professionals’ ratings on the Professional version of the Transition Assessment and Goal Generator—High School (TAGG-HS-P). Results of multilevel analyses show significant variation in TAGG-HS-P ratings at Level 1 (within-professional) due to student grade level, gender categorizations, and selected disability categorizations. Significant variation at Level 2 (between-professional) was found based on the length of time the professional knew the student being rated and the amount of time spent in professional development in transition practices. No other variables, including education level or caseload, were significant predictors of education professionals’ ratings on the TAGG-HS-P. Implications and future research directions are discussed.
Hennessey et al. (Sun,) studied this question.