Introduction
Preparing students for the transition to postsecondary education and independent
living has been a goal of the federal government and the subject of many laws over the
past 35 years. Mandates require special education teachers to begin planning these
transitions before a student leaves high school, but these laws have been met with varying
results and limited success. The hurdles that await incoming college students with
learning disabilities are vast and wide-ranging; they cannot be overcome in a single
transition meeting at the end of twelfth grade. Preparations must begin before high school
and students must have the opportunity to practice self-advocacy skills before moving on
to postsecondary education. Communication skills must be explicitly taught and selfefficacy
developed long before entering high school (Test & Neale, 2004). There has
been much discussion in the literature on the importance of self-determination skills in
improving persistence in education. Looking at the research surrounding the teaching of
self-determination and self-advocacy, some improvements are documented when students
are given direct instruction. By combining some of the best practices of existing selfdetermination
and self-advocacy curriculum, students in middle school can learn and
begin to practice skills that will help them to be successful in high school and better
prepared for their transition to postsecondary education.