Extending Research to Practice: Using the Evidence to Improve Adult Outcomes for Students with Disabilities

With increased emphasis on improved postsecondary outcomes for all students, including students with disabilities, it is critical to extend effective practices identified through rigorous research to the practitioner level. Recent policies and initiatives can feel overwhelming to school staff (i.e., ESSA, IDEA, CCSS), thus there is a need for a simple means to identify and implement research-based practices. Building on previous work from NSTTAC, Kohler (1996), and Test, et al. (2009), the "Taxonomy for Transition Programming 2.0" was expanded to include recently identified evidence-based transition education and services research. This paper overviews the rigorous process undertaken to identify effective practices included in the "Taxonomy 2.0" and suggestions for extending transition research to the local classroom.