Students with disabilities are entering college in increasing numbers. Despite the increase, college persistence and completion remains a troublesome hurdle. Evidence-based practices and predictors have been identified for secondary-level students with disabilities; however, a parallel classification does not exist for postsecondary education. The purpose of this systematic review was to determine whether there are evidence-based predictors of college success with regard to retention, academic achievement, and graduation. Results indicated that although there are an insufficient number of studies to validate a core set of evidence-based practices at this time, there are a series of student-related practices that positively predict grade point average, retention, and graduation that warrant future investigation.

The purpose of this study was to establish construct validity of a college and career readiness measure using a sample of youth with ( n = 356) and without ( n = 1,599) disabilities from five high schools across three states. We established content validity through expert item review, structural validity through initial field-testing, and convergent validity by correlating domain scores with school academic and behavioral data. A four-factor measurement model emerged representing the domains Ownership of Learning, Academic Engagement and Processes, Interpersonal Engagement, and Career Development. Domain scores were significantly correlated with achievement, college admission exam scores, and attendance. Implications for research and practice with an emphasis on transition service delivery via multi-tiered systems of support are discussed.

Youth with disabilities must be college and career ready to be prepared for adult life. Policy efforts confirm this prioritization (Every Student Succeeds Act [ESSA], 2015; Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act [IDEIA], 2004). Parallel to the emergence of college and career readiness (CCR), transition planning and service requirements have promoted successful transitions to postschool education, employment, and community living (IDEIA, 2004). However, not all high schools provide a range of CCR supports for these students. We conducted a systematic mixed studies review to investigate the prevalence of five domains of CCR identified in the literature. Findings revealed the five domains had a range of coverage across the literature with academic engagement and process-oriented skills comprising more citations and transition competencies least likely to be included. In addition, across the CCR literature, data for students with disabilities were rarely disaggregated, which confirms that we know even less about the effectiveness of the five domains for these students. Clear gaps were identified and suggests research often does not inform CCR policy and/or practice decisions.

In this study, we examined college and career readiness (CCR) support for students with and without disabilities using data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012. We selected variables relevant to CCR and focused on the interaction of disability, race and ethnicity, and household income across a range of disability categories, including those on individualized education programs and 504 plans, as well as for those without disabilities. Overall, we analyzed 19 groups of students representing these intersectional characteristics. Our findings show significant differences among the groups with regard to receiving the CCR supports: help with college applications, course-taking advice, interpretation of college admissions exam scores, and arranging college visits. Results show students of color without disabilities from low-income households were 2 times more likely to receive certain CCR supports. In contrast, across all study outcomes, students with disabilities showed different patterns than their counterparts without disabilities and were at a clear disadvantage with regard to access to CCR supports. Findings suggest disparities in schoolwide CCR supports for those with disabilities, which are more pronounced for students of color with disabilities. Implications for secondary transition educators and school counselors are discussed.

Secondary data analyses occur when new analyses are proposed for existing data. Although they are prevalent in special education research, there is little guidance on how to prepare secondary data analyses studies. Preregistration of secondary data analyses studies provides a nice opportunity and structure for fellow researchers to share innovative questions and analytic approaches to existing data sets as well as increase transparency. In this manuscript, we (a) describe quality indicators of secondary data analyses consistent with open science practices and (b) provide applied examples of these indicators from a sampling of published studies based on two iterations of data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS2 and NLTS2012) with the overall goals to provide guidance to authors and peer reviewers and promote collaboration among fellow researchers engaged in secondary analyses for a range of purposes.