Advances in Special Education

The transition from school to work or to postsecondary training is a critical period for all students. For students with learning disabilities who have the potential to pursue higher education, colleges and universities offer an age-appropriate, integrated environment in which they can expand personal, social, and academic abilities leading to an expansion of career goals and employment options. The transition, however, of high school students with LD to higher education settings has been made difficult by inadequacies in the preparation received in secondary schools. Still secondary schools face serious difficulties in developing effective instructional programs for college-bound high school students with LD (Halpern & Benz, 1987; Mangrum & Strichart, 1983). It appears that many students with LD find themselves unprepared at college entry in a number of areas including inadequate knowledge of subject content, underachieving in academic skills, poor organizational skills (e.g. time management and study skills), poor test-taking skills, lack of assertiveness, and low self-esteem (Cordoni, 1982; Dalke & Schmitt, 1987; Mull et al., 2001; Vogel, 1982).