National Longitudinal Transition Study of Special Education Students, 1987-1991

<p>In 1983, the U.S. Congress mandated a national study of special education students' experiences with transition out of school and into adult life. The study was conducted to provide practitioners, policy makers, researchers, and other special education affiliates with information that describes the transition that disabled youth make from secondary school to early adulthood. It was further to identify factors that contribute to youths' effective transition from secondary school to employment, further training or education, and independent living. The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) of the U.S. Department of Education contracted with SRI International to develop a research design, craft and field test data collection instruments, and select a sample of students for a study that would meet the congressional mandate. In April 1987, under a separate contract, SRI began data collection for The National Longitudinal Transition Study of Special Education Students, 1987-1991 (NLTS). The sample for the NLTS involves more than 8,000 youth aged 13 or older and in grade seven or higher. This sample represents the national population of secondary special education students in the 1985-86 school year. Furthermore, the sample was drawn so that findings generalize to students in secondary special education in 1985-1986, both as a whole and separately for students in each of the 11 federal special education disability categories. Data were first gathered in 1987 (referred to as Wave 1) and again in 1990-91 (referred to as Wave 2). Therefore, youths' patterns of experiences through secondary school and into their early adult years could be charted over time. In 1989, additional data were collected in two "substudies" for particular sets of youth within the primary sample. The "school program" substudy was undertaken to examine in greater detail the experiences of youth during their entire secondary school career. To examine the experiences of youth in their first few years after secondary school, the "exiter" substudy consisted of telephone interviews regarding more than 800 youth. These youth were already out of secondary school at the time of the Wave 1 interview.</p>

1983年，美国国会责成开展一项全国性研究，调查特殊教育学生从学校过渡至成年生活的经历。本研究旨在为从业者、政策制定者、研究人员及其他特殊教育相关机构提供信息，阐明残疾青少年从中等教育阶段向成年早期过渡的完整过程，并进一步明确助力青少年顺利从中学过渡至就业、进阶培训或教育以及独立生活的各类影响因素。美国教育部特殊教育项目办公室（Office of Special Education Programs, OSEP）委托SRI国际公司（SRI International）研发研究设计方案、编制并实地测试数据收集工具，同时为符合国会授权要求的研究选取研究样本。1987年4月，SRI依据另一项独立合同，启动了《1987-1991年全国特殊教育学生长期过渡研究》（National Longitudinal Transition Study of Special Education Students, 1987-1991，简称NLTS）的数据收集工作。该研究的样本涵盖超过8000名13岁及以上、就读七年级及以上年级的青少年，其代表性覆盖1985-1986学年全国中等特殊教育学生群体。此外，样本抽取设计确保研究结果可推广至1985-1986学年的中等特殊教育学生整体群体，同时可分别对应11项联邦特殊教育残疾类别下的学生群体。研究数据分别于1987年（记为第一波数据收集，Wave 1）以及1990-1991年（记为第二波数据收集，Wave 2）完成采集，由此可纵向描绘青少年在中等教育阶段直至成年早期的经历模式。1989年，针对核心样本中的特定青少年群体，研究团队额外开展了两项“子研究”以补充数据采集。其中“学校项目”子研究旨在更细致地考察青少年在整个中等教育阶段的经历。而“离校者”子研究则为考察青少年中学毕业后最初几年的生活经历，研究团队对800余名已在第一波数据收集阶段完成中学学业的青少年开展了电话访谈。