Amostra

The participants in this study were five high school students from an inner-city school located in the Southeast. The par-ticipants were chosen because they had an IEP meeting prior to the beginning of the study and were willing to have another IEP meeting after instruction was completed. All participants had been receiving special education services since the pri-mary grades. All students had parental consent and student assent before the study began, and pseudonyms were used in reporting all findings. Clarrisse was a 16-year-old female African American identified with an educable mental disabil-ity. She was in the 10th grade and had a probation officer. Clarrisse's verbal, performance, and full scale Wechsler In-telligence Scale for Children, third edition (WISC-III), IQ scores were 67, 58, and 60, respectively. Clarrisse's Woodcock-Johnson-Revised scores were 57 (Grade 1.0) for reading, 65 (Grade 1.6) for math, and 43 (Grade 1.1) for written expres-sion. During the study, Clarrisse participated in a community-based training (CBT) placement at a local grocery store and nursing home. She had never been employed and had never attended an IEP meeting. Faber was an 18-year-old male European American. He was a student with autism who played trumpet in the school band. On the Universal Non Verbal Intelligence Test, Faber received a full scale IQ score of 63. His WISC-III chronolog-ical age was 15.25, and his performance score was 82. Faber performed volunteer work at a local hospital during the sum-mer prior to this study and participated in a CBT placement at a local auto parts store; however, he had no previous paid employment experience. Although Faber had attended his two previous IEP meetings, during these meetings he had not asked questions, had not stated his preferences, and had avoided eye contact. Faber's mother encouraged him to speak for himself, but she was Faber's primary spokesperson. Mildred was a 14-year-old African American ninth grader identified with a behavioral-emotional disability. On the WISC-III, Mildred's verbal, performance, and full scale IQ scores were 85, 90, and 86, respectively. Her Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT) scores were 78 for reading, 83 for math, and 74 for writing. Mildred had never been employed and had never attended her IEP meetings. Roberto was an 18-year-old male European American. He was in the 11th grade and was identified with a nonverbal learning disability. On the WIAT, Roberto's reading, math, and written language scores were 80, 71, and 97, respectively. Roberto's verbal and performance WISC-III scores were 94 and 63, respectively. Roberto had never been employed, although he participated in a CBT placement at a local nurs-ing home, where he assisted with gardening and landscaping. He had attended his IEP meetings for the 2 years prior to this study. At these meetings, Roberto answered questions with minimal eye contact, expressed his opinion regarding course-work, and shared his knowledge and love of gardening. Roger was an 18-year-old 11th grader. He was a male European American with mild cerebral palsy and hydro-cephalus and was identified with an "other health impair-ment." Due to his physical limitations, Roger was only administered the verbal portion of the WISC-III, on which he scored 73. On the Woodcock-Johnson-Revised, Roger received the following scores: 82 (Grade 3.8) for reading, 72 (Grade 3.2) for math, and 73 (Grade 2.7) for written lan-guage. Roger's Key Math-Revised score was 69 (Grade 2.9). Roger had worked part-time at the local YMCA and attended his IEP meetings for the 2 years prior to this study. Although Roger answered questions if asked, he did not initiate ques-tions, had little eye contact, and spoke very softly. He partic-ipated in a CBT placement at a local discount store.