What does success look like if you are a student with a learning disability? A high school diploma? Graduating from a 2- or 4-year college? Joining the workforce and holding down a job? Or is it the ability to live independently? Or, perhaps, to live in a community with support services?
When it comes to the education of our children with disabilities, what are the right markers of success? How do we gauge if we are preparing students well enough for life after they leave our schools where they have experienced expert teachers, modified environments, and tailored supports to a degree they will be unlikely to encounter again?
Like neurotypical student success, outcomes for students with learning disabilities vary widely. Some students pass MCAS and move on to college. Some graduate high school and get full or part time jobs. Some move to transition programs where they continue learning life skills as they navigate living on their own or in a supportive community. This is only a partial list, and each of these outcomes can be a tremendous marker of an individual’s success. There is no hierarchy. Getting a high school diploma can be a tremendous accomplishment for a student, an achievement years in the making that students can celebrate for a lifetime. As can moving out of a childhood home into a group community. As can a certificate from a community college.
These outcomes are vastly different. But none is more worthy of admiration and celebration than another.
If all these outcomes mark success, and if all these outcomes differ dramatically, how do those of us who must educate all students with disabilities prioritize our efforts? How do we know what to focus on?
To answer these questions, we need to reframe the question. We shouldn’t be asking “what is success” because the answers are too broad to be useful. Rather, let’s ask about independence. Let’s ask, “Are you as independent as you can be?” When we look at what we are teaching, we should ensure our students are more independent when they leave our classrooms than when they entered them.
Can a student read more fluently? Can they utilize more assistive technology to support their needs? Are they more aware of their IEP goals and transition plan so that they can advocate for their needs? Can they succeed in the workplace without all the structure provided by school? Can they follow a recipe? Get a master’s degree? Initiate and complete their math homework? Do their own laundry? Get themselves ready for school? Study for a test? Maintain healthy friendships over time? Find the right person to ask for help when they need it?
These are all questions of independence. As we welcomed students back this fall, I was reminded that our job as educators is not necessarily linked to any one outcome. It is our job to help the students we work with become more independent in these skills tomorrow than they are today. We facilitate slow, steady, and (often inconsistent) improvements in independence. No matter what we teach, that’s what we teach.
This metric of independence should be how all schools measure outcomes. It is far too easy for all of us to get caught up in test scores and school names and job titles. But the question of whether you can do more for yourself today than yesterday is incredibly powerful, and a great predictor of success no matter how it is defined. Research backs this up. Studies of self-determination in students repeatedly show correlation between self-determination and improved outcomes. For example, in 2020 The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health published an article showing that “being self-determined—that is, acting volitionally and making things to happen in one’s life—has been linked to multiple positive outcomes, including, importantly, enhanced quality of life and life satisfaction” (Wehmeyer).
In other words, gains in independence – “making things happen in one’s life” – lead to tremendous feelings of well-being and happiness. That’s why this matters so much. Helping our students achieve independence gives them a powerful sense of dignity that will feed them throughout their lives. The hard-earned pride students feel in achieving more brings a joy that may be impossible to quantify. But it’s also impossible to miss when you see it.
Kurt Moellering
Head of School
Learning Prep School