Chapter 14: Stuck in a Poor Post-School Outcomes Loop For Students With Significant Disabilities: What We Can Learn From Arizona

Arizona’s high schools have consistently measured student success based on ableist notions of academic success, while post-school outcomes for students with significant disabilities continue to deteriorate. In this chapter, we review findings from a 2015 Arizona study that surveyed 224 parents and guardians and 634 high school students with disabilities across 17 school districts. The goal of this study was to learn about students’ experiences at school, and how these experiences were helping students and parents prepare for life beyond high school. The study also examined what variables education administrators could control that would lead to increased youth self-efficacy, and ultimately, improved post-school outcomes.

The overall finding was that Arizona’s education system and other systems of student support suffered from overall lowered expectations for youth with disabilities due to generally ableist attitudes exhibited in the academic setting. These low expectations contributed to students’ low levels of confidence and performance and eventually to poor post-school outcomes. In contrast, the study found there was a common theme among the districts, charter schools, private schools, providers, and businesses that were actively working to overcome barriers faced by students with significant disabilities—leadership’s strong belief in students’ “abilities” beyond the academic context. The collective goal and definition of success should be to build academic, vocational education, socialization, and employment skills and opportunities among all students; not just those who are deemed “able.” This chapter seeks to reframe the conversation by focusing more on strengthening post-school outcomes as opposed to solely focusing on academic success promoted through an ableist lens.