National Coordinating Center

Staff from the Think College National Coordinating Center presented on some current events related to inclusive higher education and activity from the NCC.

This webinar introduced an open video resource developed for Think College by a student at Virginia Commonwealth University who supports students with intellectual disability in their classes. The video series shares tips and strategies that other students can use as peer supports or mentors.

This resource includes the captioned recording and the transcript for the Expanding the Dialogue on Autism: Reflections on Research & Real Life in Employment webinar. This is the second event in a series of online talks from the Institute for Community Inclusion.

This resource shares a webinar transcript and PPT from a webinar presented by Cate Weir and Clare Papay of Think College in 2018, data are presented on the extent to which colleges and universities are offering credentials to students with ID and the types available. A Credential Action Planning Tool that can be used to develop meaningful credentials for students with ID is discussed.

Each academic year, the Think College National Coordinating Center (NCC) collects data on the programmatic strategies used to prepare students for work and to support them with finding and keeping jobs. Additionally, the NCC collects information on any career development experiences and any paid jobs students hold during the year. In this report, we summarize student participation in career development experiences and paid employment in 2015–2016.

This resource includes the captioned recording and the transcript for the Expanding the Dialogue on Autism: Reflections on Research & Real Life in Education webinar. Featured on this panel were Maria Paiewonsky, program coordinator and transition specialist at ICI; Ned Pavlak, a student at Holyoke Community College (HCC); Julia Landau, Director of Mass Advocates for Children; and, Stephen Shore, professor, advocate, author, and international speaker on education, advocacy, disclosure, and more.

This set of slides and recording accompany the February 20, 2018 webinar presentation called Non-degree Credentials of Value. We start with the basics: what are credentials and what are the different types? How do they work? Who offers them? Join Bryan Wilson, Director of the Workforce Data Quality Campaign, a project of the National Skills Coalition, to learn more about credentials and what they can mean for students with intellectual disabilities.

This Fast Fact #18 describes the employment outcomes, including rehabilitation rate and wages, of youth with intellectual disability served by VR who participated in postsecondary education as part of their Individualized Plan for Employment (IPE), compared to youth with intellectual disability who did not participate in postsecondary education.

There are increasing opportunities for students with intellectual disability in the United States to enroll in and obtain postsecondary education. This Fast Fact #17 provides a first look at the employment, education, and living situation outcomes achieved by students in TPSID programs 1 year after completion.

There are more than 260 inclusive college programs for students with ID exist across the United States (Think College, 2017). This number represents an exponential increase in programs—nearly 10 times greater than the number of programs available in 2004 (National Coordinating Center Accreditation Workgroup, 2016). Not only are there more programs to choose from, with recent revisions to the Higher Education Opportunity Act, students with ID also can access federal financial aid for attending postsecondary education programs that meet federal requirements.