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What Follow-Up Studies Say About Postschool Life for Young Men and Women with Learning Disabilities

A Critical Look at the Literature

Phyllis Levine, PhD, is a research assistant professor in the University of Washington Department of Health Services, School of Public Health and Community Medicine. As a research director at the University of Washington Center for Disability Policy and Research, she conducts a wide variety of research in the areas of health care access, education, and quality-of-life issues for people with disabilities. Address: Phyllis Levine, Center for Disability Policy and Research, 146 N. Canal St., Suite 313, Seattle, WA 98103.

Steven W. Nourse

Steven W. Nourse, EdD, is a grant coordinator for DO-IT (Disabilities Opportunity Internetworking Technology) and produces videos for paraeducators at Bates Technical College in Tacoma, Washington.

Follow-up studies examining the outcomes for children and youth with learning disabilities who attended special education have appeared in the literature for decades. As American society becomes more technologically advanced and competitive, postsecondary school opportunities and subsequent employment choices that are meaningful and provide a livable wage teeter out of the reach of young people with learning disabilities. Follow-up study investigators seek to understand how to better prepare youth to meet these challenges by studying their long-term outcomes. The authors review data from 13 frequently referenced follow-up studies regarding postschool outcomes, postsecondary education, and employment, with attention to gender differences, for youth with learning disabilities who were served by and graduated from special education programs nationwide. They take a critical look at contradictions in the findings and discuss five methodological issues that seem to influence the conduct and interpretation of follow-up studies: aggregating data across disability categories; combining data on graduates who have been out of school for unequal periods of time; ignoring the issues of missing data, participant attrition, and incomplete data sets; combining data from different informants; and using nonequivalent databases to make comparisons to a population with no disabilities. The authors provide recommendations for conducting follow-up research on the long-term quality of life of children and youth with disabilities and their families.

Journal of Learning Disabilities, Vol. 31, No. 3, 212-233 (1998)
DOI: 10.1177/002221949803100302


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