The Profile as an Alternative to
More Traditional Assessments

The following interview article was completed by Carla Albert, physical therapist and Lynn Moses, occupational therapist who both work for the Bitterroot Valley Educational Cooperative. Carla and Lynn work as itinerant therapists in many of the schools in the Bitterroot Valley. They work with children with disabilities from preschool through high school. Recently, Carla and Lynn have been involved in learning more about how they can participate in the transition process with the students they work with. Following are some of their observations from the first year of being involved in the WISER project.

Question: What is a “Vocational Profile?”

Carl Albert (CA): A vocational profile is a tool which can be used in “person-directed employment”. It is a document that is created to learn about a student so a team of people can focus on job development and supported employment. It creates a word picture about the student’s family, community, interests, learning styles, life activities, and experiences. Information is gathered through meeting with the family and friends the student interacts with, observing them in environments they’re comfortable in and at which they are functioning at their best. It’s a wonderful opportunity to see students interact in different environments and to involve families. One parent told us it helped her examine their life, neighborhood and community to see what was out there for her daughter.

Lynn Moses (LM): A vocational profile is a type of assessment that allows the student’s team (in our case the school transition team) to really get to know and understand the student’s interests, skills, and support needs when looking at future employment. It gives those of us involved with the student the opportunity to address real life issues in a meaningful way in their individualized education program.

Question: Where do you see the Vocational Profile fitting into the school system?

CA: A Comprehensive Study Team (CST) evaluation is done every three years starting at the age of 6. This is a valuable process that determines which students require special education services and what the students needs are. At 6 and 9 these are very meaningful and valuable. By age twelve, hopefully the team has figured out how to best help students and their disability labels remain the same. The Vocational Profile is a perfect document to replace evaluations and give meaningful information to guide and plan students’ education. The Profile can be divided among specialists to complete word pictures pertaining to their area of expertise. The process does need a point person to move the process along and make sure those participating know how to fill it out. It is imperative to involve the family in the process as well.

LM: The Profile is a very functional assessment that gives the team real information about individual students. Eventually, I would like to see the Profile completed for all students in special education when they enter middle school. This will give the team plenty of time to start planning exploration, school-based jobs and future paid employment opportunities for students before they graduate. The profile can be updated as students and families learn more about specific interests and skills as a result of community and vocational exploration. If the Vocational Profile process is taken seriously and implemented as a necessary tool for successful student transition, the outcome of meaningful paid employment for the student before graduation can become a reality instead of just a goal on the IEP. Paid employment for students can mean skipping the waiting lists for sheltered workshops or other vocational programs after graduation. Instead students can be earning money, feeling good about their contributions to their community, and interacting with other people in work and social environments. It is our job in the schools to prepare students for adult life and the best way to do that is to practice those skills in real life settings (such as jobs) rather than in contrived settings practicing tasks that students may not like or have aptitudes for. What better way to accomplish this goal than to incorporate using the Vocational Profile process which is proving to be more successful than what has been done in the past.

Question: What are some of the benefits of using the Vocational Profile as an alternative to more formal standardized assessments?

CA: Instead of getting standardized scores and focusing on deficiencies, the profile allows us to focus on function and interests. It can point the team toward meaningful goals.

LM: There aren’t many vocationally oriented functional assessments for students that assume students are going to work in settings other than sheltered workshops or in factories after they graduate. So students are evaluated on typical sheltered workshop type tasks they have never done, aren’t necessarily interested in, and may never do. Other standardized assessments provide number scores that can’t reliably be translated into meaningful information about students. The Vocational Profile gives specific information about each individual students interests, skills, and support needs, which helps guide finding appropriate placements for students.

Question: What are “ideal characteristics” and why are they important?

CA: Ideal characteristics are the factors that make the student successful. They may involve environment, interactions, interests, or the way directions are given. Ideal characteristics could be anything. For example: written instructions, quite/calm environments, variety of tasks, clear expectations...

LM: What I like about the ideal characteristics portion of the Vocational Profile is that you get a very specific picture of the type of environment that is best for the student, based on melting together all of the information you have learned about the student including their interests, skills, and support needs. If this information is used correctly, it can mean a good job match for the student and employer.

Question: What role do physical therapy and occupational therapy play in transition services for middle and high school services?

CA: OT’s and PT’s have a perfect opportunity to assist in the profile process, job development and increase community involvement. PT’s should be preparing students for recreation and leisure opportunities that encourage health and fitness which they can perform in the community as independently as possible.

LM: At the middle and high school levels, OT can support daily living skills, work and leisure as well as address any accommodations that might be necessary for students in school, work, or living environments. My job is to support students, parents, teachers, para-professionals, and other members of the team in preparing students for life after high school. It is more important than ever to have a meaningful program for students while still in school as adult services are drastically changing with the closure of sheltered workshops and a new philosophy of service delivery all over the country.

Question: What is the most significant thing you have learned during the last year as you have been involved with project WISER and vocational profiling?

CA: I have been motivated and excited about this process of getting students employed and the prospect of getting them more involved in the community. It has been very helpful to learn more about specific students and their families. It has been challenging to be creative and approach things differently. It is wonderful to be able to focus on community function and independence.

LM: I have learned a lot about the reality of life after high school for people with significant disabilities and it hasn’t been great. We have an opportunity and responsibility to better prepare students for what is to come after high school. I have also learned from many students and their families that anyone can work in a job that they like.

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