A team including an educational diagnostician, a special education teacher, a speech-language pathologist, and a transition specialist is creating a social communication skills inventory to support postsecondary goals. How should the ARD committee use this inventory when developing postsecondary transition goals?

• A. Selecting goals based on standardized test scores.
• B. Prioritizing social communication needs based on personal and cultural relevance.
• C. Ignoring cultural context in goal setting.
• D. Emphasizing only academic skills.

Answer: (B)

Anchoring postsecondary transition goals in the student’s real-life communication needs and cultural context is essential. The social communication skills inventory helps the ARD team identify how the student engages in conversations, interprets others’ cues, and adapts communication across settings, including college, work, and community environments. By prioritizing needs that are personally meaningful and culturally relevant, the team sets goals that will actually support the student’s success in postsecondary education, employment, and independent living. This approach ensures the goals align with the student’s strengths, preferences, language background, and the expectations of the communities they will join, while guiding the creation of measurable, time-bound objectives tied to concrete postsecondary outcomes.

Relying on standardized test scores alone can miss everyday communication demands; ignoring cultural context can render goals inappropriate or inaccessible; and emphasizing only academic skills neglects essential social abilities that influence participation and success in postsecondary settings.