Expectations Matter

(gentle music) - One of the things that we've learned through our research and is clear in the research of lots of others as well is that more than almost any other factor, expectations matter. The expectations of parents, the expectations of teachers are one of the biggest predictors of whether or not students will obtain jobs or go to college or thrive in their communities. And so doing the best we can to help expose family members and other teachers to a vision for what's possible starts to raise those expectations. And ultimately, when people have different expectations it changes the services that they provide. I was talking with a parent just a couple months ago at a conference who came up and told me about her child's first meeting with a transition teacher. The teacher took one look at the student and said, "Oh, he'll be easy. "He's a workshop kid." Wow, what a comment. Because sizing up a student just like that and declaring their path is straight to a workshop means that teacher will never strive to connect that child to early work experiences and expose them to the community. They've already predicted what their outcomes are and that student won't have a chance. So the more that we can help people catch a different glimpse that young people, even with the most significant disabilities, have something to contribute in the workplace it changes where we serve students. It changes what we teach them. It changes who we have them spend time with. And all of that serves to ultimately change people's outcomes. Young people with disabilities whose parents expect them to work are five times more likely to have paid jobs after they graduate. Young people with disabilities whose teachers expect them to work are 15 times more likely to have paid jobs in the upcoming summer. So it's not just a thing that we sort of grasp onto and say, we expect it, and therefore it will happen. The expectation changes everything, what we do, what we plan for, the services we provide, and everything that follows.