Soaring to New Heights nominated for Innovations Award

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Soaring to New Heights, a semester-long course that helps high school students with disabilities stretch beyond preconceived notions about their futures and construct realistic post-high school goals for themselves, has been nominated for the Council of State Governments’ 2010 Innovations Awards.

Soaring to New Heights is a collaboration among the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning’s Division of Adult Studies, Unified School District 259 in Wichita, the Kansas Rehabilitation Services vocational rehabilitation agency in the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, and the Medicaid Infrastructure Grant in the Kansas Health Policy Authority. The Innovations Award nomination came from the governor’s office.

Participating students are high school juniors who have high-incidence disabilities, such as learning disabilities, behavior disorders, or mild cognitive disabilities other than LD. The study sites—seven public high schools in Wichita, Kan.—represent an urban environment in which two-thirds of students across the district receive free and reduced lunches. The course is built around the concept of students learning to see themselves as capable and competent while developing the skills they need to make a successful transition from high school to work or more education.

The Council of State Governments’ Innovations Awards bring greater visibility to exemplary state programs and facilitate the transfer of those successful experiences to other states. CSG receives hundreds of nominations every year and selects just two award-winners in each of its four regions. Programs are judged on their newness, creativity, effectiveness, transferability, and significance.

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