Entrepreneurship Curriculum for Youth With Disabilities�
Background
-Individuals with disabilities experience lower rates of employment compared with nondisabled individuals (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022)
-Research has shown that entrepreneurship programming has impacts for youth that reach beyond business skills, including increases in ambitions for college and careers, as well as leadership behaviors and independent reading activities (Kaufman & Stewart, 2007)
-Self-employment may be a good option for many individuals with disabilities because of its flexible nature.
-There is a lack of customized entrepreneurship programming for individuals with disabilities (Shaheen & Killeen, 2009.
Dr. Fabricio Balcazar and his team developed a curriculum to teach youth with disabilities entrepreneurship skills.
The aim of this project was to find out how students and teachers felt about the program as it is, and improve the curriculum based on their feedback.
Methods
Quantitative
-Lexile measurements
-Descriptive Statistics
Qualitative
- Open Ended Survey Questions
-Thematic Analysis
Sarah DeAngelo
1
Too much reading.
"Watch the level of vocabulary. My kids are in high school, and most have decoding challenges. They turn off when they see so much text.”
Activities were helpful.
Key Findings
“[I like] that this module is mostly about self advocacy because it motivates me to have my voice heard."
Students & teachers liked the videos.
Poorly Organized
"There were too many topics in one module. It felt like we were all over the place. There was no specific goal in mind“
Content was motivating.
Data from open ended survey questions filled out by students and teachers after completing modules.
2
Recommendations and Implications
Original curriculum inaccessible and lacked clear organization and needed content revisions.
Curriculum Revisions
3
Key Quantitative Findings
Data collected from analysis of reading difficulty of modules before and after modifications.
4
References
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