Listening to Student Voices about Postsecondary

Every year an increasing number of students with disabilities enter postsecondary education. Many of these students fail to successfully compete academically or simply leave before they complete their planned programs of study (Fairwe,llher & Shaver. 1991; Wagner. 1989). In ,1n effort to change the status quo. one community college and a university school of education program formed a collaborative support team to: • Identify and systematically eliminate barriers to postsecondary education. • Improve students' potential for having successful postsecondary experiences. "Aiming for lhe Future." the project described here, is housed in a Midwestern community collt'ge in a rural area. Using a systems-change model borrowed from Fullan (1993) that emphasizes the importance of listening to and acting on the ideas expressed by those