Centering Social Validity: Teacher and Student Perspectives on Transition-Focused Interventions

Autistic adolescents often report lower school connectedness and experience disparate transition outcomes, yet educators face constraints that limit their access to and implementation of evidence-based practices in inclusive high school settings. This paper centers autistic student and teacher perspectives on the social validity of the evidence-based Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction (SDLMI), Peer Supports (PS), and a combined SDLMI + PS model evaluated in the Propel Project, a cluster-randomized trial in high schools across three states. Using a convergent mixed-methods design, we integrated survey ratings with qualitative data from student and teacher interviews, open-ended responses, and coaching documentation to examine acceptability, feasibility, and understandability of these evidence-based practices alongside key implementation determinants. Overall, participants described the interventions as worthwhile and linked them to meaningful benefits, including progress toward goals, increased confidence and self-advocacy, and improved peer connections and classroom belonging. However, findings also highlighted persistent barriers to adoption and sustainment in real school conditions, including competing demands, disruptions to routines, limited system-level reinforcement, and variability in how well materials and peer interaction structures sometimes matched students’ preferences and needs. Results point to the importance of implementation supports that protect time, reduce adaptation burden, and promote flexible, student-aligned delivery to sustain evidence-based practices in high school contexts.