Download WISC Update 10-98 - Texas School for the Blind and Visually

Wisconsin’s Report to National Agenda Committee
October 1998
In October of 1996, at our annual WAER meeting, a small group of concerned
teachers and administrators voiced their opinion that a group should begin working on the
National Agenda in the state of Wisconsin. From that time forward, the group has increased
in numbers and has been working to accomplish that purpose. At the present time, a group
of parents, teachers, administrators, adult service providers and consumers, about 35 in all ,
are actively involved in accomplishing the goals of the National Agenda in Wisconsin.
Hundreds more have been made aware of the National Agenda and it’s role in Wisconsin
through inservices and mailings.
After first organizing our WAER subcommittee regarding the National Agenda, we
asked the teachers of the state of Wisconsin to reply to a proposed resolution supporting
the National Agenda in our state. We received 100% unanimous support for the National
Agenda from those professionals who responded. This response was then forwarded on to
the state superintendent of public instruction. The state superintendent then issued a
Department of Public Instruction Bulletin that endorses the National Agenda and
encourages districts to implement the expanded core curriculum for their students with visual
impairment. A copy of the National Agenda was sent by the department of public instruction
to every parent of a child with a visual impairment and each teacher in this disability area.
The Wisconsin National Agenda Work Group then decided that it was important to
look at each national goal individually and develop a system of implementation relevant to
Wisconsin. Patterning the format after that of Arkansas, the Wisconsin National Agenda
Work Group began writing the Wisconsin Plan to the National Agenda which included current
status, strengths, weaknesses, Wisconsin goals and steps to take for each national goal.
With a rough draft in hand, presentations were made by the WI National Agenda Work
Group at several conferences across the state to gain as much input as possible from the
teachers of the visually impaired and orientation & mobility instructors regarding the
Wisconsin Plan. A “final draft” was issued on February, 1998 and was distributed to every
teacher of students with visual impairment and every orientation and mobility instructor, as
well as others.
The core group of members of the Wisconsin National Agenda Work Group each
agreed to take on the position of goal leader for one of the eight goals of the National
Agenda and corresponding Wisconsin Plan. At the February Teacher’s of the Visually
Impaired and Orientation and Mobility Instructors Conference, volunteers were sought to
work on small group committees on the individual goals of the Wisconsin Plan. Each goal
group now has between 5 and 10 members. In May of 1998 a discretionary grant was written
and approved which will cover meeting costs and project expenses that will be needed in
order to reach the goals of the WI State Plan. In September, 1998 all of the volunteers met at
a WI National Agenda Conference in Portage, WI to begin the work set forth in the plan.
Three small group meetings were planned for each goal group and one more large group
conference will be held in the spring of 1999.
While the WI Plan was being developed, work was also being done on the expanded
core curriculum which the group felt was key to improving the quality of services to our
students with visual impairment. A survey was sent to each teacher in this field asking for
information on the curriculum and assessment tools they were currently using and with which
they were finding success. From the responses that were sent in a resource directory was
developed, which was broken down into each expanded core curricular area as listed in the
National Agenda. The department of public instruction consultant in the area of vision was
also able to purchase many of the resource and curriculum guides suggested by the survey
and the Wisconsin Curriculum and Assessment Library was thus developed so that
professionals and parents could check out sources helpful in developing the expanded core
curriculum for their individual students.
Through out the 1998-1999 school year the volunteers will be working on developing
materials and procedures that will improve services to student with visual impairment.
Videos., pamphlets, forms and inservices will be developed. The discretionary grant will be
reapplied for in May of 1999 in hopes of funding the remainder of the projects lazed out in
the WI State Plan to the National Agenda. We have been asked to present information about
the National Agenda at the fall WAER conference in Milwaukee on October 30. We look
forward to receiving guidance and direction from the National Agenda committee as we try to
implement the National Agenda in Wisconsin.