State School for the Visually Impaired Schleswig

1. State School for the Visually Impaired Schleswig

2. State School for the Visually Impaired, Schleswig Agenda • Current Situation SfS • Process of Assessment in Practice for SfS • Key Question and Reflections of the Visitors • Steps of Working on Reflections • Goals for SfS and European Agency

3. State School for the Visually Impaired, Schleswig

4. State School for the Visually Impaired, Schleswig Mandate Providing special educational support and consultation services to children, youth and young adults with visual impairment in the least restrictive environment.

5. State School for the Visually Impaired, Schleswig Implementation Support and Consulting Seminars Courses Media Center, Administration

6. State School for the Visually Impaired, Schleswig Personnel • Central and decentralized in all of Schleswig-Holstein • multidisciplinary competencies and qualifications in one • place – service center • Exchanging, maintaining and developing expertise • Frequent meetings (Schleswig-Tuesday): team meetings, monthly conferences with all staff • Comprehensive work groups and projects internaly • Frequent publication: Info Intern twice a month • Communication via e-mail • Interdisziplinary cooperation with outside agencies

7. Site Visit May 2007 Key Question: Developing Multi-Professional Assessment Procedures in Cooperation with Mainstream Schools, Students, and their Families

8. Site Visit May 2007 Program • Visiting five sites with mainstream situation • Visiting a course (Norderlück)‏ • Talk about psychological assessment (Heinz Gr)‏ • Talk about functional vision assessment (Anne Hk)‏

9. Site Visit May 2007 Three Main Reflections • Strengthen the involvement of students and parents in the assessment process • Strengthen inclusion in the way of promoting the positive structure of the SfS • Formalize informal procedures and processes with the purpose of strengthening ongoing assessment in the mainstream setting; setting standards for the procedure usable for all teams at SfS

10. Site Visit May 2007 Further Process • Finding a group of colleagues working on these goals (80 staff members)‏ • Transfering the reflections into the daily and present processes to be valuable for SfS • Finding practical goals to work on(Working Group „Europe“)‏

11. SfS Actions 1. Reflection of Visitors • Strengthen the involvement of students and parents in the assessment process • Teacher‘s conference on the question of IEPs and how students and parents (teachers) are involved – see summary

12. SfS Actions 2. Reflection of Visitors • How can the SfS be active in demonstrating • successful inclusion that provides as good an educationas special placements? How can SfS promote a positive image of inclusion to people who may be in doubt? Continuing to provide information to outside agencies, schools, professionals through various structure – see summary of activities

13. SfS Actions 3. Reflection of Visitors Formalize informal procedures and processes with the purpose of strengthening ongoing assessment in mainstream settings; setting standards for the procedure usable for all teams at SfS • Developing a tool based on subjects of the Expanded Core Curriculum for Visually Impaired with the goals of: • developing more transparency • providing common understanding about the areas assessed at SfS • providing a transparent tool to support cooperation with parents and teachers

14. SfS Actions 3. Reflection of Visitors Dual Curriculum / Expanded Core Curriculum Compensatory, Assistive Technology, Orientation and Mobility, Independent Living, Recreation and Leisure, Career Education, Social Skills, Self Determination, Visual Efficiency

15. SfS Actions Working Group Europe 3. Reflection of Visitors Goal: to develop a tool based on subjects of the Expanded Core Curriculum for Visually Impaired as a basis for assessment for learning in mainstream settings Step 1: How are these subjects implemented in the Quality Program developed by SfS? Step 2: chose two areas exemplary to develop an assessment tool usuable for all teams

16. SfS Actions Working Group Europe Step 1: Reviewing the Quality Program (ref. EVIT) developed by SfS • A tool which develops evaluation standards and structures at SfS based on team input and the specific structures of SfS

17. SfS Actions Working Group Europe Step 2: Chosing two areas exemplary to develop an assessment tool usuable for all teams • Mobility and Orientation (O&M)‏ • Social Concept / Self Determination

18. SfS Actions Working Group Europe: Development of an Orientation and Mobility (O&M) Assessment Tool for SfS Teachers Karin Edigkaufer & Dagmar Hetzke

19. SfS Actions Working Group Europe: Development of an Assessment Tool for SfS Teachersin terms ofSocial Skills / Self Determination Petra & Florian Hilgers

20. SfS Actions Survey on assessment tools already used by colleagues of the SfS led to no results. Therefore we look for assessement tools designed by other organizations or institutions – especially assesment tools in terms of social skills or self determination.

21. SfS Actions We found a good basis for our work in the:„Iowa Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC) Resource Guide 2006“. The ECC defines „learning expectations“ for all parts of the Dual Curriculum. Learning expactations are finley organized and correlate with different age groups (5-7, 8-10, 11-13, 14-18 years).

22. SfS Actions Additional performance indicators are listed subsequent to each learning expectation to give teachers a chance to evaluate the achievement of each learning expectation.

23. SfS Actions • Example: • Self Determinations Skills are divided into: • Knowledge and Interpersonal Skills • Self-Knowledge Applications • Acquire Personal Safety Skills

24. SfS Actions Knowledge and Interpersonal Skills are divided into learning expectations referring to the different age groups – in this example grade 6-8 (~12-14 years old children): „The student will... 7.1 Discover personal interests, abilities and skills 7.2 Identify and express feelings in an appropiate manner 7.3 Examine behavior and demonstrate self-control.“

25. SfS Actions • To check the achievments of this learning expactions many performance indicators are given like: • „The student will... • Correctly interpret non-verbal expressions of feelings. • Deal with relationships in a positiv, respectful manner. • Describe situations in which one's actions and behaviors affected others. • Value individual differences in self and others • ...“

26. SfS Actions Our next steps: Review of our translation of the ECC and incorporate German or European conditions into our translation Authoring a table out of our version of the ECC to get an assessment tool in terms of social skills and self determination like the table for O&M.

27. Site Visit March 2008 Input from the Countries • Do the other countries work with a Dual Curriculum / Expanded Core Curriculum for students with SEN and what is the procedure? • How are social skills and autonomy / decision-making abilities in students with SEN assessed in the other countries?

28. Site Visit March 2008 Input from the Countries Goal for SfS and the European Agency: • Supports developing professionalism in the area of assessments of visual impaired students as a basis for assessment for learning • Points out the importance of specific professional viewpoints and skills which help completing the picture in the process of assessment for learning

29. Site Visit March 2008 Thank you for your Attention