National Agend


Home National Agenda PANA Information about Goals Goal Overview Goal 1: Referral Goal 2: Parent Participation Goal 3: Personnel Preparation Goal 4: Provision of Educational Services Goal 5: Array of Services Goal 6: Assessments Goal 7: Access to Instructional Materials Goal 8: Curricular Needs Goal 9: Transition Goal 10: Professional Development PANA Agenda Booklet and Brochure Research PA Special Education Supervisors PA Educational Service Providers Resources and Links Books Educational Resourcesl Family Directed Resources Professional Resources Recreation, Leisure, and Independent Living Visual Impairments and Eye Conditions PANA Committee Members
	What is the National Agenda? The National Agenda for the Education of Children and Youths with Visual Impairments, Including Those with Multiple Disabilities is a grass-roots reform movement aimed at improving the education of students with visual impairments as well as students whose multiple disabilities include visual impairment. The efforts of the movement are organized around ten priorities that are stated as goals (Corn, Hatlen, Huebner, Ryan, & Siller, 1995; Huebner, Merk-Adam, Stryker, & Wolffe, 2004). As affirmed in the movement?s 1998 Report to the Nation, ?The National Agenda came about because of an acknowledgement that children and youths with visual impairments are not consistently or universally receiving the quantity or quality of educational services appropriate for their special learning needs? (Corn & Huebner, 1998, p. 3). Stakeholders such as parents, professionals, organizations, and individuals with visual impairments participated in the development of the National Agenda and continue to work on achieving its goals. Its structure consists of a Steering Committee with parents and professionals serving as co-chairs, National Goal Leaders (NGLs), State Coordinators, and working groups. The efforts of the movement are organized around several priorities related to the education of children and youths with visual impairments, and these priorities are stated as goals. They include those components of education for students with visual impairments that were identified in 1994 as most in need of improvement. Through a collaborative process that began at that time, hundreds of stakeholders in the field of blindness and visual impairment provided input on goals they believed had the highest likelihood of being achieved as well as the greatest potential for positive impact (Corn & Huebner, 1998). The number of goals identified and selected at that time totaled eight (Corn et al., 1995). Today there are ten (Huebner, et al., 2004). For additional information about the National Agenda, go to http://www.tsbvi.edu/national-agenda/.