Looking for Success: Transition Planning for Students with Visual Impairments in the State of Iowa

Abstract

Blackorby and Wagner (1996) posit that youth with visual impairments are not employed, living independently or attending post-secondary educational sites commensurate with their sighted peers. Literature suggests that students need both work-based and school-based skills to successfully transition to the world of employment and that transition planning is the vehicle used during high school (or sooner if appropriate) to document those needed skills. This descriptive study was conducted in two phases to review and describe the required skills, teacher quality, and transition planning for transition-aged students with visual impairments in the state of Iowa, known for a stellar educational system. The second objective of this study was to describe the differences in IEPs and TVIs that represented a high, middle and low level of compliance and promising practices, including the number of Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC) content areas (Hatlen, 1996; Pugh & Erin, 1999) documented on the IEPs. Both qualitative and quantitative data analysis were used to answer the following two research questions; 1) What are the levels of compliance and promising practices on transition IEPs for students with visual impairments in Iowa and 2) What variables in the focus areas distinguish a transition IEP that reflects the variability of compliance and promising practices? The hypothesis that a highly qualified TVI would produce a transition IEP that reflected a high level of compliance and promising practices guided this study. The results found a low to moderate compliance and promising practices reflected on the transition IEPs for students with visual impairments. In addition, IEPs for students with the presence of mental retardation and for students at Iowa Braille School reflected higher levels of compliance, promising practices and instruction. Higher levels of efficacy, instruction, experience, and caseloads were found for TVIs whose IEPs reflected a higher level of compliance and promising practices.