QPVI stands for "Quality Programs for Students with Visual Impairments".... and most of what you will find on this site relates to promoting issues of quality in educational programs for students who are blind or visually impaired, including students with multiple disabilities and deaf-blindness.
Briefly, QPVI is a process for accountability and continuous improvement in public and special school programs that is staff-driven, collaborative, and guided by a specially trained outside facilitator. Since its inception, as a process for public schools in Texas, its use was expanded first to other states, then to schools for the blind, or special schools, and then to college coursework for teachers in training.
Keeping in mind the current scope of QPVI, this site is intended to reach a variety of audiences for a variety of reasons.
- For teachers of students with visual impairments, whether in a public school or a special school, there should be enough descriptive information here to enable you to consider whether QPVI might be an approach to benefit your program and students.
- For administrators, especially those directly responsible for supervising VI programs, the site provides information comparing QPVI with other program improvement options and how to get started.
- For teachers-in-training, QPVI offers a systematic way to approach and learn some of the basic but critical knowledge that forms the foundation of effective practice in this field.
- For parents, QPVI can serve as a starting place for a conversation with your child's teacher or administrator around topics of quality as it relates to student programming and outcomes.
- And, for students, well.... all our interest and energy is aimed at improving outcomes for students... that is our bottom line.
QPVI.com, in its finished form, will go beyond introductory information to be a catalog of products from existing QPVI sites. Documents developed as sites complete the various activities of the Self-Study, will be available to other sites as examples. These will most likely be included in the main menu under the headings of "Public Schools" and "Special Schools"
I invite you to paddle around on the website to get the big picture, then dive in for the details. This is a work in progress, so any suggestions regarding content and organization would be appreciated. My son, Andrew, is my webmaster, so please direct any technical questions or suggestions to him. If a link doesn't work, it's most likely because the concept was born, but the content is not yet in place... check back to see how it continues to evolve.
Thanks to all of you for whom "quality" is a non-negotiable value. If you're looking for a systematic approach to insuring quality service to students that is collaborative and staff-driven, this is a good place to start.
NOTE: Information on the 2011 training can be found under "Other Links", "Training" in the navigation bar to the left.
Just in case you missed the BIG event, fireworks, etc. I’d like to tell you about the recent publication of the first QPVI related article in JVIB. The article, written with co-author Karen Blankenship, is entitled: “”Program Accountability for Students Who Are Visually Impaired”. It’s in the Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, the February 2008 issue, Volume 102, Number 2 and also can be found online @ http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pubjvib.asp?docid=jvib020205 . If you have a subscription, it is free.