New research has found out is that all aspects of the vision program tended to work when teachers and principals were engaged and empowered

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Vision for Baltimore provides every Baltimore child in grades PK to 8 who needs them with free eyeglasses.

 The sponsors are two years into the project, and are learning a lot.

The most important news is this:  you cannot hope to solve the substantial problem of disadvantaged children who need glasses but don’t have them by just providing vision testing and glasses.  There are too many steps to the solution.  If things go wrong and are not corrected at any step, children end up without glasses.   Children need to be screened, then (in most places) they need parent permission, then they need to be tested, then they need to get correct and attractive glasses, then they have to wear them every day as needed, and then they have to replace them if they are lost or broken.

New research has found out is that all aspects of the vision program tended to work when teachers and principals were engaged and empowered to try to ensure that all children who needed glasses got them, and they tended not to work if teachers were not involved.  A moment’s reflection would tell you why.  Unlike anyone else, teachers see kids every day. Unlike anyone else, they are likely to have good relationships with parents.  In a city like Baltimore, parents may not answer calls from most people in their child’s school, and even less anyone in any other city agency.  But they will answer their own child’s teacher. In fact, the teacher may be the only person in the school, or indeed in the entire city, who knows the parents’ real, current phone number.


The research found that introducing School Vision Advocates into schools had substantial impacts on rates of parent permission, and adding the school prizes added another substantial amount. Many students are wearing their glasses. There is still more to do to get to 100%, but the schools have made unprecedented gains.