Reflecting the sweeping, extensive changes in special and general education, this book explores the foundations and evolution of inclusive education in the last decade -- a prerequisite for administrators implementing inclusion in their schools.

This step-by-step handbook offers practical strategies for administrators, teachers, policymakers, and parents who want to shift from costly special learning programs for a few students, to excellent educational services for all students. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Special educators are facing new challenges at the beginning of the 21st century as public education is being reformed by a vision focusing on measurable student outcomes. The future course of the field will be shaped by the policy and programmatic responses to several issues, including demographic changes in student populations, a lack of certified special education teachers, criticism in the public media for the rising costs of services, and debates about the preferred philosophy of service delivery for students with disabilities. Additional chapters discuss university-school collaboration, charter schools, disability studies, school violence, disproportionality in placement, male African-American teachers, and ethics. This book has been written out of a context of research and program development activities with public schools over the past decade in one of the largest Colleges of Education in a diverse metropolitan area in the country. The issues selected for analysis and the perspective guiding those analyses grew out of this work and out of a national Delphi study of the views of parents and constituent organizations and leading researchers, teacher educators, and policy makers in Special Education.

A breakthrough for those concerned about improving education and schooling in our nation. Tackling tough, contemporary issues, this volume discusses provocative dilemmas with clarity and precision; it challenges us to think more deeply about reform and about the kind and quality of services America owes its children and itself. It is a work that will endure as both a challenge to our thinking and a call to action.

The need for strengthening the connections between university-based teacher education programs and schools has never been greater in an era where standards and accountability systems often play centric roles in practically all aspects of the education field. Within this context, university educators and school practitioners have increasingly focused their attention on how professional development schools produce the multiplicity of outcomes that address the exigencies of quality programs for educating teachers and improving school achievement. In keeping with the mission of producing a collection of papers that inform, enlighten, and motivate readers, Volume 3 of the Professional Development Schools book series provides practitioners and researchers with articles on a substantial variety of themes on the most recent developments of the field. Among the thematic threads that organize Volume 3 are 1) using the national standards to examine and evaluate PDSs; 2) implementation, development and leadership issues relevant to beginning and experienced PDSs; 3) using innovative means for student assessments and mentoring in preservice education within a PDS context; 4) the impact of PDSs on teacher education and student achievement; and 5) cases of PDSs and the value of lessons learned. Volume 3 is similar to the previous two volumes in that it includes both practitioner and researcher strands, however, the authors in the current volume carry a sense of maturity and exudes a tone of confidence in their voice. Professional development schools research is an important aspect of teacher education. The collection of articles in Volume 3 contribute to our understanding of their essential qualities and offer assurance that innovation, change, and quality are building blocks in professional development schools.

The aim of this Handbook is to present a global overview of developments in education and policy change during the last decade. It has the objective of providing both a strategic education policy statement on recent shifts in education and policy research globally and offers new approaches to further exploration, development and improvement of education and policy making. The Handbook attempts to address some of the above issues and problems confronting educators and policy makers globally. Different articles seek to conceptualize the on-going problems of education policy formulation and implementation, and provide a useful synthesis of the education policy research conducted in different countries, and practical implications. The Handbook, by focusing on such issues as - the OECD (2001) model of the knowledge society, and associated strategic challenge and 'deliverable goals' (OECD 2001:139) - UNESCO-driven lifelong learning paradigm, and its relevance to education policy makers, globally - different models of policy planning, and equity questions that are raised by centralization/decentralization, diversity/uniformity and curriculum standardization issues - the 'crises' of educational quality, the debate of standards and excellence, and good and effective teaching. - will contribute to a better and more holistic understanding of the education policy and research nexus; offering possible strategies for the effective and pragmatic policy planning and implementation at the local, regional and national levels.

Explore the challenges, opportunities, and pitfalls of the inclusion of students with disabilities in your classroom! Exciting, complex, and challenging shifts in American education are occurring today. First, schools are moving to embrace student diversity and accommodate the classroom experience to support diverse ways of organizing students for learning. Second, teachers are moving away from a traditional didactic instructional mode and embracing a facilitator role that encourages creating innovative classroom learning opportunities. Third, there is a shift from the view of the school as providing educational and psychoeducational services for students to providing educational supports for learning. Coinciding with these changes is the growing movement in special education that enourages full inclusion of students with special needs. This is a far cry from the exclusionary and separatist movements of special education less than twenty years ago. Now American education is facing the challenging situation of working with students with disabilities in the regular classroom. Inclusion Practices with Special Needs Students provides a much needed overview of the issues faced by educators committed to understanding how to best serve children with disabilities in schools. Inclusion Practices with Special Needs Students: Theory, Research, and Application provides an overview of the origins, evolution, and recent developments regarding the inclusion of students with disabilities into general education classrooms. The book critically challenges the overriding assumptions that support the philosophy of inclusion with a balanced presentation or research and theory that both supports and raises questions about the viability of this practice. The contributors are authorities in their respective areas of inclusionary practices. Some of the issues you will explore in Inclusion Practices with Special Needs Students are: political, fiscal, and legal events that have shaped inclusion practices implications for school psychologists handling students with serious emotional, behavioral, or developmental problems remaining in regular education agenda for future research priorities for research, training, and policy reform Inclusion Practices with Special Needs Students addresses practical, psychoeducational, philosophical, legal, ethical, and financial issues surrounding the inclusionary initiative in special education.