Special education has come a long way in the past several years, but it still needs work. Federal and state laws have been passed in order to allow children with disabilities a chance to earn a free appropriate education in a least restrictive environment. Federal Regulations have been enacted by both Congress and the U.S. Department of Education.…

Over the last several months, the Committee on Education and the Workforce has been actively examining the current state of education in the nation. Everyone has listened to state and local leaders who are working to improve the quality of education the children receive. Through a series of hearings, they have heard stories of both challenges and…

Raising academic standards and eliminating achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students are America's prime national educational goals. Current federal and state policies, however, largely ignore the fact that the childhood poverty rate in the United States is 21%, the highest in the industrialized world, and that poverty…

This article identifies the promises of standards-based reform and the mechanisms that were supported to ensure that these promises were fulfilled. It addresses ways in which adjustments are being made to ensure that standards-based reform for all students really means all students, including students with disabilities. Next steps are discussed.…

This article discusses Virginia's efforts to implement new educational standards coupled with high-stakes assessments. Students with disabilities have been fully included in reform efforts and participation in the high-stakes assessment program has been relatively active. The focus on only academic skills to the exclusion of life skills is…

This report examines current assessment and eligibility practices relating to special education programs, and proposes changes to current policy and practice that will encourage and support a process that emphasizes determining student need, designing effective interventions, and evaluating outcomes. The paper views the emphasis in federal and…

An analysis of four schools explored the degree to which positive outcomes of a 1990 state policy on educational reform had been sustained in the context of subsequent policies emphasizing standards-based reform. Results found an increased use of educational support systems, but also increased special education referrals and restrictive…

This report describes a 2-day meeting of experts to identify and discuss the ramifications of inclusive school system proposals on the management, administration, delivery, and effectiveness of education programs and services for children with disabilities and to initiate development of a national action plan to address the issues. The policy…

The development, care, and education of children from birth to age 5 has been the focus of rapidly increasing public interest, and numerous early childhood public policy initiatives have focused attention on a major problem of coordination and collaboration of services for young children. Four segments of services for young children--(1) child…

The work presented in this bulletin is in continuation of the plan inaugurated three years ago, which has resulted in two similar publications covering the periods 1904-1906 and 1906-1908 (Bulletin, 1906, No. 3, and Bulletin, 1908, No. 7). In this bulletin an attempt has been made to classify and to analyze the changes wrought in the public school…