Despite long-standing antidiscrimination laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which are meant to guarantee equal access, many school and community choirs appear to be populated primarily by students with typical physical, cognitive, and behavioral abilities. The purpose of this article…

Responding to concerns that charter schools do not provide equal access to students with disabilities, advocates in districts, states, and courts across the country have sought to improve such access. Adding to these concerns, the U.S. Government Accountability Office recently released a report showing that charter schools, on average, serve a…

Because young children with special needs frequently experience unequal access to quality education worldwide, understanding characteristics of services currently provided to them is critical to identifying practices that work as well as gaps in services and the reasons behind these trends. Two studies were conducted using the ACEI Global…

The inclusion of students with disabilities at the university is a relatively new occurrence in the field of special education. Although legislation in the United States has supported the acceptance of students with disabilities at the post-secondary level, it has only provided minimal support with the emphasis on the learner rather than the…

At its core the political push for full inclusion models of special education delivery derives from the belief that inclusion provides equal access, equitable distribution of resources and increased social opportunity to children. This study focused upon the evolution of special education programming within a pre-K to sixth grade elementary school…

Over the past three years, the Riverside County Office of Education's County Achievement Team, as a recipient of a California Department of Education (CDE) grant, has worked with eight pilot schools and districts in the state to bring about systems change with equitable attention and results for each subgroup. The project, Riverside County…

Over the last decade, policy and business leaders have come to know what parents have always known: teachers are the largest school-based factor in student achievement. Yet not all schools have equal access to the most effective teachers. High-needs schools that serve large proportions of economically disadvantaged and minority students are more…

In this article, the authors examined (a) the accuracy of teacher nominations in identifying (N = 178) high school students with externalizing, internalizing, comorbid, and typical behavior patterns, as well as students who were receiving special education services for high-incidence disabilities, (b) the level of treatment fidelity and access to…

Discussion of the education of students with autism focuses on the use of multimedia systems and reviews the current state of the field. Suggests that systems should be developed that directly address autism-specific impairments and considers autistic student education in the context of equality of access to education. (Author/LRW)

To support K-12 students with significant disabilities and get an accurate picture of their skills and knowledge, schools need to implement effective alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS). This is the guidebook every team should have--not only to develop successful AA-AAS linked with grade-level content standards,…

The National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD) is a national committee representing 11 organizations concerned about individuals with learning disabilities. Approximately 350,000 individuals constitute the membership of the organizations represented by NJCLD. The NJCLD considers and discusses contemporary issues in learning…

This article describes one school's year-long effort to provide equitable access to the core curriculum to a very culturally, linguistically, and academically diverse student body while increasing teachers' needs for responsive professional development by piloting a dramatic change in the special education service delivery system with the support…

As the number of deaf and hard of hearing (d/hh) students seeking enrollment in postsecondary education programs increases, the accommodations they request to ensure equal access also increases. Most accommodations, such as interpreters, note-takers, and assistive listening devices are obvious and seldom questioned. D/HH students requesting…

Considers digital equity, including not just access to technology but also quality and use of technology. Topics include hardware and bandwidth; content and critical thinking; preparing educators; preservice training; leadership; special education; non-English languages and literacy; unfamiliar cultures; itinerant students; and gender issues. (LRW)

Distance learning is the separation of teacher and student by time and space. Rapid advances in communications technology have allowed distance learning to become one of the fastest-growing trends in higher education. College courses are being delivered across a highway that is global in scope. Today, two thirds of the 4,000 accredited colleges…