This report has been provided to the Legislature on an annual basis since 2000 when the legislature amended the language of G.L. c. 71B to align Massachusetts special education terminology with the federal "Individuals with Disabilities Education Act" ("IDEA"). The Department is required to submit an annual report on compliance…

The Virginia Alternate Assessment Program (VAAP) is the assessment tool that Virginia uses to measure the progress of students with significant cognitive disabilities on the state's Aligned Standards of Learning (ASOL). The VAAP was developed in order to comply with No Child Left Behind's (2001) requirement of educational accountability for all…

Since passage of federal legislation in 1975, students with disabilities have had the right to receive educational supports and services in general education classrooms. This practice is known as inclusive education. Most research about inclusive education has focused on the development and implementation of effective classroom practices. This…

Although increasing numbers of schools say they are adopting inclusive models of service delivery, many students with significant disabilities continue to experience segregation and isolation in school settings. This article, written from a parent's perspective, highlights a series of questions that school leadership, educators, and families can…

There are two parts to socialization, informal and formal. In the United States, informal lessons of socialization come from a child's primary caretaker(s). Imagine a child growing up in this informal setting only to see the world from one perspective through that unique experience. Later the child goes into a formal school setting, to realize…

Cultural competency training has been present in academic medicine for many years but interest has resurfaced when the Institute of Medicine released a report on health care disparity and called for curriculum improvement in medical education to eliminate the disparity in health care in the United States. This new interest, reinforced by medical…

The purpose of this brief study was to explore whether the traditional pull-out method, the coteaching method, or the combined method produced higher performances for students with disabilities over a three-year academic period at the elementary and middle school level. The results of the non-experimental quantitative study using student CRCT…

How best to provide special education services to middle school students with learning disabilities (LD) has long been a contentious topic of debate among educators, researchers, politicians, and parents. With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA, 2001) and the reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA,…

The public special education system of the Republic of Azerbaijan is built on the Soviet science of "defectology." In this system, most government-provided educational services segregate children with disabilities in special schools and home environments, separate from children without disabilities and from society at large. From 2005 to…

Special education master's degrees are proliferating, most probably in response to the requirement for all special education teachers to be highly qualified. The aim of the study is to evaluate the 10-year Master's Degree "Educating in Diversity" (MDED) at the University of La Laguna (ULL) and to examine the extent to which the…

Australian policy initiatives and state curriculum reform efforts affirm a commitment to address student disengagement through the development of inclusive school environments, curriculum, and pedagogy. This paper, drawing on critical social theory, describes three Australian projects that support the cultivation of teachers' beliefs, knowledge…

The roles and responsibilities of special educators in both special and regular school settings are changing rapidly. More than two decades ago the move towards more inclusive practices disrupted the traditional, niche separatism of special educators to the extent that they are now an integral part of the regular school teaching staff. Today the…

Inclusive education policies have been espoused by the Ministry of Education in Brunei Darussalam since the late 1990's. In this paper, the author examines the current state of inclusion in secondary schools throughout the country. Procedures, practices and processes which directly or indirectly impede the realization of national and international…

This book brings together for the first time research informing leadership practice in special education from preschool through transition into post-secondary settings. It provides comprehensive coverage of 1) disability policy 2) leadership knowledge, 3) school reform, and 4) effective educational leadership practices. Broader in scope than…

In 1999, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) identified the need for national data on the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students and launched the first National School Climate Survey (NSCS). At the time, the school experiences of LGBT youth were under-documented and nearly absent from national…