This collection of 16 readings focuses on the implementation and evaluation of efforts to include students with special needs in general education classrooms. The readings are: (1) "From Segregation to Integration: A Brief History of Special Education and Inclusion" (Katie Blenk and Doris Landau Fine); (2) "National Study on Inclusion: Overview…

The New Jersey Supreme Court's 1998 ruling in Abbott v. Burke represents the first judicial directive in the nation that public education must include a high-quality, well-planned preschool program starting at age three. This decision applies to 30 urban school districts, known as the Abbott districts, that serve approximately 25 percent of the…

This digest uses a question-and-answer format to address some issues in the possible choice of a residential school for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. The importance of the residential school experience in the context of Deaf culture is addressed, as are other issues such as characteristics of students attending residential schools and…

This monograph examines educational alternatives for children and youth with emotional, behavioral, or social problems. It focuses on alternatives to traditional education systems, concentrating on those which have an administrative structure separate from the regular education system. It begins with a brief description of the role alternative…

This report, based on a survey of State Directors of Special Education, describes current state policies on home schooling with particular attention to state requirements on home schooling for students with disabilities. Background information notes that home schooling is an exemption from compulsory school attendance and does not include home or…

This report presents findings of an audit of the New York State Education Department's Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID). The audit concluded that VESID oversight of school districts may not be adequately targeting formal reviews of special education programs to those districts that pose the…

This document, originally published in a journal, investigates whether matriculation works and if so how does it affect students. The document uses the data from a study done at the Riverside Community College District (RCCD), which addressed the effect of matriculation on student persistence. The RCCD data came from a variety of sources and…

Using a case study of four schools at which tracking has been eliminated ("detracked" schools), this paper provides empirical data that examines the effect of detracking on academic achievement. In the four study schools in a Virginia city, detracking was not a result of planning and deliberation, but a pragmatic byproduct of each school's size.…

This paper responds to President Clinton's call for an end to social promotion. The article reports on a study that examined the effects of social promotion on students, looked at alternatives to social promotion, and investigated how teachers in a representative public school district perceive social promotion. Data were gathered from 46…

This information capsule explores the effectiveness of score ranges on the Computerized Placement Test (CPT), used to assess the skills of entry-level students at Miami-Dade Community College and place first-time-in-college students in classes. Data are provided for students entering in Fall terms 1996 and 1997 showing the number of students…

Educators commonly recommend that children born during the summer months, especially boys, be given an extra year to mature before entering kindergarten so that they will not suffer from the academic disadvantages of being among the youngest children in a class. Terms such as "academic red-shirting" and "graying of the…

Due to the high stakes that my be attached to placement decisions, it is imperative that the placement process be as solid and defensible as possible. An integral part of the placement process is the identification and use of cut scores, the point(s) on the score scale that classify students into adjacent categories for placement decisions. This…

Describes the new meaning of Special Education as it applies to a wide range of students with exceptional needs. (RK)

Revised version of a paper presented at the Wisconsin Symposium on Linguistic Perspectives on Black English, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, May 1970. Special issue on Black Dialect: Historical and Descriptive Issues'' edited by William A. Stewart. (RS)