Today an ever-increasing number of infants and young children with and without disabilities play, develop, and learn together in a variety of places -- homes, early childhood programs, neighborhoods, and other community-based settings. The notion that young children with disabilities and their families are full members of the community reflects…

In an expressive and absorbing style, this penetrating volume offers a plan for viable and sustainable educational reform that reflects research on traditional methods and new findings from successful school initiatives around the globe. Beginning with an incisive analysis of the three major educational change efforts of the past 25 years, Andy…

In the past two decades, inclusive schooling for students with exceptional conditions has emerged in a range of national contexts to the extent that inclusion is now a world-wide movement. Major prompts arise from mandates and directives from international bodies such as UNESCO. However, the provision of education built on social inclusion places…

Inclusive education is a practice of teaching handicapped children in regular classrooms with non-handicapped children to the fullest extent possible; such children may have orthopedic, intellectual, emotional, or visual difficulties or handicaps associated with hearing or learning. In India there are constitutional provisions for Inclusive…

School absenteeism and truancy have been of concern to schools, courts, communities and researchers since compulsory education laws were first put into effect. Despite the attention given to this problem and significant effort aimed at improving student attendance, school absenteeism remains a serious problem. A number of qualitative reviews of…

Years of research on the effect of inclusive placements on the academic performance of students with disabilities has been notable for its inconsistent and contradictory findings. This study examined the performance of 651 elementary, middle, and high school students with disabilities in a large urban school district in a plains state on state…

This instrumental case study employed a qualitative approach to explore ways that partnerships were built on a large, decentralized campus to support the seamless learning for students with disabilities. The number of college students with disabilities is increasing today, yet higher education lacks coordinated systems that provide a coherent…

The purpose of this study was to investigate four research questions concerning the impact of co-teaching on general education students educated within a classroom inclusion model. General education students who received instruction during their 10th-grade year in a co-taught language arts or mathematics class were compared with other 10th-grade…

This dissertation examined the impact of inclusion on the academic achievement outcome of high school special education students as measured by English 1, biology, and algebra 1 as a function of gender, ethnicity, and years of inclusion. The study also examined the generalizations with confidence that could be made about the use of inclusion…

The literature clearly documents the need to improve academic achievement at all levels; and specific gaps in practice to serve this need have been identified within local New Jersey high schools. The small learning community (SLC), a specific type of professional learning community, represents an effort to improve the achievement of high school…

The purpose of this study was to explore the use of Individualized Education Programs (IEP) by general education teachers at the elementary level to develop instructional plans for students with disabilities included in the general education classroom. An additional purpose of the study was to determine what role general education teachers at the…

This study used Multilevel Modeling (MLM) with a sample of over 1300 students with disabilities between the ages of six and nine years old nested within 180 school districts. A sample from the Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Study (PEELS) dataset (Institute of Education Sciences) was used to explore the relationship between hours in general…

Inclusion has altered the teaching and learning environment in many ways. General education teachers face increasing challenges as their role becomes more complex to meet the demands of teaching both general and special education students in the same classroom. Teachers are pivotal in the success of inclusion and exploring how teachers feel about…

This study explored parents' views of the educational experience of children with Individual Education Plans. The research goal was to determine how parents are meaningfully involved and engaged in the development and monitoring of education programs for their children. The primary data source for the study was 31 interviews with parents, analysed…

This paper explores the need for innovative leadership in teacher education in the Canadian context, with a particular call for renewed professional development of current teachers. Within a country defined as multicultural, recent demographic shifts, interregional migration, growing ethnic diversity, and the emergence of a paradigm of inclusion,…