This book established a plan for creating a truly integrated educational system, one that unifies the separate and parallel systems of special and general education. Chapter 1, "Students at the Margins," explores the dual tragedy of discouraged and disinterested students and presents eight essential questions guiding a unified system of leadership. Chapter 2, "Reconceiving the Purposes of Schooling," urges adoption of a differentiated approach, drawing on the continuum-of-services, inclusive-school, and learner-centered school models for educating students with disabilities. Chapter 3, "A Transformational Leadership Strategy: Complex Adaptive Systems," examines the linked attributes of interrelationships, diversity, nonlinearity, self-organization, and attractors, which leaders must appreciate to "reculture" schools as learner-centered environments. Chapter 4, "Incentives as Attractors: Why Things Remain the Same and How To Change Them," analyzes the role of incentives in driving change in five districts. Chapter 5, "The Transformation to Learner-Centered," explores the transformative roles of principals, teachers, and staff through the metaphor of schools as playhouses. Chapter 6, "The New Work of Leadership in Unified Schools," uses a systems-oriented perspective to evaluate leadership promoting learner-centered schools. Chapter 7, "Organizing for Instruction in Unified Schools," considers new ways of thinking required for democratic schooling. Chapter 8, "Delivering Instruction in Unified Schools," offers a vision of unified schools that meets the academic, social, and emotional needs of all students. Chapter 9, "Thinking Differently about Evaluation: Moving beyond the Paradox," reconsiders evaluation processes given the importance of reflective practice and making decisions using sound data. Chapter 10, "A Reflection on Leadership: Local Leadership Counts," synthesizes different approaches to educational leadership to offer a new framework for educational administration that views principals as public intellectuals. (Includes Appendix A, "Case Studies of Special Education Leadership and Programs and Services," and Appendix B, "Program Evaluation Self Study Guide: Leading School systems, Program Components, and/or School-Site Appraisal Efforts." Contains more than 150 references.) (TEJ)

To create truly inclusive school and classroom environments, educators must be prepared to include all students--including students with intellectual disabilities, who are not always given the opportunity to be full participants in the classroom. This book provides an overview of the history of inclusion, the philosophy underlying inclusion, and the role that curriculum accommodations and modifications play in making inclusion possible. The author discusses four ways to modify curriculum for students working well below grade level: altering content, conceptual difficulty, educational goals, or instructional methods. She then provides 40 curriculum modification strategies, based on Robert Marzano's New Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, with directions for implementation and samples of student work.

This step-by-step handbook offers practical strategies for administrators, teachers, policymakers, and parents who want to shift from costly special learning programs for a few students, to excellent educational services for all students. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

"This book considers the major research areas that underlie UDL and call out for further exploration in the years ahead."--p. 4 of cover.

Michael Wehmeyer, a leading scholar with over four decades of experience as a teacher, teacher educator, researcher, and advocate, provides a cogent but accessible account of the evolution of special education. Offering a compelling vision of where the field should be headed in the next decade, he notes how the digital revolution has made it possible for all learners to gain access to content and instruction. This text focuses on the need to consider how young people with (and without) disabilities learn and the importance of creating personalizable education as strengths-based approaches to disability move education away from diagnosis and remediation to schoolwide instruction for all students. This book is not written as a criticism of traditional special education models, but instead examines the big ideas for going beyond special education that can improve outcomes for learners with disabilities and prepare them for the 21st-century world. “If you are part of the field, you must choose whether to look backward or forward. This book includes the tools you need for the latter.” —Sue Swenson, president, Inclusion International “Dr. Wehmeyer masterfully articulates the flaws in our current approach and offers a roadmap to a more promising future for our nation’s children.” —Melody Bruce Musgrove, The University of Mississippi

Includes 16 competencies/skills found on the GACE Special Education General Curriculum test and 380 sample-test questions. This guide, aligned specifically to standards prescribed by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, covers the sub-areas of Understanding Students with Disabilities; Assessing Students and Developing Programs; Promoting Student Development and Learning; and Working in a Professional Environment.