Every child should have access to an education that works. The Quest for a Meaningful Special Education follows the educational journeys of nine students with a language-based learning disability (LBLD) who, through a combination of parental advocacy and luck, were removed from a debilitating learning situation and enrolled in a school designed to address their particular learning needs. In the process of following their journeys, the book explores the role of cultures within and outside the school and examines some of the ways that the construction of special education has affected student learning. In the context of the ongoing national conversation about student academic success, high school dropout rates, the disproportionate number of prison inmates with learning disabilities, the costs of educating students, and the controversy over the placement of minorities in special education, The Quest For a Meaningful Special Education is a timely book that will add a new perspective to current debates

This ethnographic case study follows the educational journeys of nine students with learning disabilities who with luck and parental advocacy attend a school designed to address their disability. The researcher explores the role of cultures, both within and outside the school, and examines some of the effects of the social construction of special education on student learning. This study draws no conclusions regarding the connections between the cultures at the school and the student's success. However it does highlight the perspective of students, parents, and teachers, noting the ways in which they describe how and why this school environment allowed the student access to an education. The nine students' educational journey calls attention to the inequities caused by the social construction of special education. In this study, students were underdiagnosed, misdiagnosed, and at times over-diagnosed with a variety of labels that indicated a disability or lack of a disability. This labeling, required in order to receive specialized instruction, determined a path and represents one of the many problems associated with special education. In addition, these students and their families endured financial and emotional hardships in the fight to obtain an accessible education.

Aligned with the core values and agenda of TASH, this visionary text prepares professionals to strengthen supports and services for people with disabilities across the lifespan.

"The best book on high school dynamics I have ever read."--Jay Mathews, Washington Post An award-winning professor and an accomplished educator take us beyond the hype of reform and inside some of America's most innovative classrooms to show what is working--and what isn't--in our schools. What would it take to transform industrial-era schools into modern organizations capable of supporting deep learning for all? Jal Mehta and Sarah Fine's quest to answer this question took them inside some of America's most innovative schools and classrooms--places where educators are rethinking both what and how students should learn. The story they tell is alternately discouraging and hopeful. Drawing on hundreds of hours of observations and interviews at thirty different schools, Mehta and Fine reveal that deeper learning is more often the exception than the rule. And yet they find pockets of powerful learning at almost every school, often in electives and extracurriculars as well as in a few mold-breaking academic courses. These spaces achieve depth, the authors argue, because they emphasize purpose and choice, cultivate community, and draw on powerful traditions of apprenticeship. These outliers suggest that it is difficult but possible for schools and classrooms to achieve the integrations that support deep learning: rigor with joy, precision with play, mastery with identity and creativity. This boldly humanistic book offers a rich account of what education can be. The first panoramic study of American public high schools since the 1980s, In Search of Deeper Learning lays out a new vision for American education--one that will set the agenda for schools of the future.

Special education teachers, as a significant segment of the teaching profession, came into their own with the passage of Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, in 1975. Since then, although the number of special education teachers has grown substantially it has not kept pace with the demand for their services and expertise. The roles and practice of special education teachers have continuously evolved as the complexity of struggling learners unfolded, along with the quest for how best to serve and improve outcomes for this diverse group of students. High-Leverage Practices in Special Education defines the activities that all special educators needed to be able to use in their classrooms, from Day One. HLPs are organized around four aspects of practice collaboration, assessment, social/emotional/behavioral practices, and instruction because special education teachers enact practices in these areas in integrated and reciprocal ways. The HLP Writing Team is a collaborative effort of the Council for Exceptional Children, its Teacher Education Division, and the CEEDAR Center; its members include practitioners, scholars, researchers, teacher preparation faculty, and education advocates--Amazon.com

The New England Law Review offers its issues in convenient digital formats for e-reader devices, apps, pads, and phones. This third issue of Volume 49 (Spr. 2015) features an extensive and important Symposium on "Educational Ambivalence: The Story of the Academic Doctorate in Law," presented by leading scholars on the subject. Contents include: "Educational Ambivalence: The Rise of a Foreign-Student Doctorate in Law," by Gail J. Hupper "The Context of Graduate Degrees at Harvard Law School Under Dean Erwin N. Griswold, 1946–1967," by Bruce A. Kimball "Perspectives on International Students' Interest in U.S. Legal Education: Shifting Incentives and Influence," by Carole Silver "A Future for Legal Education," by Paulo Barrozo In addition, Issue 3 includes these extensive student contributions: Note, "The Transgender Eligibility Gap: How the ACA Fails to Cover Medically Necessary Treatment for Transgender Individuals and How HHS Can Fix It," by Sarah E. Gage Note, "Breaking the Cycle of Burdensome and Inefficient Special Education Costs Facing Local School Districts," by Alessandra Perna Comment, "Scream Icon: Questioning the Fair Use of Street Art in Seltzer v. Green Day, Inc.," by Shannon Hyle Quality digital formatting includes linked notes, active table of contents, active URLs in notes, and proper Bluebook citations.