Educating One and All: Students with Disabilities and Standards-Based Reform

by Committee on Goals 2000 and the Inclusion of Student and M.J. McLaughlin

In the movement toward standards-based education, an important question stands out: How will this reform affect the 10% of school-aged children who have disabilities and thus qualify for special education?

In Educating One and All, an expert committee addresses how to reconcile common learning for all students with individualized education for "one"--the unique student. The book makes recommendations to states and communities that have adopted standards-based reform and that seek policies and practices to make reform consistent with the requirements of special education.

The committee explores the ideas, implementation issues, and legislative initiatives behind the tradition of special education for people with disabilities. It investigates the policy and practice implications of the current reform movement toward high educational standards for all students.

Educating One and All examines the curricula and expected outcomes of standards-based education and the educational experience of students with disabilities--and identifies points of alignment between the two areas. The volume documents the diverse population of students with disabilities and their school experiences. Because approaches to assessment and accountability are key to standards-based reforms, the committee analyzes how assessment systems currently address students with disabilities, including testing accommodations. The book addresses legal and resource implications, as well as parental participation in children's education.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0309057892
• ISBN13: 9780309057899
• Release Date: June 1997
• Publisher: National Academies Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Dimensions: 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

For ALL Educators who care about reforms and the disabled!

I found this book while browsing one day. It's subtitle is Students with Disabilities and Standards-based Reform. In the midst of the outcry from politicians and parents for reform of the public school system, one group has been steadfastly ignored. That is those who have disabilities. For example, the American Association for the Advancement of Science put out a book in 1990 called Science for All Americans...Project 2061. This book stressed many of the much needed reforms concerning science literacy, but in their forward they mentioned every neglected group EXCEPT the disabled. Now since then, the AAAS has changed their lists of neglected groups to include the disabled, but a friend at the National Science Foundation who is blind, said that he went to a Congressional Meeting on school reform and especially science reform, and once again Congress neglected to mention including the disabled. As a Deaf person who struggled with bad attitudes of teachers and professors, interpreters with no training in science, outright illegal behavior on the part of two Universities, and being active in accessiblity and discrimination groups, I know how hard it is going to be to get the reforms and the eductional society together in such a way to make them work together. This book is a good first step towards that goal. The National Research Council has done its statistical work on just how many disabled drop out of school and are unemployed, due directly to educators who ignore them at best and have no intention of including those with disabilities in this march for better educational systems in the U.S. What neither Congress or educators seem to understand is that the impact of education which is below par and doesn't include the disabled in the reforms will ultimately be paid for by the American public. The disabled want to work, want to be part of society, and want to be accepted for who they are, not for what educators think they should become (ie., Deaf turning into English speakers). We also want the chance to choose for ourselves the right to make decisions as to what we want to spend our lifetime doing. For all educators, this book is a must-read since the inclusion movement is gaining momentum, and regular teachers are going to see us, the disabled, in their classes, and in regular universities. Neither we or the Americans with Disabilities Act is going away, and educators better be prepared for dealing with diverse students in their classes. This book will help them achieve that goal. Karen L. Sadler, Science Education, University of Pittsburgh, klsst23@pitt.edu