The authors argue that insufficient attention has been given to foundational concepts in special education. Two classes of foundational concepts are discussed: human constructions and logico-mathematical facts. Four human constructions are examined: (1) making teaching most important, (2) discriminating among ideas, (3) choosing conceptual models,…

Underidentification of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD; emotional disturbance or ED in federal language) is a critical issue, perhaps explainable in part by causal attributions of problem behavior associated with conservatism. Conservatism in 58 counties in the state of California was measured by finding the percentage of…

The civil rights movements involving skin tone, gender or gender orientation, disability, and other physiognomic features remain important in securing the legal rights of individuals to equal treatment and equal opportunities regardless of their personal characteristics of color, origin, gender, and so on. Unfortunately, these welcome civil rights…

This article examines the role of market-based policies in special education, focusing on the case of voucher programs. It examines the nature of contemporary social reforms, while discussing school choice as the theoretical linchpin of a market model for educational reforms. Moreover, it includes analysis of why the market-driven rationale of…

Ethical issues regarding children with disabilities have long involved their treatment after they are born. These issues remain important, but children may be deliberately created with or without characteristics that are usually thought of as disabilities. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and related technologies that involve human…

One wrong assumption about reality is sufficient to ensure the failure of education policy. For a variety of reasons, too many people have ignored realities in policies such as the No Child Left Behind Act. Individuals who are serious about reforming or improving education, general or special, must confront realities in at least the following…

Postmodern arguments about doubt, certainty, and objectivity are both old and unsound. All philosophical relativity, or postmodernism by whatever name it is known, denies the possibility of objective truth. Postmodernists' arguments for reducing uncertainty or approximating truth are apparently nonexistent, and their method of reducing uncertainty…

Postmodernism, by whatever label, is intellectually bankrupt. It cannot be reconciled with a scientific view. If taken seriously, it leads to catastrophic consequences for any field of study, including special education. It also leads to malpractice in special education. Whole language instruction, radical multicultural education, and facilitated…

The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education (No Child Left Behind) Act is questioned with reference to the requirement that every state ensure that all special education teachers are highly qualified and are receiving high-quality professional development. The conclusion is that the act lacks clear definitions, realistic goals,…

The rationale for inclusion is summarized and then the conceptual orientation underlying a special class for students with emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD) is articulated. A program designed for a self-contained special education classroom for students (grades 5-6) with EBD is described and the positive outcomes of the program are…

Seven critical statements about special education are shown to actually demonstrate the positive aspects of special education and the importance of linking research and practice. Critical statements address special education as a separate system, as a system that stigmatizes students, as having no effective methods, and as returning few students…

The current status of special education and possible futures are examined through a true news story of current "reform" efforts in Washington, D.C. schools and in imaginary future news stories reporting on special education as an obituary, an accident, a conversion experience, and a reincarnation. The author urges special educators to reject…

In this study of 186 elementary school teachers, discriminant function analyses of peer ratings yielded membership in high, medium, and low perceived effectiveness groups based on measures of self-efficacy, standards and expectations for students, responsibility for student behavior, and resistance to teaching handicapped pupils. Implications for…

The authors of EC 604 295 examine their developing interest in teachers' perceptions of their peers' effectiveness in teaching difficult students, consider questions raised after seeing results of their study, and outline implications of this line of research in the future. (JDD)

Two authors of a paper (EC 602 058) reporting a factor analysis on records referring students to special education comment on their research: how their interest developed, their reaction to critics, clinical impressions acquired from the data, and the possible bias of school personnel toward referring more boys than girls for special education.…