This report identifies major components of the current education reform movement and considers their implications for individuals with learning disabilities. Questions are raised concerning issues of academic standards and student achievement, curriculum and instruction, accountability and evaluation, school and classroom organization, locus of…

This article compares the ideals of the regular education initiative to provide services for learning-disabled students within the regular classroom to the ideals and resulting negative effects (e.g., homelessness) of the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill during the 1960s. Resistance to efforts to decrease or eliminate special education…

Recently, talk of a new type of learning disability (LD)--a foreign language learning disability, or FLLD--has made its way into the LD and foreign language (FL) literature. However, no empirical evidence has been published to support the concept of a "disability" for FL learning by those professionals who use the term. In this article, the author…

A teacher of young children shares personal experiences and professional approaches to facilitating growth in unique children. The educator's responsibility lies not in labeling differences in children, but in responding to those unique differences in the classroom by supporting students and utilizing their strengths. (Author/SW)

This article reviews key findings from school-reform studies of the 1980s on sustained use of effective teacher practices in the classroom and explains their relevance to special education. Recent findings are also highlighted and unresolved issues are identified. An appendix lists sustainability factors and issues. (Contains references.)…

This response to an article by Bruce Taylor on inclusion of students with disabilities in regular classes argues that it is not possible to meet the needs of all children in the general education classroom and points out that inclusion is generally favored by advocacy groups for low-incidence disabilities and policymakers wanting to cut costs. (DB)

This article uses a sociocultural perspective of teaching and learning to synthesize previous articles in the series and speculate on future inquiry in the field of learning disabilities. It provides a model showing the expanding sociocultural contexts that frame learning and teaching. (DB)

This resolution by the Learning Disabilities Association of America urges the U.S. Department of Education to develop policies supporting life-long learning for adults with learning disabilities; establish funding to support this effort; fund research and dissemination in this area; and establish an interagency task force for adults with learning…

Position statements of the Council for Learning Disabilities oppose the following: (1) use of discrepancy formulas in the identification of learning disabled individuals; (2) inclusion of nonhandicapped low achievers and underachievers in learning disability programs; and (3) measurement and training of perceptual and perceptual-motor functions.…

In response to H. Lee Swanson's paper, "Toward a Metatheory of Learning Disabilities," this article argues that the field of learning disabilities does not need to be legitimized and that basic research in learning disabilities is not necessarily the prerequisite vehicle by which theoretical progress can be made. (JDD)

The author reviews the controversy over definitions of learning disabilities and posits two "givens" in any defintion of the condition: that all learning is neurological, and that learning is conditioning. He proposes a definition based on neuropsychological dysfunction which can be translated into an educational regimen. (CL)

This current response to a 1968 article by Ray Barsch (EC 602 662) notes lack of progress in defining and classifying learning disabilities and in determining appropriate interventions to help students with learning disabilities. The paper distinguishes among three types of learning problems and notes the need for individualized transdisciplinary…

The author considers the future of learning disabilities, particularly in relation to mainstreaming, the perceptual deficit hypothesis, and the psychoneurology of learning. (SBH)

The article responds to three papers (by S. Forness, K. Reid, and W. Kimball and T. Heron) which reacted to two papers by M. Poplin (1988) concerning the reductionist fallacy in learning disabilities and holistic/constructivist principles of the teaching-learning process, with implications for the field of learning disabilities. (DB)

In this paper I comment on recent recommendations that students' responsiveness to instruction (RTI) provides a basis for identification of students as learning disabled. I repeat an earlier argument (Gerber & Semmel, 1985) that teachers embedded in schools are naturally variable in their capacity to respond to differences in students' response to…