Author Michael Wehmeyer began his career in special education shortly after the passage of the 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act (which later became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA). In those early days, he recounts, students with disability were mostly segregated from other children, and many of the adults…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has deep roots in the civil rights movement; however, the legislation, as currently applied, has done little to address racial inequities in services students with disabilities receive. Too often, schools, districts, and states focus on complying with the regulations, while failing to make necessary…

The prevalence rate of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has grown dramatically, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires educators to use evidence-based practices to improve academic and/or behavior outcomes for children with ASD. There is definitive scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of applied behavior…

No Child Left Behind and the Every Student Succeeds Act have made accountability central to conversations about education policy. But neither statute articulates a clear vision of what constitutes "quality" or "equity" in education, nor do they include a mechanism to ensure that schools have sufficient resources to pursue that…

Mexican Americans have a long history in the struggle to end school segregation and achieve educational equality. Rubén Donato and Jarrod Hanson trace that history through a series of court cases that show how their fight for desegregation both intersects with and differs from the more well-known struggle of Black Americans. In some cases, Mexican…

Many school practitioners think of poverty as a kind of "culture," characterized by dysfunctional behaviors that can only be corrected by imposing harsh discipline on students. Further, beliefs about poverty are often used to justify racial disparities in disciplinary referrals, achievement, and enrollment in gifted, AP, and honors…

Arthur E. Wise, a longtime advocate for K-12 school improvement, reviews 50 years of efforts to promote equal educational opportunities for all children, describing the pros and cons of three main reform strategies: lawsuits focused on funding equity, which have had some success; the standards and accountability movement, which has not; and…

Public funding of private K-12 schooling through vouchers continues to be a contentious issue across the U.S., even though a solid majority of Americans continues to oppose them. The voucher plans run the risk of legal challenge for how they handle the rights of students with disabilities and whether they violate state constitutional provisions…

In this era of educational choice, school accountability, research-based practices, and commercial competition--illustrated by but not exclusive to No Child Left Behind--some schools, public and private, make claims that resemble false advertising and that some parents rely on, to their disappointment and even detriment. Moreover, the laudable…

A response to the Young and Bress article also in this issue. (IRT)

Presents criteria that have been clarified by recent court decisions in school finance cases and reform guidelines that have emerged from State action. (Author)

Because negotiation channels creative energy and uses student ideas for the benefit of the school, it can create an environment more conducive to teaching and learning than the repressive environments that cause petty irritations, repeated disruptions, violence, and vandalism. (Author/IRT)

Six sets of emerging issues that could involve specific students and classroom situations are discussed here: class suspensions and due process, class rules and teacher inconsistency, classroom equality of opportunity, competency testing, classification of students, and classroom management in alternative schools. (Author)

The good news in the Bakke case would be for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide that equal protection was denied and for the regents of the University of California to have to write a new, broader operational definition of equal protection for applicants to medical school. (Author/IRT)

Spells out the court-imposed limitations on the various kinds of tests commonly used in the public schools. (Author/IRT)