When Special Education and General Education Unite, Everyone Benefits. R&D Alert. Volume 6, Number 1

Overview & Synopsis

This issue of R&D Alert addresses special education primarily for an audience of general educators and policymakers. As the lead article discusses, the plight of students with disabilities and other special needs is increasingly the concern of all educators, not just those with a particular background in special education. The lead article discusses implications for special education of the standards-based assessment push embodied in part in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and in changes being considered for the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). A potentially positive effect of this accountability push is to forge stronger relationships between general and special education. Because many schools and districts are not necessarily prepared for such change, this article also describes examples of schools and states successfully working to improve collaboration across general and special education so as to better serve all students. The second article discusses another issue that new provisions from NCLB bring to the floor: What does "highly qualified" mean for special education professionals? The article reviews differences between NCLB's and IDEA's definitions of "highly qualified" and touches on how some states are responding to this issue. The third article describes a model being considered for inclusion in the IDEA reauthorization as a new option for identifying special education eligibility of students with specific learning disabilities. WestEd staff are pursuing research to better understand this new identification approach. The article shares information from their work.