The Yoke of Special Education : How To Break It. Working Paper / Alan Gartner and Dorothy Kerzner Lipsky.

This paper considers what can be done to shape an educational system that meets the needs of all students; it then recommends such a system to replace the existing situation in which certain students are labeled as "handicapped" and placed in separate programs. In evaluating the current situation, the paper examines existing educational practices for students with handicaps, focusing on provisions and implementation of Public Law 94-142, funding, referral and assessment, student placement in the least restrictive environment, and program outcomes. Intermediate strategies are presented for bridging the gap between special and general education to create a unified system. These strategies include, among others, strengthening the holding power of general education and making funds available to meet student needs, regardless of categorical labels or location of services provided. A vision of the future calls for such reforms as: viewing handicap as a social construct, recognizing various types of intelligences, framing the student's "problem" as a mismatch between learning needs and the instructional system, involving parents as partners, focusing on student achievement as the critical outcome, and improving educational productivity. Changes that can be accomplished within the present legislative situation are outlined. (JDD)

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