Ann Millan shares the story of how she helped her daughter, Robin, move past the many challenges of severe autism in Autism-Believe in the Future. Her first goal was simple; she wanted to stop the screaming, running, and self-injurious behaviors that her daughter exhibited. For ten years, Ann was told by professionals that she needed to accept Robin's disabilities. Not one to give up in the face of adversity, Ann finally found quality professionals to help her. Ann knew education and therapies were Robin's priority, but self-image and socialization became her focus. Ann also knew Robin's inappropriate behaviors were unacceptable in society. Ann and her husband, Bob, became Robin's case managers and Robin progressed beyond their wildest dreams. Autism is not a one-size-fits-all disability, so focusing on just one intervention did not lead Robin to successful adulthood. Many steps had to be taken along the way to get her successfully to her goal Parents and autism professionals must work together, developing quality support and services that are cost-effective-so we can all believe in the future for our children. Today, Robin has two jobs, lives in her own condominium, drives her own car, and is a part of her community. This is her story

International Advances in Education: Global Initiatives for Equity and Social Justice is an international research monograph series of scholarly works that primarily focus on empowering students (children, adolescents, and young adults) from diverse current circumstances and historic beliefs and traditions to become non-exploited/non-exploitive contributing members of the 21st century. The series draws on the research and innovative practices of investigators, academics, and community organizers around the globe that have contributed to the evidence base for developing sound educational policies, practices, and programs that optimize all students' potential. Each volume includes multidisciplinary theory, research, and practices that provide an enriched understanding of the drivers of human potential via education to assist others in exploring, adapting, and replicating innovative strategies that enable ALL students to realize their full potential. Chapters in this volume are drawn from a wide range of countries including: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, Georgia, Haiti, India, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Portugal, Slovenia, Tanzania and The United States all addressing issues of educational inequity, economic constraint, class bias and the links between education, poverty and social status. The individual chapters provide examples of theory, research, and practice that collectively present a lively, informative, cross-perspective, international conversation highlighting the significant gross economic and social injustices that abound in a wide variety of educational contexts around the world while spotlighting important, inspirational, and innovative remedies. Taken together, the chapter's advance our understanding of best practices in the education of economically disadvantaged and socially marginalized populations while collectively rejecting institutional policies and traditional practices that reinforce the roots of economic and social discrimination. Chapter authors, utilize a range of methodologies including empirical research, historical reviews, case studies and personal reflections to demonstrate that poverty and class status are socio-political conditions, rather than individual identities. In addition, that education is an absolute human right and a powerful mechanism to promote individual, national, and international upward social and economic mobility, national stability and citizen wellbeing.

As more and more South African parents look at the option of their children with disabilities attending mainstream schools, many questions are raised: Mainstream or special shool? What is involved in each of these choices? What are the expected outcomes for the child as an individual? Why are there special schools? Will the school I choose provide for my child's needs?;This guide examines these issues and helps to find answers to commonly asked questions about inclusion. Terminology is explained and new legislation with its implications is examined. Parents, children and teachers share their stories and experiences in the hope that others will have more information to make the choices that are appropriate for them.

This edited volume explores various issues pertaining to the education of children with disabilities in Africa, the Caribbean and Middle East. As a group, persons with disabilities have been subjected to social, cultural and educational exclusions of various forms and for various socially-scripted reasons. In education, for instance, individuals with disabilities have been altogether excluded from educational participation in many parts of the developing world or they have been excluded from pursuing meaningfully beneficial higher levels of education in developed countries like the United States. One of the social responses/remedies to the widely-acknowledged exclusionary practices experienced by learners with disabilities has been the widespread implementation of inclusive practices in the education of individuals with disabilities across countries, in the west and the developing regions of the world. A distinctive marker of difference in the way inclusive practices have been enacted in western countries versus those in the developing world has primarily stemmed from the fact that majority of western countries operate under funded mandates that also regulate the provision of education to persons with disabilities. While the ideal of inclusion has been highly desirable, many of countries in the developing world have floundered in their implementation due to lack sound legislative framework to guide implementation coupled with socio-cultural factors related to negative perceptions of disabilities and limited funding sources. Chapters in this volume explore inclusive education from a variety of perspectives.

Teaching adolescents and learning from them is the paradigm elaborated throughout this second edition of Adolescents in the Internet Age. The premise is based upon four assumptions: (1) Adolescents have unique experiences that qualify them as the most credible source on what growing up is like in the current environment; (2) Adolescents are more competent than many adults with tools of technology that will be needed for learning in the future; (3) Adolescents and adults can support mutual development by adopting the concept of reciprocal learning; and (4) The common quest of adolescents to gain adult identity could be attained before employment. Expectations are the theme for every chapter. The reason expectations are so important is because they influence goals, determine priorities, and are used to evaluate progress and achievements of individuals and institutions. When teacher expectations correspond with the abilities and interests of students, achievement and satisfaction are common outcomes. In contrast, if teachers expect too little, student potential can be undermined. There is also concern if expectations that students have for themselves surpass their abilities. This occurs if teachers do not inform students about their deficits. Multitasking, doing too many things at the same time, detracts from productivity. Sharing accountability depends upon complimentary and attainable expectations that can be met by students, teachers, and parents. To support appropriate expectations, tthis book for secondary teachers and high school students seeking a broader understanding of their own generation is organized in four parts about aspects of learning and development. (1) Identity expectations introduce traditional perspectives on adolescence, changes related to sources of learning, evolving emphasis of schools, and ways to support motivation, goal setting, and formation of identity. (2) Cognitive expectations examine mental abilities, academic standards, emergence of the Internet as a learning tool, development of media literacy, creative problem solving, and encouragement of higher order thinking skills. (3) Social expectations explore the need for giving greater attention to social development, importance of teamwork skills, involvement with social networking, adoption of civil behavior, school safety, and values as a basis for ethical behavior and character. (4) Health expectations center on decisions that influence physical health, well-being, and lifestyle choice. Consideration is given to stress management, emotional intelligence, and risk assessment strategies for individual teenagers and the schools that they attend.

The purpose of this book is to provide a forum for an interdisciplinary scholarly dialogue with regard to preparing teachers for early childhood special education. In addition, it is aimed at examining and making available relevant and most recent scholarship to practitioners and at addressing critical issues and perspectives around preparing effective educators for the 21 century classroom and the future. This book intends to illuminate a complex and challenging task of preparing effective educators through the lenses of several educational disciplines, including but not limited to, teacher education, general education, special education, early childhood education, and urban education. The information in this work will focus on several educational disciplines that have the most immediate implications for teacher preparation and practice. The overall educational knowledge base will be enhanced due to the educational interdisciplinary approach. This has additional implications for teacher education, special education, educational leadership, curriculum and instruction, educational policy, and urban education, to name a few. The multidimensional nature of the book gives it the freedom to highlight multiple and diverse voices while at the same time providing a forum for different (and sometimes divergent) methodologies, philosophies, and ideologies.

Stories that explain is a one-stop support guide to helping children understand social situations through stories. This practical book is packed full of support, advice and tips for teachers, teaching assistants, SENCos and parents to help support children in gaining a better understanding of common primary school experiences that can cause misunderstanding or stress. This resource provides a concise explanation of the use of stories, why they are important, and advice on how to write/edit stories, including tips on how to present them. The accompanying CD includes a comprehensive and editable bank of stories to share with children to aid their understanding of social situations.

Rehabilitation professionals working with students with disabilities and the families of those students face unique challenges in providing inclusive services to special education student populations. There needs to be a focus on adaptive teaching methods that provide quality experience for students with varying disabilities to promote student success and inclusivity. Critical issues within these practices span autism, diverse students, gifted education, learning disabilities, behavioral and emotional disorders, and more. With having many different types of students with vastly different situations, it is important for rehabilitation professionals to understand the best practices and learning systems for special education students who have a wide range of needs and challenges. The Handbook of Research on Critical Issues in Special Education for School Rehabilitation Practices focuses on the issues and challenges rehabilitation professionals face in special education and how they can provide inclusive and effective services to diverse student populations. This book highlights topics such as culturally responsive teacher preparation, artificial intelligence in the classroom, universal design, inclusive development, and school rehabilitation and explores the effects these newfound practices in education have on various types of students with disabilities. This book is essential for special education teachers, administrators, counselors, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the new methods, theories, and solutions for the best practices in inclusive and effective special education.

Have you emotionally suffered through sabotage and administrative loopholes in your place of employment, which resulted in wrongful discharge? Crystal E. Emerson has written an extraordinary and poignant documentation of truth. She has experienced the unethical behavior of administrators and other professionals while working in a public school district in the state of Pennsylvania. During the 2003-2004 academic year, Crystal experienced divided professional loyalties and lived and worked through this emotional dichotomy for 180 days of employment. This was a test of personal and emotional strength and a time to trust her instincts. The law assumes that public school administrators will behave in an ethical manner. The PSEA (Pennsylvania State Education Association) members assume that union representatives will support them during times of professional adversity. This book is a personal account, of a professional position, in which these two assumptions have failed to occur. There is a need for all public school administrators to abide by more strict laws. There is a need to implement a law that requires all observations and evaluations performed by public school administrators to video record the session; this video recording should be submitted to the state department of education due to a mandating law. Such a law would help teachers in extreme situations who have been subjected to heinous actions of administrative personnel. It is Crystal's hope that her 180-day experience of emotional adversity, sabotage, harassment, and undermining has not occurred in vain. Never before has a book been so poignant and honest This is an account of utter emotional and professional strength. You will be enticed as you enjoy reading 180 DAYS

In the USA, racism is the most widespread root of oppression. Black people in America, specifically, have suffered from centuries of discrimination and still struggle to receive the same privileges as their white peers. In other countries, however, there are other groups that face similar struggles. Discrimination and oppression based on religion, ethnicity, socio-economic status, political affiliation, and caste are just a few categories. However, education is a root for widespread societal change, making it essential that educators and systems of education enact the changes that need to occur to achieve equity for the groups being oppressed. Education as the Driving Force of Equity for the Marginalized highlights international research from the past decade about the role education is playing in the disruption and dismantling of perpetuated systems of oppression. This research presents the context, ideas, and mechanics behind impactful efforts to dismantle systems of oppression. Covering topics such as teacher preparation, gender inequality, and social justice, this work is essential for teachers, policymakers, college students, education faculty, researchers, administrators, professors, and academicians.

For undergraduate and graduate courses in Special Education Assessment A practical, applied approach to assessing learners with special needs from early childhood through transition Assessing Learners with Special Needs: An Applied Approach, Seventh Edition provides readers with a practical, step-by-step approach to learning about the complex procedures of the assessment process. Integrated cases help facilitate reader comprehension of difficult concepts. Practice exercises provide an opportunity for readers to monitor their progress.

Exceptional Learners is an outstanding introduction to the characteristics of exceptional learners and their education, emphasizing classroom practices as well as the psychological, sociological, and medical aspects of disabilities and giftedness. In keeping with this era of accountability, all discussions and examples of educational practices are grounded in a sound research base. With hundreds of new references added to the 12th edition, the authors are committed to bringing the most current and credible perspectives to bear on the ever-increasing complexity of educating students with special needs in today's schools. The authors have written a text that reaches the heart as well as the mind, promoting a conviction that professionals working with exceptional learners need to develop not only a solid base of knowledge, but also a healthy attitude toward their work and the people whom they serve, and constantly challenge themselves to acquire a solid understanding of current theory, research, and practice in special education and to develop an ever more sensitive understanding of exceptional learners and their families.

Black colleges are central to the delivery of higher education. Notwithstanding, there is scant treatment of these key institutions in the research literature. There is a need for a comprehensive and cogent understanding of the primary characteristics of the policies and practices endemic to black colleges. This book provides the scholarly basis requisite to organize, give meaning to, and shape the analyses and applications of policy and practice within the black college. The collected chapters respond to the paucity of research literature addressing these institutions. In each chapter, the authors acknowledge the specific characterisics of black colleges that make them unique. Understanding the fundamental characteristics that shape black colleges is critical to gaining a comprehensive understanding of higher education at large. The policy and praxis challenges exhibited at black colleges serve as exemplars to how all colleges perform their respective functions in society. Black colleges serve as testimonies to the transformative power of adversity, and beacons of possibility in and era of retrenchment and ambiguity. These roles call on black colleges to aid and assist in creating an opportunity for educational change.

From bestselling author Peter Westwood, this new edition of Inclusive and Adaptive Teaching provides a considered approach to meeting the ongoing challenge of inclusive teaching in the classroom and offers a range of strategies for good practice. This comprehensive resource promotes a fully inclusive approach to teaching and outlines the necessary adaptations and accommodations that are often required in order to address the needs of the very diverse population of students now to be found in most classrooms. Drawing on the ever-evolving practices of inclusive education and research into learning theories, Westwood describes useful, evidence-based strategies for adapting curriculum content, learning activities, assessment and resource materials. Fully updated to reflect cutting-edge international research and teaching practices, this new edition gives additional focus to the role of digital technology, differentiation, the teaching of STEM subjects and support for inclusivity in higher education. Accessible chapters in this new edition present: principles, aims and issues in providing inclusive schooling; sound pedagogical practices for adapting curriculum content; evidence-based methods for teaching mixed-ability classes; ideas for designing and modifying teaching materials; ways of implementing inclusive assessment of learning. Each chapter contains an up-to-date list of online and print resources easily available to teachers who wish to pursue topics in greater depth. This is an invaluable resource for both practising and trainee teachers and teaching assistants, as well as school principals, school counsellors and educational psychologists.

This book reports on the use of behavioural support - an evidence-based approach developed in the USA to meet students' special educational needs - in Australia and selected thriving Asian countries. It brings together key issues and insights into how educational policy and practices in different societies and cultures influence the uptake of behavioural support in schools and classrooms. The book provides a balanced and highly informative perspective on the historical paths of development and current expansion of behavioural support into regular schools in the USA. It also offers insights into the progress of its implementation outside the Western context of the USA and Europe and its influence on capacity building among professionals within various contexts across the Asia-Pacific region. Case studies from Australia demonstrate the effectiveness of multi-tiered behavioural support in a state government education system for a population of diverse students, and address the resultant adaptation of tiers when it is implemented in a nongovernment school organisation for students with autism. Case studies from Singapore, Mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan reveal the cultural practices and organisational issues that produce distinctive characteristics of behavioural support in inclusive and special education within these countries. This book offers essential guidance to educational decision-makers in these countries and communities around diverse students in considering their next steps towards using behavioural supports proposed in the American blueprints for implementing and building capacity for use in any context.

This book provides school leaders and teachers with research-based theories and models on systems thinking and on inclusive education. It offers the 'why', 'what' and 'how' of inclusive teaching and learning with specific references to a range of special needs. It discusses topics such as a sustainable approach to inclusion, differentiation of learning programs and activities, and a range of assessment approaches to support teaching and learning. The book also presents the social aspects of inclusion and encourages teachers and school leaders to focus not only on the academic aspects of education but the social and emotional growth of the student. It highlights the value of parent input and promotes the forming of parent partnership to enhance student learning and wellbeing. Part One of the book gives practical suggestions on how school leaders can apply systems thinking to mobilise the school and school community to contribute to the ideals of Education For All. Part Two discusses a range of disabilities with each chapter covering the medical definitions and characteristics of the condition, the challenges faced by the student, their parents and teachers, and presents evidence-based strategies and classroom management tips to help teachers with their everyday classroom needs. The book helps to heighten school leaders' awareness on how to use systems thinking to mobilise the school community to action. It strengthens teachers' confidence and builds their capacity in providing all students with access to flexible learning choices to help them achieve educational goals and develop a sense of belonging.

An examination of teachers in early childhood settings. Areas covered include: factors that impact on teacher quality; transformative pathways in becoming an early childhood teacher; Sensei - early childhood education teachers in Japan; and beliefs of early childhood teachers.

Drawing extensively from critical educational theory, feminist perspectives and the writings of community college insiders as well as from her three years of classroom research, Professor Herideen develops the concept of Critical Mainstreaming. This educational model transcends traditional dichotomies such as vocational vs. liberal arts education and educating for critical consciousness vs. training for upward mobility. Critical Mainstreaming provides a unique pedagogy designed to maximize educational and career success for nontraditional students. Her work challenges the current wave of higher educational reform proposed by policymakers such as President Clinton and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich by showing the limitations of the human capital model for education. Dr. Herideen proposes structural and instructional innovations so that educators, administrators, and policymakers can remedy rather than reproduce existing social inequities.

Despite the fact that 39% of the nation's college students attend community colleges, there is almost no literature using student voices to explore the dilemmas of nontraditional students. This book is unique because it combines macro and micro sociological analysis by blending the insights of community college insiders with the abstract principles proposed by critical theorists. Through a theoretically based experimental approach to education for the less privileged, Professor Herideen shows the strengths and limitations of a variety of educational models.