This case, which addresses supplementing or supplanting special education in a school, is applicable to aspiring and practicing principals who require more experience in special education law and practice. We cover the use of special education personnel to provide intervention activities for students who have not been classified as students with…

This study sought to validate a new measure, the Classroom Cohesion Survey (CCS), designed to examine the relationship between teachers and classroom assistants in autism support classrooms. Teachers, classroom assistants, and external observers showed good inter-rater agreement on the CCS and good internal consistency for all scales. Simple…

Teachers have many methods available to them for instructing students. This article presents a teacher's perspective on conducting a discussion with a group of children who were gifted and talented. I studied one teacher using participant observation and ethnographic interviewing as he taught in a special program. I used the concept of…

The crucial role of initial teacher education programmes and teacher educators in preparing effective inclusive practitioners has been universally acknowledged. This study explored the attitudes of 125 teacher educators from four colleges of education towards inclusive education, their views and concerns about teacher preparation and the…

This study investigated the influence of a professional learning intervention on parents and special educators' perceptions of collaboration to support student outcomes. Over a period of six months, participants worked together to identify effective ways to establish and sustain partnerships in their districts. Eight pre- and post-intervention…

In many PreK-12 school environments, individuals with a variety of professional identities and roles provide services to students. Typically, these individuals are trained with minimal interaction with each other, yet they must work cooperatively with each other in the schools. Interprofessional education (IPE) provides a model whereby students in…

Inclusion classrooms were introduced in the United States in 1990 when the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act required that special education students be instructed in a general education setting. Ensuing changes in instructional formats have caused role confusion for special and general education teachers, resulted in mixed attitudes…

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder which causes deficits in social interaction. Individuals with autism sometimes may not be able to talk or may choose not to talk. Therefore; there needs to be some other ways to communicate with children with autism. Presently, technology, specifically educational technology comes to the scene to help…

Making decisions to undergo Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) genetic testing can be challenging. It is important to understand how the perceptions of affected individuals might influence testing decision-making. Although evidence has shown that psychological factors are important in predicting testing decisions, affect-type variables have been…

Early intervention for infants and toddlers began with high hopes, but became mired in overspecialization, bureaucracy, and turf guarding. Nevertheless, two important advances in the field have been (a) a recognition that the child's natural caregivers are in the best position to be the intervention agents and, concomitantly, (b) a rethinking…

Dr. James Gallagher published widely on most topics in gifted education, and was often invited to provide commentary on basic theories of giftedness for audiences of psychologists and educators. His own background as a psychologist and special educator as well as a gifted educator positioned him well to hold the theoretical views he did on the…

The task of providing all students an engaging education is a particularly difficult challenge in the middle grades as young adolescents are on the cusp of intellectual thought. Because they are forming their identities as students who will or will not go on to successfully complete high school or postsecondary education, their experiences with…

Teacher educators are expected to provide preservice special education teachers with extensive knowledge about a variety of topics as well as allowing candidates a chance to engage in higher-level thinking about content. Today, some teacher educators are thinking "outside the box" when it comes to instructional delivery by moving beyond…

Given recent increased attention to teacher evaluation, it is imperative to understand the expertise teachers need to educate students with severe disabilities. In this grounded theory study, the authors interviewed nine special education faculty who specialize in severe disabilities about the job-related skills and qualities exhibited by expert…

Since 2002, public school teachers in Florida have been permitted to choose between a defined benefit (DB) and a defined contribution (DC) retirement plan. We exploit this unique policy environment to study new teachers' revealed preferences over pension plan structures. Roughly 30 percent of teachers hired between 2003 and 2008 selected the DC…