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Inclusive Practices

What Special Education Has to Offer Whole-School Reform

  • The Evolution of Inclusion

    Thomas Hehir, former director of the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education and currently an EDC consultant, and Judith Zorfass, associate director of EDC’s Center for Family, School, and Community, discuss how changes in special education law and practice are transforming American schools.

  • Focus on Whole-School Reform

    EDC is searching the country for middle schools that feature “academic excellence, developmental responsiveness, and social equity.” Would some of those same schools also earn high marks for inclusive practices?

  • Focus on Student Thinking

    At the heart of Project ASSIST is the action reflection process, a carefully structured, time-limited discussion format that focuses on the work of three students chosen by their classroom teacher to represent the range of students in his or her class.

  • Focus on Curriculum

    One of the first principles of universal design is that it is better to build flexible options into a curriculum at the outset rather than trying to retrofit the program after it is published. A corollary might be that even when you’ve built in flexibility, you never stop retrofitting to meet the needs of an ever-expanding universe of users.

  • Focus on Equity

    Poor and minority students are disproportionately placed in special education programs, driving up district costs and holding back many children from a quality education.

  • Focus on Student Health

    The Making Health Academic project develops and disseminates coordinated school health and strong prevention strategies to administrators, educators, and policymakers around the country.

  • Focus on Leadership

    In school districts around the country, special educators are remaking themselves.