Classroom Ecologies and Learning Disabilities: What We Learned and What We Need to Know

Cuban (1990) observed that the reason we continue to witness wave after wave of school reform is that reform never begins in the place where change is most likely to have its greatest impact: the classroom. Teachers and their daily work with children are almost afterthoughts in educational blueprints for change. In this volume we have sought to understand the classroom from multiple perspectives. Our goals were to identify what we know and what still needs to be examined with respect to the development of children with learning disabilities. Simple, and likely accurate, responses to these two goals would be “not enough” and “a whole lot.” However, the substance and breadth of content in the chapters suggest that we do have considerable understanding of the complexities of classroom life, and there are clearly defined directions for a research agenda addressing classroom influences.