ABSTRACT
Unifying Educational Systems encourages leaders to move beyond the traditional forms and rituals of leadership for special education that are caught within traditional definitions of a continuum of services. Grounded in public policy debates, research on teaching and learning, and an emerging consensus throughout the leadership community that calls into question our current practices, chapters in this volume provide a discussion of the purpose, principles, and paradoxes extant in the implementation of current special education policy. Chapter authors discuss how students are currently served, the feasibility of re-conceptualizing special education leadership in the current policy context, and the challenges for the future. Ultimately, Unifying Educational Systems calls for a new policy framework to integrate special education within the larger instructional support system in schools, in order to support a social justice and inclusive practices agenda.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |40 pages
Introduction and the Proposal for Unifying Systems
chapter |18 pages
Special Education
part |66 pages
Legal and Financial Basis of Services for a Unified System
chapter |23 pages
Busting Barriers to Fully Integrating Systems of Education
chapter |17 pages
In Support of a Seamless Special Needs Students Services System
part |64 pages
New Conceptions of Practice
chapter |15 pages
Accountability for What Matters
part |59 pages
Leading Diversity in a Unified System
chapter |28 pages
Worth, Burden, and Control
part |7 pages
Summary and Closing