ABSTRACT
Many observers of the field of special education have become increasingly distressed at the apparent gap between what we know about children with special needs and the design of services to help them (Fullan, 1993). What we know is increasingly impressive (due in no small measure to a continuing flow of research money from the federal government), but often that new knowledge stands in stark contrast to the service delivery systems that we have devised to cope with children with special needs. This chapter attempts to highlight three major disjunctions between what we know and what we do, to discuss the reasons for them, and provide some suggestions about ways to close the gap.
