ABSTRACT
Many classroom teachers are faced with the task of educating chil dren and youth whose primary language is not English, who function at borderline levels of cognitive ability, who present significant learning and language disabilities, and who present a continuum of social and behavioral challenges. Increasing homogeneity among students has created the need for a variety of educational specialists such as speech and language pathologists, special education teachers, curriculum spe cialists, school psychologists, and school counselors. However, the ma jority of students, even those currently placed on Individualized Education Plans (IEP), spend most of their school day in the general ed ucation classroom environment (U.S. Department of Education, 2000a). Yet it is unrealistic to expect the general education classroom teacher to be able to meet the wide range of student needs without specialist sup port. To deliver specialist support most schools utilize an “expert” model through “pull-out” programs such as delivering special educa tion programming in segregated classrooms or through consultation to the classroom teacher whereby the specialist creates a plan that the gen eral educator is then expected to implement.
