General educator-special educator collaboration is discussed. Advantages include professional exchange of ideas and sharing of resources; barriers include a feeling by staff of lack of ownership and lack of power in decision making, and the perception that goals are incompatible; promising practices include clarifying goals and developing…

Examines the ending of reform efforts in the former Soviet Union immediately prior to the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Indicates that inadequate facilities and resources, lack of trained personnel, promotion on noneducational grounds, economic hardship, and bureaucratic resistance hindered these reforms. (15 references)…

This paper describes the process used by the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children for identifying recommended practices in early intervention/early childhood special education. Work groups in 14 areas identified practices that were then validated by a national sample of professionals and family members. Use of the…

Current thinking about language, learning, and literacy are discussed, focusing on such themes as: literacy as a part of language learning, understanding text and written language modes, the "metas" in language and cognition, and maintaining a clinical focus in classroom contexts and beyond. Four researcher-clinicians offer observations about…

Comparison of teaching behaviors across grade level and educational setting (resource and self-contained) of 65 beginning teachers found main effects for both grade level and educational setting including that elementary teachers provided more transitions between instructional activities and that teachers in self-contained settings exhibited more…

Seven responses to a U.S. Department of Education report assessing programs and services for talented and gifted children are presented by Charles F. Desmond, James R. Delisle, Gail E. Hanninen, Anthony Miserandino, Stephanie Tolan, John F. Feldhusen, and James J. Gallagher. (JDD)

This interview with Research Professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago discusses a wide range of education topics, including improving school science, allocation of finite human capital, factors contributing to educational productivity, effect of social obstacles on higher education achievement, use of cooperative learning,…

This paper outlines a set of "best practice" criteria for designing and evaluating early intervention programs for special needs infants and toddlers, from an international perspective. The paper recommends that early intervention programs be based on six principal values: community coherence, cultural sensitivity, right to services, family…

This paper presents Down's syndrome as a part of the human race's rich biological inheritance rather than a condition to be pitied. The history of the discovery of the biological basis of Down's syndrome is reviewed, along with attitudes toward individuals with Down's syndrome over time and developments in medicine and education. (JDD)

Comparison of 73 special education teachers providing direct instructional services and 43 educators providing mostly indirect services found that both teaching efficacy and personal efficacy were related to instructionally relevant effective teaching components. Type of service (direct or indirect) was not significantly correlated with either…

European integration and changes in Eastern Europe are changing the position of Finland. Educational planners should respond by declaring the ideology of education for lifelong vocations dead. Schools should prepare people for unlearning (adaptation to change) and for alternating education and work. (SK)

This article raises concerns about current trends toward increasing bilingual, bicultural education for deaf children. It notes that such programs often discourage the use of voice and spoken language by the deaf child and those in his environment, delay the child's introduction to English, and unreasonably expect hearing persons to use American…

This paper examines several major problems confronting special education for students with emotional and behavioral disorders; identifies successful practices and programs; explores factors that contribute to continuation of inadequate practices; and presents recommendations for improving educational practice, policy, research, and professional…

Some cautions are sounded for converting a linearly administered test to an adaptive format. Four areas are identified in which practices broadly used in traditionally constructed tests can have adverse effects if thoughtlessly adopted when a test is administered in an adaptive mode. (SLD)

The limits to increased teacher participation in their own evaluation are discussed, and steps are proposed to turn evaluation from an activity done to teachers to an activity done by teachers. A developmental approach is suggested to move from current practice to more sophisticated levels of evaluation. (SLD)