Unifying Educational Systems: Leadership and Policy Perspectives

Unifying Educational Systemscalls for a new policy framework to integrate special education within the larger instructional support system in schools, ultimately re-conceptualizing special education for supporting a social justice and inclusive practices agenda. 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, this book provides a discussion of the purpose, principles, and paradoxes extant in the implementation of current special education policy. This book 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, to move beyond harmful practices that limit student learning. This text will provide a comprehensive treatment of how all students are currently served and provide models for a reconfigured system of special education supports that acknowledge the natural variability among all students. Chapter authors discuss the feasibility of reconceptualizing special education leadership in the current policy context, and describe challenges for the future. Ultimately, authors call for a collaborative culture of responsibility for all students' success that use specialized instructional skills of special education as part of a school's instructional repertoire to serve all students within general education.