Educating one & all: students with disabilities and standards-based reform

The current context of standards-based reform has positioned regional service centers (RSCs), intermediary governmental agencies that support state policy implementation in local districts, as a critical source of professional development (PD). In this article, we ask how a governing body that districts often interact with during challenging reform processes manages maintain strong relationships with district and school staff, and thus maintain their image as trustworthy experts on standards implementation. We explore these questions using data from 108 interviews of state, district, and regional administrators in education agencies in Ohio, Texas, and California over a three-year period. We illustrate that by providing districts with (a) differentiated support specific to their unique needs, (b) materials and tools consistent with state content standards, and (c) expertise in supporting students with disabilities and English learners in standards-based environments, RSC staff become, in the words of one state leader, the state’s trusted “boots on the ground.”

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Accessing the General Curriculum: Including Students with Disabilities in Standards-Based Reform

10.4135/9781483329253 ◽

2005 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Victor Nolet ◽

Margaret McLaughlin

Keyword(s):

Students With Disabilities ◽

General Curriculum ◽

Standards Based Reform

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Promoting Access through Segregation: The Emergence of the “Prioritized Curriculum” Class

Teachers College Record ◽

10.1177/016146811611801408 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 118 (14) ◽

pp. 1-22 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jessica Bacon ◽

Carrie E. Rood ◽

Beth A. Ferri

Keyword(s):

General Education ◽

Educational Policy ◽

Students With Disabilities ◽

Education Curriculum ◽

General Education Curriculum ◽

Local Schools ◽

Legal Mandates ◽

Standards Based Reform

The continuously evolving standards-based reform (SBR) movement is one of the most prominent features of today's educational policy landscape. As SBR has continued to drive educational policy, local schools and districts have adopted many approaches to comply with legal mandates. This article critically examines one particular resultant phenomenon of the SBR movement—the emergence of a new track of self-contained classes called Prioritized Curriculum classes, designed to provide students with disabilities access to standards-based general education curriculum, but in a segregated class. In this article we document the emergence of such courses and critically analyze the rationales and policy loopholes that have led to their creation.

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