Melody Tankersley – författare

Enduring Issues in Special Education is aimed at any course in the undergraduate or graduate special education curriculum that is wholly or partly devoted to a critical examination of current issues in special education. The book organizes 28 chapters into seven sections using familiar structuring principles—what, who, where, how, when, why, and whither. Each section begins with an introduction that provides historical, legal, and theoretical background information and organizing commentary for the chapters that follow. The book’s objective, in addition to informing readers about the issues, is to develop critical thinking skills in the context of special education. Key features include the following:

Dialectic Format – Each of the 28 chapters presents compelling reasons for addressing the issue at hand and specific ways to do so. Because each issue is written from different perspectives and focuses on a variety of aspects, readers are encouraged to weigh the arguments, seek additional information, and come up with synthesized positions of their own.

Organizing Framework – The book’s seven sections have been arranged according to a scheme that is the essence of most investigative reporting and provides a coherent, easy-to-understand framework for readers.

Expertise – All chapters are written by leading scholars who are highly regarded experts in their fields and conclude with suggested readings and discussion questions for additional study.

Enduring Issues in Special Education is aimed at any course in the undergraduate or graduate special education curriculum that is wholly or partly devoted to a critical examination of current issues in special education. The book organizes 28 chapters into seven sections using familiar structuring principles—what, who, where, how, when, why, and whither. Each section begins with an introduction that provides historical, legal, and theoretical background information and organizing commentary for the chapters that follow. The book’s objective, in addition to informing readers about the issues, is to develop critical thinking skills in the context of special education. Key features include the following:

Dialectic Format – Each of the 28 chapters presents compelling reasons for addressing the issue at hand and specific ways to do so. Because each issue is written from different perspectives and focuses on a variety of aspects, readers are encouraged to weigh the arguments, seek additional information, and come up with synthesized positions of their own.

Organizing Framework – The book’s seven sections have been arranged according to a scheme that is the essence of most investigative reporting and provides a coherent, easy-to-understand framework for readers.

Expertise – All chapters are written by leading scholars who are highly regarded experts in their fields and conclude with suggested readings and discussion questions for additional study.

Intensive, individualized interventions are certainly the hallmark promise of special education. In a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS), tier 3 interventions are the most intensive and require individualized delivery to address the learning and behavioral needs of students who are most often identified for special education services. MTSS, such as Responsiveness to Intervention (RTI) and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), are comprised of universal assessment, progress monitoring, and databased decision-making as intervention is implemented with increasing intensity and individualization based on the needs of the learner.

The chapters in this volume cover a broad range of topics that address issues surrounding the identification of students who need the most intensive intervention, intensive intervention features and delivery considerations, behavioral interventions, academic interventions, and preservice teacher preparation. The authors of the chapters are recognized as international experts on these topics and provide specific recommendations that are based on research evidence as well as discuss considerations for future enhancement of multi-tiered systems of supports and intensive interventions. This is a contemporary resource for teachers, administrators, and teacher-educators who are charged with delivering special education and/or supporting those who do.