Page 9 - DEDU506_SPECIAL_EDUCATION_ENGLISH

Unit 1: Special Education: Concept and Nature

Instruction. For example: Notes
• reducing the difficulty of assignments
• reducing the reading level
• using a student/peer tutor
Student Response. For example:
• allowing answers to be given orally or dictated
• using a word processor for written work
• using sign language, a communication device, Braille, or native language if it is not English.

An accommodation is a change that helps a student overcome or work around the
disability.

1.3 Nature of Special Education

By the beginning of the twentieth century, public educational programs therefore began to offer two
primary choices: Students were taught in a lock-step graded class or in an ungraded special class.
Administrators of that era believed that special education classes were clearing houses for students
who would otherwise be going to institutions for physically, mentally, or morally "deviant" members
of society. Once assigned to special classes, students often remained in those classes for their entire
school careers. Moreover, students were often placed in special classes on the recommendation of
one teacher or on the basis of their performance on one test. This system produced special class
enrollments in which minority students were heavily overrepresented. In addition, there were
problems with the programs themselves. Some institutions and special schools were substituting
harsh discipline for the educational services exceptional students needed.
The basic either/or structure—either regular graded classes or separate, usually ungraded special
education—continued for over half a century. With very rare exceptions, today's adults with
disabilities who recall segregated facilities or separate classes cannot say enough about the
inadequacies of their academic training. When comparing their education with that of siblings or
neighbors who were not disabled, they speak only of the gaps. For example, they mention subjects,
such as science, that they never studied, maps they never saw, field trips they never took, books that
were never available, assignments that were often too easy, expectations of their capacity (by nearly
all teachers) that were too low.
By the 1960s parents and professionals had mounted strong challenges to the old system, and
special education began a period of rapid change that continues today. That system entitles exceptional
students to a free, appropriate public education. Federal laws now make it illegal to discriminate
against people because they are disabled. This means that people cannot be denied an education or
a job because of a disabling condition. It also means that records are kept of the types and number
of students receiving special education in this country. Federal law does not require states to provide
special education to gifted and talented students, so the numbers of those students receiving special
education services does not appear in annual reports to Congress. Severeal states, however, have
passed laws mandating special services for this group of exceptional students.

The current special education system in the United States has its roots in the methods
used to treat disabled people in Europe and Scandinavia more than one hundred
years ago.

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