Unifying Educational Systems 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. 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, chapters in this volume provide a discussion of the purpose, principles, and paradoxes extant in the implementation of current special education policy. Chapter authors discuss how students are currently served, the feasibility of re-conceptualizing special education leadership in the current policy context, and the challenges for the future. Ultimately, Unifying Educational Systems calls for a new policy framework to integrate special education within the larger instructional support system in schools, in order to support a social justice and inclusive practices agenda.

Contents

Part One – Introduction and the Proposal for Unifying Systems

Chapter One – Special Education: A Critical Perspective on Re-framing Public Policy for Students with Disabilities, Jeannie Kleinhammer-Tramill, Leonard C. Burrello, and Wayne Sailor

Chapter Two – Shifting Perspective to Frame Disability Policy, Wayne Sailor and Leonard C. Burrello

Part Two – Legal and Financial Basis of Services for a Unified System

Chapter Three – Toward a Human Capabilities Education Policy, Carl L. Lashley

Chapter Four - Busting Barriers to Fully Integrating Systems of Education: Analyzing IDEA and Applying Models of Disability, Shana J. Haines and Rud Turnbull

Chapter Five - In Support of a Seemless Special Needs Students Services System:A Heuristic Examination of Education Finance Policy, Special Needs Revenue Components, and Flexibile Expenditure Possibilities, Anthony Rolle, Pakethia Harris, and Leonard C. Burrello

Part Three – New Conceptions of Practice
ter Six - Aligned Service Delivery: Ending the Era of Triage Education, Todd A. Gravois

Chapter Seven – Serving Students with Extensive Support Needs in General Education Contexts in a Re-conceptualized System of Education, Diane Lea Ryndak, Ann-Marie Orlando, and Debra Duran

Chapter Eight –Accountability for What Matters: Using Post-School Outcomes to Build School and Community Renewal, Mary E. Morningstar, Gregory Knollman, Sarah Semon, and Jeannie Kleinhammer-Tramill

Part Four – Leading Diversity in a Unified System

Chapter Nine - Worth, Burden, and Control: The Rejection of Personhood and the Most Dangerous Assumption, Julia M. White

Chapter Ten - Educational Leaders and the Capabilities Approach, Amy L-M Toson and Elise Frattura

Chapter Eleven – The Dangerous Politics of Difference: How Systems Produce Marginalization, Elizabeth Kozleski, Alfredo Artiles, and Lisa Lacy

Part Five – Summary and Closing

Chapter Twe...