Special Education Executive Summary

Since prior to the 1980’s, the American education system has rapidly declined in all areas. The article, “A Nation at Risk,” written by President Ronald Reagan, depicts the many issues in the U.S. school systems regarding the content, standard and expectations, time, teaching, and leadership and fiscal support. This piece, apparently, has led the country into an extreme educational reform to improve all aspects of our school system. Based on my experiences in high school, student test scores, and current school conditions, I believe that while all issues raised by the commission in the report are not necessarily a problem anymore, issues with student growth.

Early national period, permits monitorial schools, religious organization, and free school societies to fill the space before state systems came about. Laws were given for a vast amount of sovereignty to be delegated to local school boards while financial support largely depended on local property tax (Pulliam & Van, 2013). With these conditions, it was normal for districts authorities to maintain power and more control by the state. Pulliam & Van (2013) stated back in the early national period, Henry Bernard and Horace Mann constructed their personal state school system without seizing the policy making power of boards of education. During the World War II, the customs of local autonomy have caused conflict with state legislatures. Currently, state governments and departments of education have a more vigorous role in teachers’ certification, creating lists of appropriate course materials and even directing the curriculum (Pulliam & Van, 2013). Multiple states

In order to improve student learning and education in literacy, President Clinton led the Goals 2000: Educate America Act. This act required any decisions concerning teaching literacy to be firmly grounded with research evidence. She pushed the development of a nations-wide

Back in 1983 “President Ronald Reagan's secretary of education entitled A Nation at Risk: The imperative for Educational Reform.” (1). Although A Nation at Risk was found to be very

In 1983, Ronald Reagan stood in front of the press and read from a report called A Nation at Risk: Imperative for Education Reform. The report had been written by the board of the National Commission on Excellence and Education and gave Americans reason to believe that our system was anything but acceptable. While the report did touch on some positives in American public schools, there were many instances that needed to be fixed. A Nation at Risk opened the eyes of many Americans and thus started a rolling stone for more “rigorous and measurable standards.” Although the notice has hung around school districts across the nation for over thirty

The National Association of Special Education Teachers (NASET) is an organization for special education teachers to provide an effective learning and safe environment for students with disabilities. NASET was developed to educate, inform, support, and train teachers and upcoming teachers of special education. To conclude, NASET is a national organization with professional association for members of special education across America.

The positive effects of A Nation at Risk are in much debate. Some, such as printed in the Peabody Journal of Education, believe the report to have been “wrong reasoning resulting in right results.” There is no doubt that there has been a propelling of serious movement towards the much needed restructuring of American education since the report. This has ensured that education begin to receive the much needed attention on reform in creating an education that is conducive in preparing present students for the future in regards to all aspects that have were addressed in the report such as personally as well as economically. Another important positive outcome that was a result of A Nation at Risk was the in depth data collection process that began in regards to student achievements and testing. Although, the process to which this data is obtained is still in much debate, it has been able to give further insight as well as comparative year-to-year results of information in regards to how

In the article Policy Points: A Nation at Risk, analyzes Terrell Bell’s report on the education system in April 1983. It made recommendations to help the nation be able to compete with other nations. The report focused on education reform and what should be the testing standards. The article raised the question whether or not the nation was at risk. “The report presented a doom-and-gloom picture of an America headed toward second-rate status based on the failure of its schools to produce students able to compete in the global economy”(pg.1). With the argument in hand the author then presented the facts of education actually developing for the better, such as, workforce increasing by 125 percent and the United States being the

Each president since Johnson, aside from President Nixon, left his mark on this landmark legislation. As a result, since 1965 “the federal role in education policy has grown tremendously.” In 1979, President Carter created the Department of Education in part to help administer this law more effectively; the creation of this department significant broadened federal involvement in education. Furthermore, in 1994, President Clinton reauthorized ESEA under the name of the Improving America’s Schools Act as part of his broader Goals 2000 initiative. This act allocated more funding to districts with higher concentrations of low income students, with the same central goal as the original ESEA: to improve the educational attainment of students in low-performing school districts.

The publication in 1983 of A Nation at Risk Report, flung education into the political ring as the Reagan Administration reasoned the state of education to be a national security risk (Reutzel, 2009). This report caused the public and politicians to start to examine education and the state of reading readiness of the kids of the United States (Reutzel, 2009).

Poorly performing schools have been a big issue in America. The need to improve nation’s public schools has been a great concern for the public. Public attention escalated in 1983 when the National Commission on Excellence in Education announced “a crisis in confidence,” and nearly two decades later education issues continued to be a prominent factor in the presidential platforms of both Albert Gore and George W. Bush. In a 2000 Gallup poll, only 36% of American said they were satisfied with the quality of K-12 education in the nation. Such sustained agenda status is unusual in a country where a fickle media and citizens with a limited span of attention have been known to shuttle issues in and out of the limelight with surprising rapidity (Reforming

Acknowledging that the White House tact sheet had accompanying the act the transformation of American education was considered for a number of reasons. The main reason was that 8 years following the publication of A Nation at Risk (1983), educational results had not significantly improved. Second, our global participants and trading partners were taking education seriously while American students were near the "backbone of the pack" in international comparisons. Understandably, a principal function of the legislative initiatives was to achieve competitive academic excellence, which would contribute to improved international economic competitiveness.

Our instruction framework. The discoveries of this commission were that, contrasted and other industrialized countries, our education structure is terribly insufficient in Meeting the principles of training that numerous different nations have created. At One time, America was the world pioneer in innovation, administration, and industry, yet Pomposity gave a verifiable faith in our predominance has brought our Country to fall behind the quickly developing focused market on the planet on instruction. An unjustifiable examination of our Teaching framework, with the programs with help the future of educational programs, Then again controls, with different nations that do, yet the discoveries in any case Mirror the requirement for a change.

According to the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities, 89% of children with moderate learning difficulties, 24% of children with severe learning difficulties and 18% of children with profound multiple learning difficulties are educated in mainstream schools. Something so prevalent must surely be effective. However, that is not always the case. It’s disheartening watching these mainstreamed students struggle socially and academically. Either looked over or coddled by general education teachers; teachers without the proper training, no less, expected to properly instruct these students with intellectual disabilities. Kids that are always expected too much of or doubted indefinitely. These are the children that don’t belong in a general education classroom. While mainstreaming, the act of blending general education and special education classes, can possess benefits for both general education and special education pupils, it should not be implemented in school systems as it creates a more disruptive environment that campaigns for inhibited learning. But that’s only the inauguration of the series of issues present here.

In addition, if we look at education policy timeline in the United State, we will find some development projects. However, some of these succeed while others failed in achieving their goals. “The federal government instituted a number of other reforms, including a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), to little or no avail” (Ginsburg & Jill, 2013). Furthermore, policymakers do not take a rest from struggles to develop the education system. They continue to argument and make main education reforms such as new academic standards, new valuations established on those standards, and new teacher assessment programs (Posey, 2014). Thus, we can say that the educational