The Education Reform Act 1988 Era And The Implications For Children With Special Educational Needs

In straightforward terms, the authors address the issues arising as a result of the legislation and the implications for the financing and management of schools through the local management of schools provision. They show that the National Curriculum poses problems concerning pupils with special needs.

They can make a start by recognising and accepting difference in their students and by providing curricula that are accessible to all. This volume portrays attempts to alleviate difficlties in learning across the curriculum, in history, mathematics, poetry and science, and explores ways of supporting children with disabilities. It examines how approaches to reducing difficulties have changed in the last decade, looking at the experience of children and young people under pressure: children who are bullied; young people affected by HIV and AIDS; youth `trainees' and children in `care'. There is a final section on basic methods of research into educational practice.

This book is about how special education policy and practice is being negotiated within the context of educational reform in two countries. The political climate of recent years in both Britain and the USA led to many changes along similar lines, with a move towards placing greater power and choice in the hands of those individuals with special educational needs. Each chapter provides an overview and comparative analysis of the origins and evolution of specific educational reforms in the USA and the UK. The themes explored include: *providing parents with greater choice *decentralising decision making *making the whole curriculum available to all *accountability *funding the necessary changes.

Originally published in 1991, this title was begun just before passage of the Education Reform Act of 1988 (ERA 88), which was implemented in the 1990s. This major act along with still-in-force provisions of the 1944 Education Act (with its 17 amendments) comprises the statutes governing education in England and Wales. The study reflects both the criticism and the praise showered on that important legislation, particularly in the Brief History and School Structure sections, and in Chapter 1 with its longer than usual annotations on ERA 88.

By introducing a human rights perspective to special education, this book detaches the concept of special needs from its origin in handicap and roots it instead in human rights. Also implied in this view is the notion of the teacher or policymaker as an advocate for children's rights.