Special education: what it is and why we need it / James M.Kauffman, Daniel P. Hallahan, Paige C. Pullen and Jeanmarie Badar

1 How and Why Special Education Is Often Misunderstood; Common Misconceptions and More Accurate Concepts; A Brief History of Special Education in the United States; Contemporary and Perpetual Issues; Dilemmas of Special Education; Summary; 2 Measurement of Educational Performance; The Problem of Measurement in Education; What Is to Be Measured?; What Tool(s) Will Be Used for Measuring?; How Accurate Is the Measurement?; The Importance of Statistical Distributions; What is the Meaning of an Obtained Measurement? How Can and Should Special Education Change Performance?Summary; 3 The Nature of Educational Disabilities; Three Important Points about Exceptionality; Distinction between Disability and Inability; All Exceptionalities Are Defined by Continuous Distributions; Most Exceptionalities Are Relatively Mild; Types of Exceptionality; Intellectual Disability; Learning Disability; Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder; Emotional and Behavioral Disorders; Communication Disorders; Deafness and Impaired Hearing; Blindness and Impaired Vision; Physical Disabilities and Impaired Health Autism Spectrum DisordersTraumatic Brain Injury; Deaf-Blindness and Other Severe and Multiple Disabilities; Giftedness and Special Talents; Twice Exceptional Individuals; Why Some Exceptional Students Do Not Need Special Education; Why Prevention of Disabilities Is Often Not Practiced; Summary; 4 The Nature of Special Education; Special Education: What Is It, Anyway?; Dimensions of Special Education; Explicitness of Instruction and the Extent to Which It Is Systematic; Intensiveness and Relentlessness of Instruction; Pace of Instruction; Group Size; Curriculum; Giving Corrective Feedback Duration and Frequency of InstructionStructure; Positive Reinforcement; Monitoring and Assessment; Special Education on a Continuum; Special Education's Bottom Line; Summary; 5 Tiers of Education: RTI, MTSS, PBIS . . .; The Idea of Tiers; Tiers and Full Inclusion; A Perspective on Tiered Education; Advantages of Tiered Education; Disadvantages and Possible Problems with Tiers; Problems Tiers Do Not Solve; Other Problems to Consider; Summary; 6 Frequent Criticisms and Responses to Them; Responses to Criticisms; Outcomes Not Good; Costs Too Much; Serves Too Many Students Unreliable IdentificationStigmatizes Students and Ruins Identity; Serves Students Too Long; Should Be Re-conceptualized as a Service, Not a Place; Other Questions about Special Education; Who Needs Special Education?; Who Should Decide Whether a Student Needs Special Education?; Why Do Some Exceptional Students Not Need Special Education?; Why Can't We Know Exactly Who Does and Doesn't Need Special Education?; What Kinds of Exceptionalities Require Special Education?; Why Shouldn't All Students Have Special Education?; Why Do We Need Categories and Labels?