Listening to the Experts

What’s the best way to find out what really works—and doesn’t work—in education for students with disabilities? Listen to the experts: the students themselves.
In this one-of-a kind book, teenagers with a wide range of disabilities give readers a rare inside look at their past and present school experiences, both in self-contained classrooms and in inclusive environments. With uncensored candor and insight, these young men and women talk about struggles and triumphs with schoolwork, friendships with peers, the meaning of inclusion, their complex feelings about special education, practices and policies that helped and hindered their progress, characteristics of good teachers and administrators, and ingredients of positive classroom environments.
Interspersed with the student essays are chapters by the other experts—parents, peers, and professionals.

A must-read for all educators of students with disabilities, this book gives readers the inspiration and information they need to support inclusion and shape effective teaching practices.