Exceptional Learners: An Introduction to Special Education

Exceptional Learners is an outstanding introduction to the characteristics of exceptional learners and their education, emphasizing classroom practices as well as the psychological, sociological, and medical aspects of disabilities and giftedness. In keeping with this era of accountability, all discussions and examples of educational practices are grounded in a sound research base.

With over 600 new references added to the 11^th edition, the authors are committed to bringing the most current and credible perspectives to bear on the ever-increasing complexity of educating students with special needs in today’s schools. The authors believe firmly that responsible instruction can help all students to maximize their potential, and they offer practical suggestions for ways in which educators can meet the educational needs of students with special needs and diverse abilities in collaborative environments that include families, other professionals, and the community.

HIGHLIGHTS OF WHAT'S NEW IN THE ELEVENTH EDITION:

• Over 600 new references have been added, reflecting the authors’ commitment to present readers with the most current perspectives on the ever-increasingly complex issues involved in educating students with disabilities in today’s schools.

• NEW Assessment of Academic Progress sections in all categorical chapters provide readers with category-specific information about Progress Monitoring, Outcome Measures, Testing Accommodations and Alternative Assessment for students with special needs.

• Significantly reorganized Chapter 2, "Integration, Inclusion, and Support of Positive Outcomes" both provides new information on Universal Design, use of technologies, differentiated instruction, response to intervention (RTI), and assessment of academic progress and student outcomes, highlighting the current focus of federal mandates (e.g. NCLB, IDEA) on student outcomes, and makes it easier for students to absorb that information.

• Increased coverage of Response to Intervention (RTI) in accordance with changes to federal law, including major new sections in Chapter 2 and Chapter 6, emphasises the importance of multi-tiered assessment to readers.

• Marginal references throughout the text make it easy for readers to use the relevant multimedia assets on the MyEducationLab website created specifically to accompany Exceptional Learners, 11e, to improve their mastery of key concepts.

• New information on Identifying and Implementing Effective Reading Instruction (for English Language Learners).

• New information on Parent Training and Information Centers and Community Parent Resource Centers.

• New discussion of the change in terminology from mental retardation to intellectual and developmental disabilities.

• New information on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.

• The lastest research on gullibility as a characteristic of persons with mild intellectual disabilities.

• New research on neuroimaging and genetics findings relevant to the causes of Learning Disabilities and ADH.

• New Skills definition of blindness.

• The latest research on the role of visual-spatial abilities in autism.

Daniel P. Hallahan is the the Charles S. Robb Professor of Education and Director of Doctoral Studies for the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. He was the inaugural occupant of the Virgil S. Ward Professor of Education Endowed Chair from 1996 to 1998 and was appointed to the university’s Cavaliers’ Distinguished Teaching Professorship from 2002 to 2004. He received the University of Virginia Outstanding Teaching Award in 1998. In 2003, he was one of ten recipients of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia’s Outstanding Faculty Award.

He has served on numerous editorial boards and was the inaugural editor of Exceptionality. He is a past president of the Division for Learning Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), and in 2000 he received the CEC Career Research Award. He has contributed over 100 journal articles and co-authored or co-edited 17 books. In addition to Exceptional Learners, his most recent Allyn & Bacon books are Hallahan, Lloyd, Kauffman, Weiss, & Martinez (2005), Learning disabilities: Foundations, characteristics, and effective teaching (3^rd ed.) and Kauffman, J. M., & Hallahan, D. P. (2005). Special education: What it is and why we need it.

James M. Kauffman is Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of Virginia, where he held both the William Clay Parrish chair (1992-1994) and the Charles S. Robb chair (1999 until retirement in 2003) in education. In 2007, his former students edited a book in his honor, Crockette, J.B., Gerber, M.M., & Landrum, T.J. (Eds.), Achieving the Radical Reform of Special Education: Essays in Honor of James M.Kauffman. Among his other honors and awards are the 2006 Award for Effective Presentation of Behavior Analysis in the Mass Media from the Society for Applied Behavior Analysis, the 2002 Outstanding Leadership Award from the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders, the 1997 OUtstanding Faculty Award from the Curry School of Education Foundation, and the 1994 Research Award from the Countil for Exceptional Children. He is a past president of the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders (CCBD) and a former teacher in both general elementary and special education for students with emotional or behavioral disorders. He is author or co-author of more than 100 journal publications in special education and author or co-author of numerous books, including the following: Kauffman, J.M., & Landrum, T.J., Characteristics of Emotinal and Behavioral Disorders of Children and Youth (9th ed.); Kauffman, J.M., & Brigham, F.J., Working with Troubled Children; and Kauffman, J.M. The Tragicomedy of Public Education: Laughing and Crying, Thinking and Fixing.

Paige C. Pullen is an associate professor of special education at the University of Virginia. Dr. Pullen teaches courses in reading methods for students with reading disabilities and reading diagnosis and remediation. She has served as an investigator on several large-scale projects funded by the NICHD and OSEP. Her primary area of interest and research is early literacy development and the prevention of reading disabilities. Pullen has also worked extensively with schools and serves as a consultant for the Eastern Regional Reading First Technical Assistance Center (ERRFTAC). She is the co-author of Phonological Awareness Assessment and Instruction with Dr. Holly Lane, and Students with Learning Disabilities, with Dr. Cecil Mercer.