Making the Case: A Review of Special and Compensatory Programs: The Administrator's Role

Special programs are vitally important to serving the individual needs of all students. School administrators need to be aware of the programs, their requirements, and their impact, in order to administer them, as well as to be able to make the case for financial and other support of these programs. These are the central premises of Special and Compensatory Programs. Well organized for use as a reference, this book contains one chapter each about the various categorical programs prevalent in U.S. schools today. Each chapter contains sections on historical and legal background for the program area, how it is funded, descriptions or examples of how services are delivered, and discussion of the building administrator's role. The chapters are well-documented with footnotes and references. Each chapter also includes a set of activities that could be assigned if the book were to be used as a text in a graduate course. Chapter one, Special Education, contains a chronology of legislation and court decisions. There are definitions of major components of I.D.E.A.; for example, "free and appropriate public education." The authors describe each of the twelve disability classifications of I.D.E.A., and they discuss ADD/ADHD. The treatment of due process meetings and hearings is especially helpful. Chapter two, Gifted and Talented, sets out an extensive history going back to the ancient Greeks. The section on the school administrator's role provides us with some arguments for justifying the cost of gifted and talented programs. Chapter three, on Title I, outlines the provisions of the "Improving America's Schools Act of 1994, " and discusses the 1994 "Goals 2000" legislation's impact on Title I. It features the new emphasis on higher standards. Chapter four, Reading Programs, points out that the research on reading has produced no one model or approach that is best. The chapter presents a framework of three models and four approaches to reading, and describes six different preventive reading programs. In Chapter five, the authors clarify the differences between English as a Second Language and Bilingual Education. Parent involvement and parent rights are an important part of this chapter. The building administrator's role, as outlined in Chapter six on Vocational, Tech-Prep And Career Education, has four phases: performing needs assessment, seeking cooperation, implementing the programs, and creating feedback loops. Chapter seven, on Multicultural Education, stresses the changes in demographics in the U.S., and the demands by various groups for representation in the curriculum. The authors advocate attending to culturally-influenced learning styles, involving parents, and "an `equity pedagogy' in every classroom" (p. 249). The final chapter, on Student At-Risk Programs stresses characteristics of such students. The chapter concludes by suggesting that administrators could take three approaches to dealing with the problem of at-risk students: either intervention to help them succeed in the regular classroom; management by creating separate programs for them; or a prevention approach to keep their problems from affecting their success at school in the first place. I wish this book had been available when I taught a graduate course on administration of pupil personnel services to students preparing to be principals. It could also be valuable to practicing high school administrators, both as a reference and as a tool for staff in-service. The book provides a useful framework to follow in presenting this material to teachers, parents, or graduate students. One of the limitations of a traditional, published book is that it is impossible to keep pace with changes in this field. For example, although the publication date for this book is 1997, it of course does not contain information about the 1997 amendments to the I. …