What's New

Education Rights of Children with Disabilities: A Revised and Updated Primer for Advocates

Eileen Ordover, CLE, 216 pp. In English, softcover (2001). $25 per single copy. Education Rights of Children with Disabilities: A Revised and Updated Primer for Advocates is a basic legal reference designed to assist parents, students, and their advocates in securing rights to quality preschool, elementary, and secondary education guaranteed by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Discusses rights under the statutes and their regulations, along with remedies for their violation. Includes extensive citations to judicial decisions and U.S. Department of Education interpretations of IDEA and Section 504 requirements. Covers emerging legal issues such as: – the right to learn in the general curriculum – fair participation in state- and district-wide assessments – rights of children with behavior that challenges schools – transition from early intervention to preschool services This comprehensive guide to the legal issues confronting students who are receiving or should be receiving special education services is a must for any advocate, attorney or parent working on behalf of one or many students.

Urgent Message for Parents

Anne Henderson, Anne Lewis, Kathy Boundy, Paul Weckstein, Larry Searcy CLE, 16 pp. In English, softcover (2000). $3 single copy. See order form for discounts on multiple copies. This low-cost guide answers parents' questions about standards -- what do they mean for my child, what if my child didn't pass the test, how can I help my children learn what they need to know? It gives examples of high and low level student work, explains the difference between the new and the old tests, and tells how families can improve student achievement. This is an excellent resources for staff development, parent training and conferences. Use Urgent Message to: help parents to look more critically at student work; explain your school's test data and thier childern's test scores; help parents understand how a standards-based system works; and, to engage parents and families in improving student achievement Written at a fifth grade reading level, this book can reach people of all backgrounds.

Also available in Spanish

Linking Outside the Box: Federal Resources for High School Reform

      CLE, 47 pps.,2001.  $15 per single copy

      This manual is designed to help those wanting to reform  high schools draw upon and integrate federal Title I resources and requirements into high-poverty high schools.  It covers standards-based reforms and Title I and links the principles used by the New American High Schools program of reform to those found in schools properly implementing Title I programs. 

Parent Guide to High School Career Academies

     CLE, 20 pp., 2001.  $2.50 per single copy

      There are over a thousand high school career academies across the country.  New ones are being created every year.  We strongly believe that career academies, when done properly, improve educational opportunities for more students.  At the same time, a career academy  alone is no guarantee of that.  For academies to work well, parents, students, advocates, and educators must understand how they work.  In fact, they should play an active and informed role in making sure they do work. This brief, easy-to-read guide gives parents the tools understand how well their child’s career academy is working.

Problems in Scheduling High School Career Academies and Small Learning Communities: Making Equity and Quality Tangible

     CLE, 56 pps., 2001.  $15 per single copy

Our direct experience with high school career academies and small learning communities across the country taught us that one of the first obstacles to making these new and better high school forms work was the schedule.  In many schools, initial difficulties with the schedule had actually kept schools from delivering real academies. This multi-step guide was designed to help schools and those interested in supporting small learning communities and making sure they work the way they were intended to work.

It does not offer easy solutions, in fact it strongly suggests that schools have the courage to avoid  make it work  approaches. Instead, it helps readers understand that academy scheduling is both a logistical and a deeply social and political task at the same time. This scheduling guide is designed especially for those who don't just want academies to seem to work, but who want them to work well for the full range of students.