Full Inclusion of Students with Learning Disabilities and its Implications for Teacher Education

In this paper, I describe my reactions to the case studies Zigmond and Baker report in this issue. I admire the vision and energy of these pioneering efforts and find much commendable about both the work and the research. To my eye, the case studies illustrate wonderfully some of the problems inherent in inclusive education (e.g., coteaching, logistics) as well as some of the challenges it presents to teacher educators (e.g., preparing teachers to work collaboratively). I suggest that fundamental school reform offers an alternative to the model of implementation we see in these five schools and that instructional practice in these 10 classrooms may have fallen short of what general educators now recognize as best practice. I also take issue with Zigmond and Baker's concerns about the potential loss of identity for learning disability specialists and argue instead that their skills are needed now more than ever.