The National Education Reports and Special Education: Implications for Teacher Preparation

The preparation of the nation's teachers has undoubtedly received the greatest attention in this era of educational reform. The multiplicity of plans for its reform and their attendant solutions will no doubt affect the way special education teachers are prepared as well. This article examines the content and structure of teacher education as it relates to proposed reforms and considers the impact of those reforms on the existing structure of teacher preparation in special education. Its primary argument focuses on the need to reconceptualize the preparation of teachers of the mildly handicapped as a response to current efforts to improve the preparation of general classroom teachers.