Guiding Change in Special Education

Create a new reality by guiding your team to successful changes in special education!

Meeting the challenge of teaching a child with a disability…optimizing the potential of a classroom of troubled students...seeing the look of understanding on a child′s face—these are the ideals of special education.

Making these ideals reality often requires change. As an educator, you realize this, and you would like to make a difference in your school. But how? Guiding Change in Special Education illustrates the seven stages of school change then, stage by stage, Havelock and Hamilton provide explanations and advice for incorporating each stage into your change process. At the core of the process are these change agents:

• Local educators trying to ensure that no child with a disability is left behind
• Parents advocating change because they care deeply about the cause
• Consultants available to help people act more effectively as a team
• Academics able to efficiently pinpoint needs within special education
• Experts with specialized knowledge to offer solutions to problems
• Informal marketing and sales people to help get the word out The "Linker"—an important player who connects people and resources, finds support, and helps organize the group

Making changes can turn ideals into reality—applying the right process and building a team of dedicated people will yield success.

Ronald G. Havelock is an internationally recognized authority on knowledge utilization. As professor and research scientist at the University of Michigan and later American University in Washington, D.C., he has directed studies of knowledge use, technology transfer, and the planning of change in many fields. His 1969 book, Planning for Innovation through the Dissemination and Utilization of Knowledge, is widely regarded as a landmark work on that subject. Subsequent books include A Guide to Innovation in Education (1970), Training for Change Agents with Mary C. Havelock (1973), The Change Agent’s Guide to Innovation (1973), 2nd Ed with S. Zlotolow (1995), Solving Educational Problems, The Theory and Reality of Innovation in Developing Countries, with A. Michael Huberman (1978). His broad range of work includes studies of research use in advanced technology, education, and medicine. During the 1990’s he served as an advisor to the American Association for the Advancement of Science on their long-term project to improve science education. For the last five years he has designed training materials and provided strategic advice to the American Institutes of Research, Washington, D.C. on programs to assist schools nationwide in the adoption of new programs in special education. He is currently preparing a book on the nature of human progress, summarizing what he has learned over a 40 year career studying how scientific knowledge has evolved and how it has impacted society. Dr. James Hamilton is currently a managing director at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). He is Principal Investigator of the ACCESS Center, which is providing technical assistance to states and school districts to help students with disabilities gain access to the general education curriculum. Previously, he was Project Director of the Elementary and Middle Schools Technical Assistance Center, which developed and evaluated a technical assistance model aimed at improving outcomes for students with disabilities in elementary and middle schools. Before joining AIR, Dr. Hamilton held various positions, over a 20-year period, at the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in the U.S. Department of Education. While at OSEP, he worked in the areas of research, leadership personnel training, early childhood, technical assistance and dissemination. He held several OSEP positions, including Director of the Division of Educational Services, Chief of the Early Childhood Branch, Chief of the Leadership Personnel Branch, and Chief of the Research Projects Branch. During his tenure in the Department of Education, Dr. Hamilton was a member (and chair for a year) of the Joint Dissemination Review Panel and the Program Effectiveness Panel. Prior to serving in the U.S. Department of Education, Dr. Hamilton was a classroom teacher, a senior research associate at the Research Institute for Educational Problems, and the Coordinator of two graduate programs at Lesley University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri in 1972. His primary interests include special education policy, early childhood, and identification and dissemination of effective practices.