Spirituality and 21st Century School Leadership

Abstract

The current status of educational reform issues related to general education and special educationprovides the opportunity for the creation of a system that encompasses the goals of both groups in acohesive manner. Previously, these issues have been addressed separately; however, recent researchidentifies a progression of change in the focus of ideas in both general education and specialeducation. The first two phases of school reform focused initially on raising standards and then onteacher empowerment and site-based management. The current phase of school reform focuses onthe instructional needs of the individual student and rejects the premise that instructional needs warranta dual system of education. Rather, current efforts are characterized by general education and specialeducation sharing responsibility for the learning of all students as evidenced by the Response toIntervention initiative (Allington, 2009). These emerging insights pave the way for collaborative effortswhen addressing the learning needs of increasingly diverse students.