The purpose of the current study was to examine beginning special educators' experiences in their attempts to implement two key requirements associated with reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1997: access to the general education curriculum and participation in general education programs. We conducted in-depth interviews with 36 beginning special educators. Eighty-one percent of the teachers reported facing significant barriers in implementing the two IDEA 1997 requirements. Specific barriers are reported with implications for changes in teacher preparation and organizational structures in schools to support teachers in meeting the requirements of federal legislation supporting individual with disabilities.

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Despite a history of research in general education on novice teachers, researchers have only recently begun to investigate the experiences of beginning special educators. Many of these studies describe problems encountered, noting the high attrition rate among beginning special education teachers and emphasizing the importance of keeping qualified special educators in the field. The findings of this survey of first-year special education teachers (N = 596) extend the literature by revealing the influence of classroom and school context factors on new teachers' accomplishments and problems.

The Task Force on Public Policy was created to examine ways for behavior analysts to be more functional citizen scientists in the policymaking arena. This report informs readers about the contexts and processes of policymaking; and it outlines issues regarding the roles of behavior analysts in crating policy-relevant conceptual analyses, generating research data, and communicating policy-relevant information. We also discuss a possible role for the professional association in enhancing analysis, research, and advocacy on policies relevant to the public interest.

The restructured teacher education program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is described specifically with regard to its commitment to prepare general educators to work effectively and responsibly with students with disabilities. Background information is provided about the program, including the features that support a strong relationship between special and general educators. The authors discuss reasonable outcomes for initial teachers in general education and highlight some of the challenges in program implementation. ALISON FORD, Ph.D., is associate professor of special education, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. MARLEEN C. PUGACH, Ph.D., is professor of teacher education, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. AMY OTIS-WILBORN, Ph.D., is associate professor of special education, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. As the result of a grass-roots teacher education reform effort, preservice teacher preparation for the primary/middle grades at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has been restructured as a collaborative partnership between special and regular education faculty. The genesis of this work has been documented in detail elsewhere (Hains et al., 1997; Otis-Wilborn & Pugach, in press; Pugach, Winn, Ford, & Jett-Simpson, 1997). In short, we scrapped the longstanding traditional structure of our programs, created a set of shared core values and design principles focused on preparing teachers for urban schools, and now have five years' experience implementing a restructured preservice program predicated on these core commitments. Chief among them is that our graduates in the primary/ middle level program in general education will embrace their responsibilities to work with students with disabilities in urban schools and be well prepared to do so by the time they complete their preservice experience.The purpose of this article is to describe our program redesign efforts specifically with regard to our commitment to prepare general educators to work effectively and responsibly with students with disabilities. We begin by providing some background information about our restructured teacher education program, including a brief discussion of features that support a strong relationship between special and general educators. We follow this with what we propose as reasonable outcomes for our general education graduates. We conclude with a discussion of the challenges we face in implementation and the impact we expect this program will have on the preparation of special educators. BackgroundThrough a process of extensive recursive dialogue among faculty and community members, we began the restructuring process with consensus on seven core values. These shared core values became the anchor for our ongoing decision making and resultant program called Volume 24, Fall 2001 275 Sage Publications, Inc.