edited by MaryAnn Byrnes
2002
This compilation volume boasting 18 "debates" on special education issues is worth knowing about for those who find it easiest to get their minds around complex topics by reading opposing views on those topics. Editor MaryAnn Byrnes of UMass/Boston did a nice job of selecting issues (under three broad headings: "special education and society," "inclusion" and "issues about disabilities") and for the most part she did well at picking cogent expositors of rival views on those issues. Also worthwhile is her ten-page introduction sketching how U.S. special-ed policy came to be the way it is. But you'll find no general conclusions or recommendations. This is a pro-con "issues" reader, most likely meant to be assigned in classes preparing future special educators. Almost 400 pages long, it's published by McGraw-Hill/Dushkin. The ISBN is 0072480564. You can also find it on the web at http://www.dushkin.com/text-data/catalog/0072480564.mhtml.
