| accelerated programs | The more rapid promotion of gifted students through school.
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| advanced placement | Courses and programs in which younger students can earn college credit.
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| affective domain | The area of learning that involves attitudes, values, and emotions.
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| appropriate education | A part of Public Law 94-142 that protects the right of students with disabilities to an education that reflects an accurate diagnosis.
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| assistive or adaptive technology | Devices that help the disabled to perform and learn more effectively, from voice-activated keyboards and mechanical wheelchairs to laptops for class note taking and personal scheduling.
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| cognitive domain | The area of learning that involves knowledge, information, and intellectual skills.
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| emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) | A new human dimension that measures personality characteristics, such as persistence. Some believe that EQ scores may be better predictors of future success than IQ scores.
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| exceptional learners | Students who require special education and related services to realize their full potential. Categories of exceptionality include retarded, gifted, learning disabled, emotionally disturbed, and physically disabled.
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| gifted learner | A term most frequently applied to those with exceptional intellectual ability. It may also refer to learners with outstanding ability in athletics, leadership, music, creativity, and so forth. There is great variance in definitions and categorizations of the "gifted."
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| inclusion | The practice of educating and integrating children with disabilities into regular classroom settings.
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| individualized education program (IEP) | The mechanism through which a disabled child's special needs are identified, objectives and services are described, and evaluation is designed.
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| Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) | Federal law passed in 1990 that extends full education services and provisions to people identified with disabilities.
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| learning disabilities | An educationally significant language and/or learning deficit.
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| learning styles | Students learn in different ways and have different preferences, ranging from preferred light and noise levels to independent or group learning formats.
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| least-restrictive environment | The program best suited to meeting a disabled student's special needs without segregating the student from the regular educational program.
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| locus of control | A concept wherein learners attribute success or failure to external or internal factors. "The teacher didn't review the material well" is an example of attribution to an external factor and represents an external locus of control. In this case, the learner avoids responsibility for behavior. When students have an internal locus of control, they believe that they control their fate and take responsibility for events.
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| mainstreaming (inclusion) | The inclusion of special education students in the regular education program. The nature and extent of this inclusion should be based on meeting the special needs of the child.
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| multiple intelligences | A theory developed by Howard Gardner to expand the concept of human intelligence to include such areas as logical-mathematical, linguistic, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist.
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| nondiscriminatory education | A principle, based on the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, that mandates that children with disabilities be fairly assessed so that they can be protected from inappropriate classification and tracking.
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| portfolio | Compilations of work (such as papers, projects, videotapes) assembled to demonstrate growth, creativity, and competence. Often advocated as a more comprehensive assessment than test scores.
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| procedural due process | The right of children with disabilities and their parents to be notified of school actions and decisions; to challenge those decisions before an impartial tribunal, using counsel and expert witnesses; to examine the school records on which a decision is based; and to appeal whatever decision is reached.
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| regular education initiative | The attempt to reduce the complications and expense of segregated special education efforts by teaching special needs students in the standard educational program through collaborative consultation, curricular modifications, and environment adaptations.
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| special education | Programs and instruction for children with physical, mental, emotional, or learning disabilities or gifted students who need special educational services to achieve at their ability level.
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| stereotypes | Absolute statements applied to all members of a group, suggesting that members of a group have a fixed, often inherited set of characteristics.
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| zero reject | The principle that no child with disabilities may be denied a free and appropriate public education.
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