What is Special Education Today?
SpecialEducationToday is a Web site and mailing list providing current content about special education. SET’s content includes news, articles, editorials, commentaries, and other posts about the concepts, policies, research, and practices undergirding special education. If you’re interested in learning about kids with reading problems, autisim, intellectual disabilities, visual impairments, behavior problems, and (especially) how to help them effectively, SET is for you. Oh, did I mention that we’ll spend a good bit of bytes on how to teach them?
I am pleased that the readership of SET includes people with diverse interests in special education. Special education should, in my view, be a collaboration among the various stakeholders. Discussions that are limited to only one interest group risk running away into echo chambers where the reverberations distort ideas and result in less beneficial services for individuals with disabilities. No one group—educators, parents, policy makers, etc.—nor those from any one political entity—US, EU, OZ, etc.—is any more responsible for perpetuating or preventing this problem than another. I think a beneficial way to address this problem is to promote open, honest, and considerate examination of ideas and especially evidence about those ideas. I hope SET provides a forum for that examination.
SET emphasizes content that has an emprical basis. We hope to avoid publishing misinformation, fads, and conspiracy theories. Goddesses know there are plenty of places to find variations on those! One of us calls them “bologna,” though some colleagues would prefer the term, “baloney.” “He say baloney, she says balogna.” We believe that readers of SET neither deserve nor want much of it, however, one spells or pronounces it. If you’re looking for the latest pop psych or fad-ed theories, just search the Intertubes! You’re more likely to find a criticism of them here than a post championing them.
Unlike some other sources about special education, we strive to write content for SET in ways that are readily accessible to lay readers. We all have at least some academic background, we believe one doesn’t need advanced degrees to understand important ideas. The topics are serious but the presentation doesn’t have to be stuffy.
Lots of parents, teachers, administrators, and others don’t have time to wade through the tricky currents of academia. It helps if the ideas are not presented in an academic way, larded with jargon, and inconsiderate of readers. So, we hope the posts for SET are clear and transparent. Request clarification in the comments or write to use directly if we miss this mark.
Our hope (“vision”) for SET is that it will serve as an international forum for discussions about what’s important to people concerned about special education and disabilities. Currently (June 2025), there are > 1000 subscribers and followers, and many of them from locations outside the US. Those who participate include teachers, parents and other family members, researchers, lay-people, policy makers, administrators, psychologists, and individuals with disabilities, themselves.
By “participate,” we especially mean “enter into discussions.” Please devote an extra minute or two to reading comments by other readers on posts. Just scroll past the post content to find comments. If you are a paying subscriber, we invite you to contribute your thoughts or $0.02.
Please let us know if SET seems helpful or not. We want to know both the positive and the negative—and we want to make changes based on readers’ feedback.
Why subsribe to SET?
All subscribers of SET receive the periodic (currently weekly) newsletter. Never miss an update. Paid subscribers get full access, not only to the public sections, but also to the full archives. In addition, they can comment on posts. They also get the satisfaction of promoting the evidence-based perspective that we hope will make special education more successful for students, teachers, and parents; and paying subscribers help support the wide distribution of the current content. Founding subscribers (thank you!) have full access and must be willing to advise us about what they think is going right with SET and how to improve it.
Join the crew
Be part of the special education community of people who share an interest in providing evidence-based and effective education for students with disabilities.
Who?
Who in this world are we? Here’s a little bit about each of the principle writers for SET. Please also consult the Substack profiles for each of us that follow the content of this page.
John Wills Lloyd is the founder and editor of SET. “I’m a retired professor of special education who has taught and conducted research about improving special education services since (depending on how one counts), the 1960s or 1970s. Over those years, I’ve had opportunities to collaborate with some of the strongest, most productive, and most caring individuals in special education. They have carried me along as a co-worker and co-author on their projects, allowing me to tarnish their reputations. Although I think I’ve made some helpful contributions, I know that there’s lots of space for improving my work
Mitchell Yell Fred and Francis Lester Palmetto Chair in Teacher Education and is a professor in special education at the University of South Carolina. Although he knows a lot about a lot, he has focused on understanding legal and policy aspects of special education.He has an extensive record of publishing in academic sources. He edits the academic journal, Journal of Disability Policy Studies, and also publishes legal news and observations at Sped Law Blog.
Mandy Rispoli, who is a professor at the University of Virginia, has worked extensively on effective teaching and targeted interventions. Many of her contributions are focused on young children and those who have autism and developmental disabilities. Not only has she published repeatedly about many topics, but she is also the co-editor for Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions.
Ana Paula Loco Martins is a professor at the University of Minho in Braga, Portugal. She has studied teacher education, measurement of academic performance, and many other topics in special education.
David Bateman is a retired professor who taught and conducted research at Shippensburg University. In addition to co-authoring multiple books about school administration (and, especially, special education), he has served as a hearing officer for disputes between local education agencies and children with disabilities and their families, consulted about programs to serve students with disabilities and their teachers, and written articles about legal matters. He co-edits Sped Law Blog.
The late James M. Kauffman, who was a professor emeritus at the University of Virginia, posted an article here on SET shortly before he passed away. Jim was a prominent special educator who advocated strongly for special education a robust and respected discipline and for individuals with disabilities as worthy individuals who deserved effective education.
Flash of the electrons to the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.
