Introduction The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 mandated that all students be served in the least restrictive environment. This began the controversial issue of how best to serve students with disabilities and what was meant by least restrictive environment (Bauer & Shea, 1999). The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1990, and specifically, the amendments to IDEA in 1997, stress the importance of serving students with disabilities in the general education setting whenever possible. This idea was based on the principle that students learn best and are best served in settings most like those of their nondisabled peers, which has become known as inclusion (Vaughn, Bos, & Schumm, 2000). Classes are considered inclusion when students are provided supports and services within the general education environment. Cooperative teaching was described by Bauwens, Hourcade, and Friend (1989) as a logical merger between general and special educators where all students would receive direct educational programming by having a special educator within a general education setting. Cook and Friend (1995) shortened the term cooperative teaching to …show more content…
Issues of academic achievement and adequate yearly progress in content area classes are being scrutinized and focused on more than in past, becoming the hallmark of education. Data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS, 2002) have suggested that students with disabilities continue to fall further behind as they progress through middle and high school as evidenced by lower standardized test scores and overall grades especially in