Struggle For Education

Millions of American school children struggle with serious learning problems. Each day they face tasks that, for reasons unknown to them, never become automatic and always seem to stand in the way of their progress as students. For parents and teachers of a struggling child, the picture is not much clearer or any less frustrating. Specific learning problems are difficult to identify; their causes are generally unknown; and the long-term effects are hard to predict.



The tension between the stubborn reality of learning problems and the demand for academic success in an increasingly competitive society has created one of the most contentious issues in education today. Decades of research have shed light on the causes and effects of learning disabilities and yielded effective strategies for dealing with them. Yet, at the same time, increasing numbers of school districts have embraced standardized, high-stakes testing as a means of evaluating students.

It comes as no surprise, then, that when a child can't read, write, do math, or pay attention —and when the problem doesn't go away— parents, educators, experts, and policymakers often collide in an earnest struggle to find answers. The result is a landscape filled with a range of expert opinions and approaches to treatment.



In the middle of this landscape there is common ground. Nearly everyone agrees that no single teaching method is appropriate for all students. More pragmatically, experts also acknowledge that the term "disability" has important legal ramifications, because all of the funding to support children with learning problems is tied to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. And while learning disabilities don't go away, the work of learning experts continues to translate into more and more effective strategies that help children succeed.