Educability: Public Policy and the Role of Research

Values rather than science are often unrecognized as an impetus for policy development; a reasonable role of science is to determine how the intent of policy can best be realized. In recent years, the policy of educating all handicapped students has been reevaluated primarily because of two factors: (a) costs associated with providing educational services and (b) disagreement among professionals concerning whether all handicapped students can benefit from an education. A review of the educability litigation reaffirms that equal educational opportunity is still valued, and education can be defined broadly. Rather than questioning the value of equal educational opportunity, we suggest that research and curriculum development should focus on three areas: First, apply the criteria of educational validity (Voeltz & Evans, 1983) to demonstrate that education is appropriate; second, investigate student variance in learning associated with specific student characteristics and interventions; and third, evaluate valid curricular approaches for efficiency and cost-effectiveness.