Every Child Deserves a Special Education - Five Mindframes That Ensure All Students Learn

Lay the foundation for inclusive, impactful classrooms where every student thrives

Every student deserves an education that is meaningful, memorable, and built for them. When we design learning with intentional, universal support, the impact extends beyond individual students-it transforms entire classrooms.

In Every Child Deserves a Special Education, the authors introduce five powerful mindframes that reshape the way we think about teaching, learning, and inclusion. These mindframes spark a cycle of reflection and growth, shifting not just what we do, but how we see our students, our classrooms, and our role as educators. Inside, you'll find:

• Five essential educator mindframes-helping you plan for both diverse learners and the diversity within each learner


• Stories and examples that bring these mindframes to life through real classroom experiences


• Reflection tools to help you examine and refine your own beliefs and practices

True inclusion starts with how we think, not just what we do. Every Child Deserves a Special Education will help you build the mindset every classroom needs for all students to thrive.

List of contents

Introduction
Mindframe One: Every Child Is Special
Necessary for Some, Good for ALL
Thinking Strategically
Mindframe Two: All Students Can Achieve at High Levels
Labels as Opportunity Thieves
Expecting Successful Inclusion
An Infused Skills Grid
Mindframe Three: Differentiation Provides Multiple Pathways to Succeed
What is differentiation?
Differentiation is NOT a Set of Activities
Differentiation Focuses on Time and Pathways
Differentiation is NOT Tracking
Personalization and Individualization are Not the Essence of Differentiation
Mindframe Four: Instruction Can Prevent Gaps and Intervention Can Close Them
A Decision-Making Model
Data Meetings
Mindframe Five: Assessment Has the Power to Promote Growth
Misunderstandings of Formative and Summative
Multiple Means of Representation
Mastery Rubrics
Assess WITH Students
Feedback
Self Assessment
Connecting Self-Assessment and Feedback
Conclusion

About the author

Lee Ann Jung,PhD, is founder of Lead Inclusion, Clinical Professor at San Diego State University, and a consultant to schools worldwide. A former special education teacher and administrator, Lee Ann now spends her time in schools, working shoulder-to-shoulder with teams in their efforts to improve systems and practice. She has consulted with schools in more than 30 countries and throughout the United States in the areas of universal design for learning, inclusion, intervention, and mastery assessment and grading. Lee Ann is the author of 7 books, numerous journal articles and book chapters on inclusion, universal design, and assessment. She serves on the advisory board for Mastery Transcript Consortium, as section editor of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Education, and on the editorial board member for several professional journals. In her community, Lee Ann is a board member for Life Adventure Center, a local nonprofit with a mission of healing for those who have experienced trauma.

Bring Lee Ann Jung to your school or district! Learn more at LeadInclusion.org
Lorraine Graham, PhD, is foundation professor of Learning Intervention at The University of Melbourne. Lorraine began her career as a primary (elementary) teacher. She has written eight books and has a track record of scholarship in the areas of inclusive education and intervention research. Over the last 30 years Lorraine has worked nationally and internationally with schools and school systems to support students with learning difficulties and deliver professional learning to teachers. In 2023, Lorraine was honoured for significant service to education, particularly in the field of inclusive learning.

Nancy Frey is a Professor in Educational Leadership at San Diego State and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College.  She is a credentialed special educator, reading specialist, and administrator in California.  She is a member of the International Literacy Association’s Literacy Research Panel. Her published titles include The Illustrated Guide to Visible Learning, Welcome to Teaching Multilingual Learners, Teaching Foundational Skills to Adolescent Readers, and RIGOR Unveiled: A Video-Enhanced Flipbook to Promote Teacher Expertise in Relationship Building, Instruction, Goals, Organization, and Relevance.

Douglas Fisher is professor and chair of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. Previously, Doug was an early intervention teacher and elementary school educator. He is a credentialed English teacher and administrator in California.  In 2022, he was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame by the Literacy Research Association. He has published numerous articles on reading and literacy, differentiated instruction, and curriculum design, as well as books such as The Teacher Clarity Playbook 2/e, Your Introduction to PLC+, The Illustrated Guide to Teacher Credibility, The Teaching Reading Playbook, and Welcome to Teaching!.


John Hattie, PhD, is an award-winning education researcher and best-selling author with nearly thirty years of experience examining what works best in student learning and achievement. His research, better known as Visible Learning, is a culmination of nearly thirty years synthesizing more than 2,100 meta-analyses comprising more than one hundred thousand studies involving over 300 million students around the world. He has presented and keynoted in over three hundred international conferences and has received numerous recognitions for his contributions to education. His notable publications include Visible Learning, Visible Learning for Teachers, Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn; Visible Learning for Mathematics, Grades K-12; and 10 Mindframes for Visible Learning.

Product details

• Authors: Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, Graham Lorraine, Hattie John, Jung Lee Ann
• Publisher: Sage Publications
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 14.09.2025
• EAN: 9781071955260
• ISBN: 978-1-0719-5526-0
• No. of pages: 128
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Education > School education, didactics, methodology; EDUCATION / Inclusive Education, EDUCATION / Multicultural Education, Teaching of students with different educational needs, Adult education, continuous learning, Educational strategies and policy: inclusion, For vocational / professional education / training