ten been superficial consisting of such responses as location or administrative structure changes rather than changes in learner-teacher interactions (Kauffman, 1993).
Gartner and Kerzner-Lipsky (1992) cite several other problems which are: (1) poor interaction between regular and special education teachers; (2) a separation of special education and regular education services resulting in a failure to live up to the spirit of mainstreaming; (3) reduced support for remedial education; (4) difficulties in assessment of learning disabled students; and (5) the quality of education is seldom addressed in monitoring standards which look for compliance with the law.
It needs to be noted here that many of the cited problems affect not only learning disabled students, but also students who, although not disabled, are at-risk for educational failure because of their disadvantaged backgrounds. For example, many disadvantaged students also need remedial education services and the reduction in the support of these services affects them as well as disabled youth.
One answer to many of the problems obstructing the full implementation of P.L. 94-142 has been the school-based learning center. The purpose of the review of the literature presented here is to examine the research on the efficacy of the school-based learning center as a means of redressing the problems experienced by both learning disabled and at-risk students.
The review particularly emphasizes learning centers developed and used for middle school students with mild to moderate learning disabilities and/or middle school students at-risk for academic failure. Research covered in the review includes studies of the effectiveness of learning centers for both student groups, the characteristics common to effective learning centers, and strategies for making the transition from the self-contained educational classroom to the least restrictive environment and to the learning ...