Commentary

The stated mission of the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders (CCBD) includes ''supporting the professional development and enhancing the expertise of those who work on behalf of children with challenging behavior and their families'' (http:// www.ccbd.net/About/OurMission). The stated goal of CCBD's journal "Behavioral Disorders" ("BD") is the publication of research relating to the education of students with emotional and behavioral disorders. It is with these emphases in mind that the authors provide commentary on the series of four articles included in this editor-solicited special edition. Their analysis is offered through the lens of three professionals whose job-related responsibilities include research and the preparation of present and future teachers of students with learning and behavioral disorders for careers that most often begin in traditional public school classrooms. Their message, placing the special edition articles in the larger context of current and future research and practices that develop knowledge and enhance expertise for CCBD members and "BD" readers, is threefold and suggests that the field continue efforts to: (1) Describe the population of students that we work with in the contexts in which they learn; (2) Emphasize the duality of academic and social-emotional-behavioral development for these students; and (3) Search for and evaluate alterable variables (Bloom, 1980) that positively affect the performance of students with behavioral disorders, their families, and the professionals who teach, engage, and mentor them.