James Kauffman
James M. Kauffman (born December 7, 1940 in Hannibal, MO) is an American who has made significant contributions to the field of education, specifically special education. He has authored or co-authored several books and many journal articles in the fields of special education, education reform, child psychology, and child development and has served in various editorial capacities. The topics he has written about include behavioral disorders, learning disabilities, mental retardation, instructional and behavior management techniques in the classroom, education reform, and ethical and policy issues. He has also made presentations in multiple countries. He currently is Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where he became a faculty member in 1970. He has had an active career in education since the 1960s. His web site, provides further information.
Early professional life
James M. Kauffman received a BS in Elementary Education from Goshen College (Goshen, Indiana) in 1962. He later received a Masters in Education in elementary teaching from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas and his Ed.D. in special education from the University of Kansas in 1969. Dr. Kauffman became interested in working in the field of special education after his experience teaching youngsters with emotional disturbance at the Menninger Clinic’s Southard School in the early 1960s.
Professional positions
Kauffman has taught a variety of elementary and middle school students, including general education elementary/middle school students in Indiana and Kansas and emotionally disturbed elementary/middle school students in Kansas. He has been a member of the University of Virginia faculty since 1970. Before becoming Professor Emeritus of education at the University of Virginia, he held the Charles S. Robb Chair from 1999-2003. He previously held positions as the William Clay Parrish, Jr. Professor, Associate Dean for Research, and Chair of the Dept. of Special Education in the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia.
Career in education
Kauffman’s career in education has spanned five decades and has included many publications and presentations. His career has focused primarily on special education but includes general education as well. His books about more general topics in education include The Tragicomedy of Public Education: Laughing and Crying, Thinking and Fixing, Toward a Science of Education: The Battle Between Rogue and Real Science, and Managing Classroom Behavior: A Reflective Case-Based Approach (coauthored with Patty Pullen, Mark Mostert, and Stan Trent). In special education, his books include the Handbook of Special Education (co-edited with Dan Hallahan), Exceptional Learners: An Introduction to Special Education (coauthored with Dan Hallahan and Paige Pullen), and Characteristics of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders of Children and Youth (coauthored with Tim Landrum).
Work in special and general education
Kauffman has high interest in how public policy affects special education and other educational issues. Along with colleagues, he has received several grants from the U.S. Department of Education to investigate various areas of special education, including school-based interventions, how to educate children with disabilities, especially those with emotional disturbance, and how to manage disturbed or retarded children. He has been a critic of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), signed by President George W. Bush in 2002, and many other reform efforts. His contention is that reform of either special or general education must be concerned primarily with instruction (teaching—precisely what teachers do that helps students learn) rather than structure (administrative control, configuration, organization, funding, and the like). His argument is that school structure is important in reforming education only to the extent that it affects instruction; focusing on structure is an exercise in the politics of education that does not necessarily affect students' learning. He argues that the success of special education should be judged by whether students do better with it than without it, not the extent to which students with disabilities achieve at the same level as those without disabilities.
Personal life
James is the son of Nelson E. Kauffman and Christmas Carol Kauffman. Kauffman was married to Myrna Kauffman (maiden name Miller) but later divorced. He was then married to Patricia Pullen, who co-wrote Managing Classroom Behavior: A Reflective Case-Based Approach with James, until her death of ALS in 2012. He has two children and three grandchildren. He also has two step-children and one step-grandchild.