Perhaps the most multifaceted and visible ongoing program to integrate handicapped pupils and remedial and compensatory education students in general eduation is the Adaptive Learning Environments Model (ALEM). Despite frequent expression of support for the effectiveness of the ALEM, none has been based on an independent, systematic, and comprehensive review of empirical evidence. The purpose of this article is to present such a critique. An evaluation of empirical evidence published in journal articles and a book chapter through 1986 indicated insufficient cause to view the ALEM as a successful, large-scale, full-time mainstreaming program. Implications of this finding are discussed in terms of the desirability of a proposed merger between special and general education.
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