by Joseph P. Shapiro, Penny Loeb, and David Bowermaster

About the authors: Joseph P. Shapiro is a senior editor, Penny Loeb is an associate editor, and David Bowermaster is a reporter/researcher for U.S. News & World Report.

Billy Hawkins speaks softly as he tells his students of the promise of special education. “Every child,” he says, “can learn.’’ Billy Hawkins should know. For the first 15 years of his life, he was labeled by his teachers as “educable mentally retarded.” That meant “special education”—and a stigma that too often in America was a passport to failure.

Things changed for Hawkins one crisp fall night in 1970. A backup quarterback, Hawkins came in off the bench and rallied his team from far behind. In the stands, the principal watched the...