The most important distinction between correctional and other types of education is the unique characteristics of the students. Most offender-students are school dropouts and are repelled by the traditional classroom. According to Piaget, a person is an active knower who actively selects and interprets environmental information rather than registering it passively. This means that an effective student must manifest behaviors that facilitate learning. Inmates must learn to make appropriate decisions about their behavior and to make these decisions in appropriate social and ethical contexts. The relationship between drug abuse and learning disabilities suggests that correctional educators consider the effects of drug use when planning curricula. Offenders tend to be action-oriented, nonreflective, and impulsive. There is no rapid process for correcting cognitive errors; the focus must be on problem-solving as a skill rather than handling each incident as it comes along. Given the distinctive inmate-student characteristics, correctional education program content must focus on social and ethical decisionmaking, such that students adopt appropriate socially oriented thinking patterns, develop collaborative work habits, and find a positive self-concept. Each student's developmental level must be considered before reasonable learning goals can be set. 7 tables and 32 references