Inclusion....Good for all students or none???????????

This text offers a basic historical background on inclusion, it gives the legislation that backs why inclusion mandated by IDEA in 1990. Special Education, as we know it today, began in during the implementation of the law in 1975 (previously known as Education for all Handicapped Children Act) when “children with defined handicaps have the right to free public education (Noll, 231).” In the 1990 version of the law, IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), has spawned an “ “inclusive schools movement, and supports recommend no students be assigned to special classrooms or segregated wings of public schools. (Noll, 232)” The two authors with arguments stated in the text: For inclusion Richard A. Villa and Jacqueline S. Thousand Making Inclusive Education Work and Against inclusive settings, Karen Agne, The dismantling of the Great American Public School.

Villa and Thousand begin their article by given a brief synopsis of the federal legislation that brought about these “inclusive settings” At the bottom of the first page he gives a brief fact “By 1999, 47.4% of students with disabilities spent 80% or more of their day in general education classrooms, compared with 25% of students with disabilities in 1985 (US department of Education, Villa and Thousand, 233). Later in the article, the authors state that “despite the movement toward inclusive education, tremendous disparities still exist…the US Department of Education found that the percentage of students with disabilities ages 6-21 who were taught for 80% or more of the school day in general education ranged from a low of 18% in Hawaii to a high of 82% in Vermont (Villa and Thousand). In the text, they give research findings that will make documented effective inclusive school practices. These include: Connection with Best Practices, Visionary Leadership, Redefined Roles, Collaboration, and Adult Support. The authors wrap up the text with “systematic support, collaboration, effective classroom practices, and a universal design approach can make inclusive education work so that students with disabilities have the same access to the general education curriculum…”

Agne begin her stand with a conversation that many individuals may have when speaking about an inclusive setting. She goes on in to discuss a common scenario in an inclusive setting classroom where a child with behavioral difficulties is interrupting a typical child’s classroom learning time, or even when a child with a medical condition needs to have one on one attention due to his medical conditions and it interrupts the school day. In her article she gives an analogy which is beneficial for a teacher to think about “ if a horticulturist were to provide the same amount and type of food, water, soil, and light to everyone of the hundreds of plants in her care, easily half would not survive. Moreover, it would surely require many years for the same professional to acquire enough varied knowledge and skill to ensure that each plant will survive, much less thrive. Now, if every ten months each gardeners stock was replaced with a collection of completely new and different plants, only then would his task begin to compare even slightly with that of today’s professional teacher (Agne, 242).” Advocates of inclusion call for these changes in education, to make inclusion effective, knowing through research that inclusion is not an effective strategy, (listed on page, 242).

We all come from very different walks of life, with many, many different experiences---some good and some bad, but it has molded us into the teachers we are today(or are going to be). How do you feel about inclusion (do you feel that it is beneficial, or is it hindering all parties involved) ? Do you like the co-teaching idea as suggested by advocates for inclusion? Do you have these experiences in your classroom, school?