who does support inclusion? Why?

Your absolutely right. As a regular ed. teacher in Ontario I know all too well the reality. Once a child is fully included, their instruction is the whole class instruction taught to the regular stream students. So, it is not done in a chunked matter or at a slower rate, and it certainly has no remedial qualities to it. Though the tasks set after instruction which allow the students to explore and solidify the concepts are modified for spec. ed. students, it is usually just a lower expectation as to the quantity or quality of the learning which has occurred.

There is no “direct instruction” to assist the spec. ed. students to develop learning strategies or to take advantage of a remedial learning method built on a solid foundation of learning principles. Basically, whatever the student can “glean” from the instruction taught to the whole class is acceptable because it is now time to move on to a new concept or unit. The pace in the regular classroom is too fast for the regular students, let alone students who require more time to work with and ponder the new concepts.

The only spec. ed. students I’ve seen who do well, do so because of their dedicated parents who spend hours every night at the kitchen table working with and practising new concepts. Those students with no intensive parent support never reach their potential. It is the cold, hard facts of today’s educational system. Inclusion is a dead end for many spec. needs students. They need a spec. ed. teacher who can teach directly to their areas of need.

I can’t believe that I am finally reading a post from not only 1 but 2 teachers who are saying exactly what I have been trying to explain to my school district with no success.

I believe that inclusion has totally devastated my son, to the point that he needs outside psychological counselling in order to make it through the school day.

His local Stanford 9 scores indicate that he does not come above the 10th percentile with his peers. He is swimming with sharks and the school does not believe they have any responsibility to remedy this situation. They feel that full inclusion is the best placement for our students. I believe that they cannot be any further from the truth.

Both of you make EXCELLENT points of how inclusion does not work. It all hinges on the political correctness frenzy we are on in this country and it is not working. Children are suffering for the sake of this as well as budget control.

It is not only a shame but a form of abuse in my opinion.

I am printing out both of your responses and keeping them to keep my fire fuelled. Thank you!

n/t

Through my graduate studies I have been researching the various instructional used in special education. As a special education teacher I have the priviledge teaching in a resource setting. Inclusion was started by parents of children with severe to profound intellectual disabilities. These parents wanted their children to remain in the general education classroom as much as possible for socialization purposes. As this idea grew in popularity, parents of children with learning disabilities saw that they too could have their children remain with the mainstream population. Of course many educational experts researched the idea and found that children with LD who remained in the general education classroom were able to graduate with a regular diploma and were more successful in life. Hower,as a teacher in the classroom who has experience teaching in both models, I can say that inclusion is not for every child, and that school districts must provide a continuum of services, not just one particular model. This is found in IDEA.

From my past experiences, I do know that for a child to be successful in an inclusive setting, that child must have proficient in certain skills, especially reading. One factor that I always had a problem with is that I felt that I was only accommodating the children, not teaching them. Accommodations will not fill out a job application. In resource I can spend more time teaching and remediating skills on a one-on-one basis. When my students took the Stanford 9 this past spring my kids scores were higher than one general education class. So does resource really work? Yes, inclusion can too if it is done properly.

Laurie,

The fact of life is that if our kids get stuck in a slow moving sped class and are not taught to their potential their lives are being ruined.

Our kids need remediation. Who came up with the idea that kids can’t learn from being in a normal environment. I agree 100% that ld kids need extra help isn’t that what IDEA is about.

So, put an aid in the class to help them. Why is this so hard to understand?

“Put an aide in the classroom” - and this helps how??? If a child has a severe reading disability you can put 20 aides in the room and the kid is not being taught at their instructional level but all material will be presented at their frustrational level. Get real! Maybe you were joking when you wrote your response because if you have ever witnessed what happens in a general education class at the secondary level, the aide/para doesn’t remediate and can barely modify. Inclusion should only be used with students whose reading skills or math skills are near grade level - there is no remediation in general education for the sped student who is several grades below in these skills. Sure, they are in a seat and look “normal” but try and ask them what’s going on and the deer in the headlights look will appear. I deal too much with frustrated kids who I have to nearly bribe into remaining in school to get the high school diploma. Also, all of my kids are given a regular diploma.

An Aide???? What training do they have to be teaching spec.ed?? The general ed teachers don’t even have the training . (No offense to any teacher) but it is a fact. I would much rather have my 16 yr old learning at a slower pace and learning, than sitting in regular classes, having the world float right over her head, and learn nothing! She may recieve a regular diploma, but won’t mean she has learned much. Pass them through and shove them out the door, to fend for themselves. This is what is so hard for me to understand.

Miriam,

You must have misunderstood my post.Who says that a student in a resource room must attain a special education diploma only? Many students who receive resource services go on to receive a regular education diploma. Depending on the state in which you reside in, it could be a matter of passing the necessary graduation tests. Children in a resource room receive instruction according to their level. To say that children in resource rooms are not being allowed to reach their full potential is a misnomer. As I stated in my post I had children who out tested a general education class. I am not the only one this has happened to, I am sure there are many teachers here at this site and at others who can tell you the same thing. Special education is about all children being able to learn to their fullest ability.

Many school systems have either resource models or inclusion models, not both, to serve their students with special needs. Many students who have extremely low reading and math skills are not being taught effectively through the inclusion model. It is obvious that these students will not have the skills necessary to keep up with their non-disabled peers. And if I am not mistaken this is the situation that Lil Lulu is in. Should Lil Lulu’s son be educated in an environment that is not providing him with a free and appropriate education? My opinion is as I stated in my post is that children should be instructed in an environment that would cater to his/her special needs. Lots of children are successful in an inclusion environment, only because those children had the necessary skills along with the support of an effective special education teacher. And lots of children are successful in the resource room simply because their needs are being met. However,this decision should be made by the multidisciplinary team and not by the school system.

In response to your statement that aides need to be put in a classroom to assist with instruction, I can tell you that having spent 5 years prior to receiving my teaching degree, I did not have the necessary education in order to effectively remediate, nor accommodate a child with special needs. School systems do not train the parapro’s for that purpose. And as the previous posters stated, they are given little or no training.

Lastly, to get back to the origin intent of my post, do you not agree that school systems should provide a continuum of services so that children are given an appropriate education? Would you not want that for your child? I’m sure that you do.

Does the term least restrictive environment ring a bell with you? Just as self-contained classrooms are not right for all children inclusive classrooms should not be a “one size fits all” model. It seems that your system is not recognizing the “individual” component in your child’s Educational Plan. If he is swimming with the sharks then for goodness sake, hold the system’s heels to the fire and make them place him in HIS least restrictive environment - not someone else’s! All systems are required to provide a continuim of services.

P.S. I have personally experienced very positive results from inclusion and collaborative teaching. One very positive outcome is that special education students are now exposed to a general education teacher who is trained in the content area, in addition to having a learning specialist in the same classroom. Special education teachers are not required to be trained in a specific area as are general education teachers, but are trained to be learning specialists. Try asking if you don’t believe me. Now, do you want children educated by the most knowledgable in a subject area or given a teacher who is a “jack-of-all trades and master of none”?

Why does your system allow the IEP team to make placements of student’s in environments that are not least restrictive for them? A LRE is supposed to be different depending upon the student’s individual needs. If you are placeing students into a inclusive environment without the prerequisite skills then of course your model will not be successful!! We have an excellent model that carefully looks at students individually prior to placement. Our Special student’s test scores have risen, along with their self-esteem. Imagine the thought! Place a special needs student in an environment that contains a “content specialist” (general ed. teacher certified in that area) paired with a “learning specialist”(special education teacher) in addition to their peers. Now there’s an idea! Inclusion was never meant to be “special education” it was meant to be “specialized” education. I suggest that you don’t waste your money on those conferences anymore!!!

You child is very lucky then to have such circumstances.

I am very aware of LRE. We were told, flat out, that a self-contained classroom will never happen in our district, that it is not on their continuum.

The definition of LRE is subjective just like most other issues revolving special education.

The school will not agree to using objective measure to determine progress. Subjective teacher observation is their method. Their determination of how he will progress is subjective. Their determination of how severe his disabilities are is subjective. Their recommendation for placement is subjective. My recommendation for placement is subjective.

Given this, LRE is subjective and extremely difficult to prove. Basically, parents are at the mercy of administrators to do the right thing; which 9 times out of 10 does not happen.

So, how do you get a shot of getting the placement you think your child needs with a district that refuses to consider your concerns and wishes? Due process.

Who will win? Most likely the school, because there is not much to proving that they made a good faith effort to provide FAPE; especially with a high-priced lawyer of their choice. Who looses? The child. Who cares? Certainly not the administration who works under the guise of working for the welfare of children; yet all that truly matters at the end of their business day is budget control and test scores.

You are right. That is how it was probably intended to be implemented. Is this the case in most schools? No. You couldn’t prove it by me with all of the similar complaints we see on the bulletin boards.

In order to get what you truly feel is the LRE, due process is the only course of action. But, once that happens was it successful. Usually not. There is bitterness, resentment and the mark of the scarlet letter on the family that stood up for itself in the district.

It’s an evil game for some of us. And this is very unfortunate. Most of us are not asking for the impossible. Only what we feel is right.

I wish administrators had your same view of special education. It would make life that much easier.

I totally agree with you. There should be pre-requisites to go into an inclusion class. The main one should be remediation of their deficient areas. My kids and I worked very hard last year remediating both their reading and writing so that they would do well in teamed classes. I think that because sped kids do well in inclusion classes in ele school, parents think that they will do well in the same classes at the middle and high school level, this is not the case without remediation. Most of the students that I had last year are in teamed classes this year; they will do well. I will also keep track of them this year, making sure that they are OK in their teamed classes. A student that can’t read on or close to grade level and has an issue with auditory memory, should not be in inclusion classes. The reason I say this, is this student could do very well with books on tape and tests read to them. While this is happening, he also should be taught to read. I am team teaching this year in academic English, that is where the IEP committee agreed to the placement of the kids that were remediated last year. We agreed that kids with ADHD diagnosis, should be in classes where they can focus and learn, this does not happen in basic classes. All of the kids that don’t care about doing anything but disrupting classs, (reg ed kids), are in the basic classes and the sped kids have a right to learn in classes that are not disrupted. I will let you know how it is working this year.

The issue is not another body in the classroom, but remediation. If the child isn’t being remediated in school or home, they shouldn’t be in the regular classroom. In VA, the sped kid can’t get a reg diploma, just like all the rest of the kids, unless he passes the state tests, SOL. It doesn’t matter if he is in regular or self-contained classes. If he doesn’t pass the high school SOLs, which includes algebra and geometry and didn’t pass the reading and math 8th grade SOLs, he will still receive a proof of attendance letter. If he has passed the 8th grade math and reading, but can’t pass the high school SOLs, he will get a modified diploma. So, the issue is remediation and what do the kids usually get, accommodations. Go figure!

You are being unkind to the special ed teachers. Very few teachers have the necessary education in teaching children. I know, I taught the English teacher that I teamed with how to teach English last year. She came from a college that still teaches courses on the whole language method. I knew more than she did on how to teach English. This included the writing process. She had no clue. I don’t know of one special education teacher that doesn’t go out on her own and get the necessary knowledge on how to teach the subject that she is teaching in her self-contained classes. Last year, my kids had more research papers and essays than the reg ed classes. This year, in their teamed classes, they will probably do better in writing than their reg ed counterparts. I have been refused reading jobs because I don’t have a reading degree, but guess who is sitting in my PG training, the reading teacher who was hired for the job that I wasn’t qualified for! I am teaching the WL reading teacher how to teach.

Many people ask me if I am going to go for my doctorate, the answer is no. The colleges are still whole languge based in the doctorate courses in reading and still hung up on accommodations for sped students not remediation in the sped doctorate, so why bother? I know more than they do anyhow. How do I know, because they call me for advise. So, don’t think that the sped teachers don’t know the subject they teach, the majority do know it.

At our school, inclusion is used for those students who have “graduated” from the special ed classroom/resource and just need A LITTLE support to help them get acclimiated to the general ed classroom. It is not used for those students still needing lots of remediation.

ljm,

I read your post over again hoping I misread it the first time. So, now I get it if the sped teacher is trained to teach reading etc. the kid losses.

How is inclusion practiced in your school? It is always team teaching? Shared teaching? Or part time pull out for remediation and part time push in for team teaching time? I am particularly interested with the K and Gr 1 level. Thanks for your input!

In the district we are in the inclusion classroom includes both a regular education teacher and a special education teacher both. The teachers work together to reach all the students, the special ed teacher not only working with the “special ed” kids but any child who needs help. The other thing they do is they still actually have self contained classrooms. I as a parent think this is needed. My son dx’d with PDD-NOS has really flourished from this model. He is in a self contained class in the morning for reading, writing, spelling, ect. In the afternoon he is in a regular education class for science and social studies the special ed team from his contained classroom goes to these classes with him and helps teach the whole classs. The regular ed kids see these “special ed” kids succeeding in their class and see it is ok to receive help. My son went from a non-reader two years ago to being able to read easy chapter books on his own. His vocabulary, confidence, speech ect has really soared. If you would of told me two years ago he would be able to read the “Spongebob Square Pants” chapter books on his own I would of told you you were crazy. I would of said something like how can he do that he does not even recognize the word the. Now he is readng words like slither and preperation. I think inclusion, mainstreaming, ect works when it is done right. This includes coming up with the right program for the right child. You can not fit a square peg in a round whole.

Parents of children with more severe problems: Moderate to severe Cerebral Palsy, MultipleScl, Downs, physical disabilities, other MR, and ED (Emotional Disturbance) to name a few. These students have traditionally been stuck in self-contained placements, out of their homeschool, or in residential placements. Some have never met a “normal kid” in a school setting.

These parents and their organizations have been extremely vocal about having their children included in the regular classroom. Students with this level of problems will not ever be fully independent—some never even to feed self or use the toilet. The situation is totally different for kids w/LD. Yet, we’re all measuring off the same yardstick.

Even when these students are disruptive (and may not be able to control their outbursts or know for sure it is happening), parents wish the children in the regular classroom. Often it hinders the learning of others. Then schools must literally fight to get them in another placement.

Still, the law provides for a full continuum (range) of placement choices and children with LD or other less severe disabilities (or those whose least restrictive environment is not the regular classroom) should be able to get the services that they need to achieve the goals and objectives in the IEP. According to the law, it is the goals and objectives that drive placement based on where services to meet those goals need to occur.

While parents on this BB are actively trying to prevent so much inclusion—other parents are fighting fiercely for it. State Dept. of Ed hear more from those parents, unfortunately.

Make your cases. Write PLEPs. Write goals and objectives. Serve on parent advisory boards and other organizations that support children with disabilities. Without your voice, the squeeky wheel will naturally get oiled.

Hate to ask… but what is a PLEP.

Present Level of Educational Performance. Some states/school districts do PLEP statements before each GnO (Goals and Objectives). Others do a PLEP document, or narrative, before all the GnO’s.

Every goal/objectives should relate back to a PLEP statement. PLEP statements should be measurable. Statements like: “Johnny cannot read or do math” are not measurable. Statements like: “Johnny reads at a 4th grade level according to a BASIC Reading inventory given on 9/02/02” are measurable.

Present L:evel Of Performance. And since for so many of our kiddos it’s down there on the floor somewhere (in magnitude as well as priority), somehow “PLOP” seems the right term :-(

I teach in a high school, where there is just self-contained and teamed teaching, both sped teacher and reg. ed.

First, least restrictive environment is interpreted in many different ways. So to some people, the child must first consider/attend general education and fail before consideration is given. This appears to be fairly consistent given the responses to this post. Second, if a student does not possess the prerequisite skills - no matter how great the content instruction - they aren’t going to be successful. What is success anyway. A grade or the improvement of academic skill - not knowledge. If a child spends time acquiring data auditorily, will this make them a better reader? After all, and I’ve been saying this for years, we really only teach two skills in school - math and reading. We just call them things like American History, Science etc. If you can’t read, you can’t read!

I was going to add a regular education endorsement to my already lengthy course list and was told I would have to take the methods courses. What a joke, after 20+ years of teaching SPED, I should teach the methods classes. The professors comment was that teaching special education was different then regular education. Duh, it’s a lot harder! Try and “leave no child behind” in SPED programs! Juggling comes to mind!

Present levels of educational performance.

for dual certification, I see a big difference. I found value in both.

Without getting all the way up on my soapbox, I’ll just say that I think inclusion is a money saver for school districts and that is why they have gone in that direction…even to the point of making parents think it is a good thing. On various boards I read people fighting for aides in the classroom and I just have to say why???? What difference does it make if the child can’t read?!

I know how most districts do inclusion. There are two resource teachers at my base school. One does some inclusion for fourth grade and the other for fifth. That means, if you are a fourth grader in special ed., you will have reading in the inclusion model (for example) because that is how the principal decided it would be. It doesn’t matter if you read at first grade level or high third grade level, you’ll have reading in the inclusion class. The rest of the day they do resource. There are never enough special ed. teachers to really fully cover inclusion in every grade plus provide small group remediation in resource all day. It just doesn’t happen. So few children get their true LRE, because the teacher’s schedule usually dictates what services they will get.

I usually stay out of this folder because I hate inclusion so much! It really only works for kids who have been remediated and can get by with accommodations in the regular class. And the state tests are certainly showing that special ed. kids are far from being remediated!

Janis

Hi Ashley,
I have to agree with you 100%. I see this day in and day out and am very
familiar with “that look” you described so well. Inclusion is not for everyone
and should not be for everyone!!! For some students, the regular ed. classroom is NOT the least restrictive environment.

Lisa

Hi Laurie,
The law states that there must be a contiuum of services, however, many
school districts are not offering appropriate services where special ed. children can learn in the least restrictive environment. The whole objective of special ed. is to remediate skills in order for the student to function with or without modifications within the regular ed. classroom. Unfortunately, too many schools are not providing these services, so the children are passed from grade to grade while remaining on the same skill levels year after year.
Lisa

Hi Lulu,
If your son is not making adequate progress, have you ever thought about
having him privately evaluated and then going through mediation or due process? I know this is a real nightmare, but sometimes it is the only way to
force the school district to do what they are supposed to do. The bottom line is, if the school can’t provide the appropriate services for your son, then they must find someone or someplace that can.

Lisa

The unfortunate reality is most people who support inclusion because its cheap verse special education, especially kids who really need to placed privately. I kow it works for some kids, but there’s the kids who it will never work for even if there at grade level.

I’m curious as to what role an aide plays while with a student in the classroom, and specifically at which grade levels.

Some aides receive their direction from teachers and follow those instructions while closely supervised. This could include reteaching concepts introduced in the regular classroom, teaching concepts introduced in prior years, skill-building activities such as drilling sightwords or math facts, or even curriculum tutoring. (We have to watch this one, some paras with GED’s have trouble with curriculum at 5th/6th grade.) Some aides plan & implement without anyone really supervising them.

Some don’t have good grammar—some have excellent language skills. It really depends on the person. Since many states don’t have a lot of criteria for serving in this capacity, it’s a dice-roll.

Sometimes it appears to me that we are handing-off our most difficult to teach to our least trained people. If I went to the Dr. and he said, “I’m going to let my nurse perform this heart surgery, but don’t worry: I’m going to supervise.” I’d run (not walk) out of his office.

Isn’t remediation just using the most effective methods? Can’t these same methods work for all children?

I think if we lost whole language we would need less remediation. It would already be present in every class.

Linda,

Let me give you an example of how effective methods for regular ed. kids and LD kids differ. My child’s school uses Saxon phonics which is one of the best regular ed. phonics programs in the US. It even has some multi-sensory instruction in it. But most children with phonological processing disorders will either need more time and repetition or more multi-sensory instruction to “get it”. Saxon and Open Court will work for most kids. But LD kids with phonological processing disorders may need a multi-sensory structured language approach like LB or OG. I still like PG as an intermediate intervention, too.

Janis

Janis,

My son’s problem was not phonological processing. He couldn’t read coming out of first grade, at all. I think that if he had received a program that provided him with good phonemic awareness instruction in first grade I wouldn’t have had to teach him to read that summer.

It wasn’t a case of slow phonological processing it was a problem of no phonological teaching. At least, not a systematic method that was clear and straight forward. It was a method with a mish mash of many techniques that encouraged him to look at the pictures and guess the words or to memorize lists of words. It was not a method that was clear cut and specific. I think he was rather confused about what he was supposed to do when he looked at that page. I can remember someone from the school telling me that if he learned to read through phonographix he wouldn’t have good comprehension. I don’t know where this person got this. It was just her “theory.” This is a child with excellent auditory comprehension. He listens to books on tape mean’t for kids 4 or 5 years older than him. His reading comprehension has followed his auditory comprehension, just as I predicted it would.

I think something like phonographix would work for any child so why not just use it, or for that matter why not follow any program that teaches good phonemic awareness. If a child had phonological processing issues, then just make this program more intensive.
The statistics on illiteracy in this country are quite scary. Why not use methods that are supported by the scientific literature?

Linda,

Yes, I agree that PG is appropriate for any child. It would be LB or OG that I think are not appropriate for a typical classroom…it would be more than the typical child would need.

All I can say is, it’s a darn good thing YOU knew how to teach your son to read!

Janis

nt

Wow, Linda, that might be the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me! Thank you!!! I’ll say that I hope your son gets teachers that are twice as good as me!

Janis