inclusion survey for graduate school

SPED Educator

23 years

1. When taught in a team-taught format it was great but SPED students still did not achieve. I am not a fan of Inclusion - it does not remediate students. If they are reading three grade levels below their peers they are still there when the class is over.
2. If good teaching practices are used all students benefit. That is one thing a SPED teacher can provide but rarely is a certified teacher used - usually a para. I think there are times when the general education students educational opportunities are taken away as too much time is spent dealing with certain situations involving SPED students. Everyone has rights
3. No, students that interfer with the student populations right to learn and the teachers right to teach should not be included in a general education classroom. Their rights do not supercede the rights of the other students.
4. Advantages are students, especially at secondary levels, get better teaching of content as the sped teacher is not an expert at all areas of content. Disadvantages are that the included student whose academic skills are not sufficient to be academically successful will gain nothing. Their skills will not improve.
5. not sure what you are asking?
6. Parents get frustrated because they want a modified curriculum and all kinds of accomodations for their child, which is the function of a resource room. Administrator get frustrated because of complaints from parents when their children are failing classes because poor academic performance. It is nightmare for SPED teachers because we are expected to be miracle workers. If a kid reads at the 3rd grade level why would they be successful in a 10th grade book? This is just one of dozens of examples of this idiotic concept. Regular ed teachers get tired of having to make accomodations for one of 28 kids and get resentful of the SPED kids, teachers, and programs. PR is a problem.
7. I’d like to see it go away! In the old days we would remediate students, place them in a general education program and monitor progress. The students then succeeded fairly well. Today the kids don’t have compensatory skills taught and who knows where they are suppose to get them. Inclusion is a very sad way to provide academics to kids with special needs.
8. Philosophy, REMEDIATE, REMEDIATE, REMEDIATE - then include and watch them fly!

A parent of two boys with special needs. Oldest son age 14, freshman in high school, dx’s include ADD, inattentive, CAPD, Dyslexia. Youngest son’s official dx is PDD:NOS, he is 10 and in the 4th grade.

1. My youngest son was in an inclusive classroom from pre-K until the beginning of 3rd. He had an aide in the classroom who “helped” him. Toward the end of 2nd grade teacher noted son was way to dependent on aide, but also seemed “smarter” then previously thought. Summer of 2nd grade ds was tested and found to have an average IQ of 92. On previous (pre-K) testing it was 72. It was decidened when results were reviewed begging of 3rd that my son would best be served in a CC self-contained class, he showed a discrepency between ability and achievement. When he started the self contained class he could read 2 words, could not write a basic sentence, ect. He is now able to partner read a 4th grade level book with an adult (he is able to read these with 75 percent accuracy without help) and read independantly at a 3rd grade level. He can write a simple paragraph and is on grade level for math. All this improvement after only 1 1/2 years in a self contained class. My oldest son had “pullout service” in 5th and 6th grade and made no progress. In 7th and 8th grades he was placed in a self contained class for reading, writing, and math, his skills sky rocketed with this placement. As a freshman he is now taking mostly mainstreamed classes with accomodations and is succeeding, he still has a self contained reading class.

2. I feel it is difficult to “include” any student who is so far behind what is being taught they are lost. I feel remediation should be the first order of bussiness. For a child with “mild” deficits a combination of inclusion and individual teaching could work if done correctly.

3. I think things get really difficult for teachers when “high maintainance” children are included without proper support. All children have a right to learn and sometimes having a “high maintance” child in the class disrupts this opportunity for both that student and the non-disabled peers. I know that when my younger son was in the lower grades his behavior caused loss of time to his fellow students and this was not right. Things were so bad sometimes I remember being called to school to help with the situation.

4. The advantage of inclusion is if done right it can teach tolerance of differences. Also it is the “disabled” kids who come up with the unique answer or solution to the problem that no one else thought of. The disavantage is it is very difficult to remediate and if behaviors interfere even hard to teach.

5. I think for it to work is it would have to be funded correctly, research based tecniques on teaching employed, support personnell need to be in the classroom. It can not be successful with only 1 teacher.

6. I think some parents like inclusion because it allows them to escape the reality of what is going on with their child. My experience with parents whose children are not disabled it they think it is scarey and unfair. They are afraid to have their children exposed the included students because of what they might do to them, and some even concerned their child could “catch” it.

7. If the current trend of lack of progress of these students continues I see inclusion going away.

8. I think inclusion could work with proper funding, training, resources, ect. Knowing how things work though this would be nieve of me to think possible. Inclusion does have its place but I dont believe it should be an all or nothing situation.

I am a special education teacher. The school district in which i teach uses inclusion for students with mild disabilities but the emphasis is on the self contained model. I currently am teaching in an elementary self contained multi-age LD class. My past experiences have included teaching children with severe multidisablities, educable and trainable mental disabilities, and children with autism. I am a firm believer in the benefit of inclusion. although I do not think full inclusion can provide appropriate services for all students, I believe all students both with and without disabilities can find benefits from inclusion practices. Inclusion provides valuable learning experiences for those general education students who will be our future voters and leaders making the decisions for the special populations. The benefits for the children with special needs can be range from simple communcative exchanges and stimulation to that of enhanced academic achievement. I believe that inclusion can be successful only if teachers, parents, and staff have adequate training, planning time, aids and materials, and support staff for proper implementation. I do not think that every child will benefit by inclusion at any given time. Issues such as medical conditions, emotional and physical needs as well as behavior need to be examined. Inclusion my not be right far a particular child now but may be most appropriate at another time. In my opinion there is a range of opinions of parents from wanting full inclusion because they do not accept the disability to those who have grounded reasons for inclusion to parents who are so highly protective that they do not even consider the options. With teachers I have had personal experiences from those who do not even acknowledge a child with special needs in the hallway much less consider them as members of his/her class to teachers who have requested students be a part of their class. My experience with administrators has been less biased but the concerns have always been how will this affect the school’s standing in regard to standardized tests either in regard to disruptions to the learning environment or actual test scores.
I personally do not see a future for strictly full inclusion for all students. But with advancing technologies and medical breakthroughs, I think we will see a larger percentage of children with special needs, participating in “regular” education classes to a greater degree.
I found your survey as I was searching “inclusion” looking for strategies, methods, accomodations etc. to enhance childrens’ successes in regular classrooms. As an advocate for inclusion (in a district where this has been limited ) I am trying to put together a notebook for teachers that will give them something tangible to refer to when working with children with disabilities. Most teachers at my school have had no formal training but are willing to include my Ld students but they fell unprepared. My hope is this can be a first step in our beginning to train for inclusion in my school.