My school is experiencing growing pains when it comes to implementing Inclusion. It is a K-12 school with a Special Educator for elementary (me), middle and high. I have designed an inclusion program that really works within the framework of Project CHILD (our currriculum model) that the administration will not stand behind-but this is a whole other issue!
As the biggest advocate for inclusion in my school, my question for this thread is how to use one special education teacher to implement successful inclusion at the high school level? I have looked all over the Internet, but haven’t found anything conclusive. Most of the models I’ve found involve co-teaching which really isn’t feasible with only one ESE teacher. Any ideas, suggestions, advice?
Thanks,
Ms.M :)
There are some excellent articles on this site — look for Watering Up the Curriculum — and on http://www.powerof2.org
Oh, boy, what a can of worms!
Inclusion is foisted on an awful lot of students in middle and high school. Basically, even in systems with excellent services K-6, if you aren’t ‘fixed’ and can find a niche, it’s sink-or-swim, sister. It’s “successful” if the kiddo manages to pass — even if s/he’s in courses that limit future options.
Of course, individuals vary in their needs and issues; but there are systemic issues with students who have been sheltered through K-6 with accommodations for their gaps in reading/langauge skills — but at the expense of remediation in those skills, so when those accommodations aren’t enough to meet the very much increased language demands of middle/high school, the kiddo who seemed to be college material is suddenly on the “serve sentence ‘til diploma and hope you pass whatever high-stakes tests we give” track.
In your shoes I would be working hard on independent learning skills (whether it’s the reading and writing skills per se or ways around them to prove their knowledge).