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Inclusive Classrooms: Looking at Special Education Today

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Inclusive Classrooms: Looking at Special Education Today

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"As many as 85 percent of students with disabilities can master general education content if they receive educational supports,” and notes benefits that include:

more instructional time;

fewer absences;

better post-secondary outcomes;

social benefits to non-disabled students as they learn to form “positive relationships” and better relate to “a variety of people.”

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The state of special education isn't what it used to be -- and that's a good thing. In years past, students with special needs were often segregated from those in general education classrooms and didn't receive the benefits that inclusive classrooms offer. Fortunately, integration is more the norm in schools today, and educators are learning to work together to meet the needs of every student in their care.

Two Types of Classrooms

Historically, students with disabilities were often denied access to public schools, placed in segregated classrooms or placed in regular classrooms without the right support. However, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) changed all that. The IDEA "makes available a free appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities throughout the nation and ensures special education and related services to those children." It also requires that these students receive that education alongside children who are not disabled, as much as that is possible. Fortunately, that's increasingly the case within schools today.

According to " Special Education by the Numbers: A Look into Today's Schools," from 1989-2010, there was a 90 percent increase in the time special education students spent in general education classrooms. The students surveyed had a variety of disability types that adversely affected their educational performance:

specific learning disability, 35 percent;

speech/language impairment: 21 percent ;

other health impairment: 12 percent;

autism spectrum disorder: 8 percent;

intellectual disability: 7 percent ;

developmental delay: 6 percent;

emotional disturbance: 6 percent;

multiple disabilities: 2 percent;

hearing impairment: 1 percent;

orthopedic impairment: 1 percent.

Corinne Hyde, an associate teaching professor of clinical education at USC Rossier's Master of Arts in Teaching program, stresses the need for teacher preparation to appropriately support students with such disabilities: "In the modern classroom, students with special needs are very frequently included in classrooms with students who do not have special needs. Thus, teachers must be prepared to celebrate, challenge and support students with varying needs in an inclusive classroom."

Benefits of Integration

There are many benefits to inclusive classrooms, and they extend to students with and without disabilities. In an article for The Atlantic, middle school principal Alla Vayda-Manzo says high expectations and instructional strategies are good for students with special needs, helping them be "more successful than they would be had they been in a separate, self-contained environment." The publication cites research that shows "as many as 85 percent of students with disabilities can master general education content if they receive educational supports," and notes benefits that include:

more instructional time;

fewer absences;

better post-secondary outcomes;

social benefits to non-disabled students as they learn to form "positive relationships" and better relate to "a variety of people."

Additional benefits include:

differentiated instruction geared to each student's unique learning style;

supportive teaching strategies with "specially designed instruction and support";

reduced stigma, since everyone is viewed as a having unique learning needs;

effective use of resources, since in-classroom specialists can help all students;

high expectations for all, since the goals for all students, should be based on state academic standards.

Strategies for Inclusion

Teachers who are working in integrated classrooms face unique challenges, especially if they haven't received formal training to work with students with special needs. Fortunately, there are resources that provide effective strategies, such as those recommended by Special Education Guide:

Begin at the end, making use of backward planning to ensure daily lesson planning aligns with year-end goals.

Embrace universal design to make the curriculum accessible to all students, regardless of their unique needs.

Apply multiple intelligence theory, which will aid in accessing the unique pathways by which each student processes information.

Incorporate life skills training by using routine classroom tasks to create learning opportunities for special education students.

Employ collaborative teaching techniques by partnering with special education teachers and others.

Formulate a flexible behavior management plan by maintaining control of the classroom in a manner that adapts to the needs of special education students.

ASCD emphasizes the need for collaboration and highlights the importance of:

positive attitudes and beliefs toward special education students;

a commitment to provide what's needed to meet their needs;

school leadership support in terms of adequate personnel, training, equipment and policies; and

instructional methods that are adapted to the needs of special education students and foster a learning environment that is cooperative and promotes socialization.

If you are a parent with a special-needs child, you can help your child get ready to join an integrated classroom by understanding the teaching model that will be used. For example, if a co-teaching model is in place, you can explain there will be two teachers in the class all day. If a "push in" model is used, a special education teacher will come in at specific times to offer support. Either way, it's important for your child to understand the teachers are there to help all students, and that having special needs isn't about stigma - it's about learning in a way that supports the individuality of everyone in the class.
Alexis Anderson is a Digital PR Coordinator covering K-12 education at 2U, Inc. Alexis supports outreach for their school counseling, teaching, mental health, and occupational therapy programs. Find her on Twitter @HeyLexHey.

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Inclusive Classrooms: Looking at Special Education Today - ASCD Inservice

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The state of special education isn't what it used to be -- and that's a good thing. In years past, students with special needs were often segregated from those in general education classrooms and didn't receive the benefits that inclusive classrooms offer. Fortunately, integration is more the norm in schools today, and educators are learning ...

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Overcoming Ableism, What You Don’t Know As An Able Bodied Person:  Naty Rico

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Overcoming Ableism, What You Don’t Know As An Able Bodied Person:  Naty Rico

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Overcoming Ableism: What You Don't Know As An Able Bodied Person | Naty Rico | TEDxUCIrvine

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Watch How One School Meets the Challenges of Special Needs Inclusion

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Watch How One School Meets the Challenges of Special Needs Inclusion

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Educators and administrators at Bainbridge agree that everyone benefits when students with dis/abilities are able to attend school and classes with general education students.

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Navigating high school is tough enough for most American teenagers, but add a wheelchair or a visual impairment or a learning disability to the mix of angst and storming hormones, and finding your place in high school can be downright terrifying. But not at Bainbridge High School in Bainbridge, Georgia.

Educators and administrators at Bainbridge agree that everyone benefits when students with disabilities are able to attend school and classes with general education students, and they've designed the building and curriculum at their state-of-the-art institution to do just that. They've facilitated the inclusion of special needs students in every aspect of the school day, raising awareness among students about their differences and similarities and adding to the diversity of a vibrant school community.

Take a tour of Bainbridge High School:

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Watch How One School Meets the Challenges of Special Needs Inclusion - NEA Today

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Navigating high school is tough enough for most American teenagers, but add a wheelchair or a visual impairment or a learning disability to the mix of angst and storming hormones, and finding your place in high school can be downright terrifying. But not at Bainbridge High School in Bainbridge, Georgia.

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Smartness as Property: A CriticalExploration of Intersections BetweenWhiteness and Disability Studies

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Smartness as Property: A CriticalExploration of Intersections BetweenWhiteness and Disability Studies

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This article explores “smartness” as an ideological system and particularly explores the ways in which it intersects with Whiteness as ideology. Using Cheryl Harris’s analysis of Whiteness, the authors argue that smartness works as a form of property, with all the advantages that come with membership in the group.

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Dis/ability critical race studies(DisCrit): theorizing at theintersections of race and dis/ability

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Dis/ability critical race studies(DisCrit): theorizing at theintersections of race and dis/ability

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Racism and abelism often work in ways that are unspoken, yet racism validates and reinforces ableism, and ableism validates and reinforces racism. This article explores aspects of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Disability Studies (DS) to propose a new theoretical framework that incorporates a dual analysis of race and ability.

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1. We deliberately use 'dis/ability' instead of 'disability' throughout this article to call attention to ways in which the latter overwhelmingly signals a specific inability to perform culturally-defined expected tasks (such as learning or walking) that come to define the individual as primarily and generally 'unable' to navigate society. We believe the '/' in disability disrupts misleading understandings of disability, as it simultaneously conveys the mixture of ability and disability. We have maintained the use of 'disability' when referring to its official use within classification structures and organizations. We provide a more comprehensive discussion troubling of disability as fact in the introduction of this article.

2. Like Gutiérrez, Morales and Martinez (2009), we use the term non-dominant to recognize and emphasize 'the central issue is the power relations between those who are in power and those who, despite their growing census numbers, are not' (238). This term is an alternative to minority and other terms that may refer to but do not draw attention to those communities that have historically and currently experienced marginalization by dominant communities.

3. We are drawing insights here from the work of Crenshaw (1993) and Solórzano and Yosso (2001) on race and gender.

4. In the field of general publishing, for example, tags within the library of congress tags for books that have a dis/ability focus are often placed in the self-help category. This impacts where these books are shelved in libraries and bookstores, continuing to designate dis/ability to be seen as a health concern, rather than a cultural or political issue. Sports is also illustrative as there are times when dis/abled competitors are seen to be disadvantaged and in need of separate or segregated spaces in order to 'level the playing field.' Yet, at other times, it is argued that technologically advanced prosthesis or other dis/ability related accommodations provide unfair advantages. In this case, disabled athletes are seen as having super-human abilities, disqualifying them from competing with non-disabled athletes. Either too impaired or too enhanced, individuals with dis/ability are barred from participation. A third example can be seen in the way that recreational activities get coded as therapies when they involve dis/abled people. If an individual does art and is disabled, their activity is coded as art therapy. If a disabled individual works out, people assume they are in physical therapy.

5. We acknowledge that dis/ability is an elastic category because it expands and contracts over time and throughout cultures. What is considered a dis/ability today may or may not have been seen as a dis/ability 100, 50, or even 10 years ago! Because dis/ability is socially and historically contingent, dis/ability is always shifting and moving as a category of difference.

6. We do recognize and respect the rights of those from non-dominant communities to self-select segregation (e.g. some people with autism prefer smaller or quieter environments with less interaction, separate schools and programs for LGBTQ kids who may need them, schools for girls only, schools and programs exclusively for the deaf).

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Dis/ability critical race studies (DisCrit): theorizing at the intersections of race and dis/ability

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1. We deliberately use 'dis/ability' instead of 'disability' throughout this article to call attention to ways in which the latter overwhelmingly signals a specific inability to perform culturally-defined expected tasks (such as learning or walking) that come to define the individual as primarily and generally 'unable' to navigate society.