The coexistence of high standards and inclusion: whole-school approaches can satisfy requirements of IDEA and NCLB Act - Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, No Child Left Behind Act

School Administrator, March, 2003 by Dorothy Kerzner Lipsky

* Indirect support involves the special education teacher providing consultative support to the general education teacher in whose class students with disabilities are included.

* The methods and resources model has the special education teacher taking primary responsibility for adapting materials and developing alternative instructional strategies for several students often in different classrooms.

* In the team model, a special education teacher is included in a team of teachers, which serves a cohort of students. The team model is most frequently used in middle schools.

* In a schoolwide model the entire staff as a group takes on responsibility for all students, teaching in a variety of configurations, from lecturing to a large group to tutoring individual or small groups of students.

Issues of discipline manifest themselves in many ways. Federal and state data indicate that special education students are placed too often in restrictive settings due to discipline issues. General education teachers report their greatest concern regarding the return of special education students to their classrooms involves discipline issues.

Inclusive schools recognize that discipline must be approached on a school-wide basis, where they have implemented positive behavior support programs to serve as a preventive measure and to address acts of inappropriate behavior.

The common elements of positive behavior support programs incorporate unified attitudes that recognize effective instruction as a tool to improve behavior; unified expectations as to acceptable behavior; and unified consequences, enforced in a consistent manner when rules are broken.

Classroom Practice

The traditional practice of an individual teacher in a classroom shifts to colleagues working together to address the needs of all students in inclusive classrooms. Teachers share their knowledge, step out of their old roles, learn from fellow professionals and become interdependent.

The inclusive classroom is differentiated. The needs, intelligences and learning styles of students differ; curricular materials, instructional strategies and assessment must vary as well. Especially as to assessment, tension exists between the requirements of IDEA and inclusive education and the regulations promulgated for the implementation of NCLB. No doubt, some clarity will come with the reauthorization of IDEA and as districts and professional organizations weigh in on the strictures of NCLB. For students with disabilities, IDEA's provision for supplementary aids and services provide the means for teachers to respond to the wider range and greater diversity of students.

Best classroom practices of inclusive education include cooperative learning; curricular adaptations and classroom differentiation; students supporting others in cross-age and peer tutoring; paraprofessionals or classroom aides who serve the class, not only individual students; and instructional technology embedded in curriculum and classroom activities.

Congruent Strategies