People Against Special Education Inclusion Classrooms?

Is inclusion the most beneficial option for students or is the district using inclusion as a loophole for cheaper special education?

While looking for something to post about this week I stumbled upon an article that was about people being against inclusion classrooms. I have heard few opinions of those who are against inclusion. The argument is that those in special education inclusion classrooms do not make significant enough progress. Students, with learning disabilities and typical, learn in unique, individual ways. For an inclusion program to be successful the following must occur:

•  the students must all be working toward a similar goal
•  the students must have similar curriculum framework
• the classroom must be a flexible and creative learning environment

The accommodations listed above are not always easy to do. I did observation hours a few months ago in an inclusion classroom. When the students were in their smaller, special education classroom the students were focused and got a lot of one-on-one attention. In the inclusion setting, when the students were integrated back into the typical, grade level classroom during certain subjects, they almost immediately lost their focus. The teachers of the special education students were in the classroom with them but more often than not were assisting the typical students. The lead teacher of the classroom didn't seem to accommodate to the needs of the special education students what so ever. I didn't see that experience as a negative experience with inclusion until now, after reading the criticism of the process of inclusion classrooms.

The other point I found through my research this week is that many district officials believe that inclusion classrooms are the most financially efficient option of special education because the student to teacher ratio can be larger, allowing for the district to save on the cost of more staff salaries.

In my opinion, inclusion may not be the best learning environment for individual students because each child has a unique and different case; therefore you cannot effectively teach them based on a curriculum of typical, grade level students. That being said I do believe that inclusion classrooms serve a great social purpose for both the students with learning disabilities and their typical classmates. The link below brings you to an article that explores the benefits of both groups of students in an inclusion classroom. It is a very informative article and I suggest checking it out if you are interested in inclusion.  http://rse.sagepub.com/content/20/2/114.short

 

http://www.learningrx.com/against-special-education-inclusion-faq.htm