Assessing the Impact of Inclusive Education

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Date
1995
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The University of Alabama
Abstract

Beginning in the fall of 1992, the author and two other teachers (representing two third-grade regular education classes and one third grade MR class of children with measured IQs of less than 70) began to meet regularly to discuss how the MR students could better be mainstreamed in the two regular education classes. Problems had been noticed over several years that seemed to weaken the effort to mainstream. With the instructional emphasis moving toward a more integrated day, it was felt the MR students missed a large portion of instruction vital to the hour they were included in the regular education classroom.

Regular education students were often resentful of the MR students coming into the classroom, especially as the MR students began to present bizarre behavior or discipline problems to compensate for their lack of ease with being in a different classroom with different expectations. Frequently the most detailed lessons proved too difficult for MR students or not challenging enough for regular education students, meaning valuable learning time was lost for both groups. By the end of each school year, the mainstreaming was done less frequently and with less success. Children in both classes were soundly threatened about behavior and attitudes, with actual learning taking a beleagured third place. In the individual classes, students were taking more of an "us versus them" attitude about each other. MR students (and even their teacher) tended to be singled out as less than adequate, with the resulting student behavior becoming more bizarre and difficult to manage as the school year wore on.

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