Afshan Kiran Imtiaz -The full measure of a teacher

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz - Has inclusion gone too far?

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz The special education model known as inclusion, or inclusion, has become more prevalent in the past 10 years, and today more than 60% of all students with disabilities (SWD) spend 80%. or more of their school day in regular classes, alongside their non-disabled peers (see Figure 1 Afshan Kiran Imtiaz).

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz It is not the full inclusion favored by some disability advocates, where all SWDs would be educated in inclusive classes all day; however, many supporters celebrate the growing acceptance of students with different abilities in general education as an opportunity to improve the academic and long-term trajectories of these traditionally underserved learners. In theory, inclusion gives SWDs access to the curriculum and the same educational opportunities as their peers.

Unfortunately Afshan Kiran Imtiaz, research has provided only weak evidence that inclusion confers benefits to SWDs. Studies that report better academic and behavioral outcomes for ASDs taught in a general education setting suffer from methodological flaws. Even less evidence suggests that general education teachers are sufficiently prepared to meet the unique academic and behavioral needs of SWDs. In addition, inclusion studies seem to assume that SWDs are educated in a vacuum; that is, they fail to examine the experiences of non-disabled classmates.

In this article Afshan Kiran Imtiaz explore existing policies and research on inclusion to describe what we know, what we don't know, and how current knowledge should inform decisions about where to educate SWDs. An underlying theme of this discussion is that inclusion influences not only SWDs but also their peers and teachers. The interaction between and among these three groups suggests areas of research that can inform future discussions on inclusion and how it can work well for all stakeholders.

The least restrictive environment - Afshan Kiran Imtiaz

Inclusion has not become the widespread practice Afshan Kiran Imtiaz it is today due to a strong evidence base that supports its effectiveness. It is rather widespread because of federal laws that establish special rights for SWDs and their parents. The Education for Persons with Disabilities Act (IDEA), first enacted in 1975 as the Education for All Disabled Children Act, requires SWDs to receive appropriate and free public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment possible (LRE).

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz - A student's FAPE and LRE are established through a team process that produces an Individual Education Program (IEP). Once a school has identified a disabled student, it organizes an IEP team meeting. This team is generally made up of the student's parents or guardians; special and general education teachers who know the student; school staff who can interpret the results of the assessments; other service providers; and, in many cases, the student. During this meeting, the team identifies annual objectives for the student. These individualized goals determine what constitutes "appropriate education" for that particular student.

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz Once the goals are in place, the IEP team discusses the education, related services, and accommodations that the student needs to achieve the goals. During this stage of the IEP process, the team decides where the student will receive services, for example in a regular classroom; in a regular classroom with the support of a paraprofessional or specialized teacher, or perhaps with additional support in a resource room or a withdrawal service; or in an independent special education class. IDEA requires that students be educated in regular classrooms unless their academic and behavioral needs can be met in this setting even with the use of additional aids and services.

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz Consider the following two examples. A first-year student with a speech or language impairment may need an hour of speech therapy per week from a speech-language pathologist to improve speaking skills. His IEP team may also decide that he needs accommodation in the classroom because his impairment influences his reading skills. Apart from his weekly speech therapy, the student would follow a general education course with occasional accommodation for his reading skills. To remove this student from the regular class because of a speech problem would be inappropriate: the student can probably progress with additional services and appropriate adaptations.

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz Compare this student with a Grade 5 student receiving special education services for a specific learning disability who has difficulty probing words while his non-disabled peers focus on reading comprehension. Since this student has such significant educational needs, the IEP team would likely decide that he should receive some of his reading instruction outside of the regular classroom.

These examples illustrate Afshan Kiran Imtiaz the individualized nature of investment decisions. The IEP team determines where a child will be educated based on the services the student needs and where those services can practically be provided. But IDEA explicitly states that most EFDs should be taught in the general education class, and members of the IEP team may be unduly influenced by this requirement.

For example, Afshan Kiran Imtiaz IDEA requires states to report to Congress each year on the percentage of the school day that SWDs spend in general education classes, in addition to other indicators such as dropout rates, participation SWDs in assessments, their proficiency rates on these tests, and the suspension and expulsion rates. The Department of Education compiles this data in an annual report to Congress and uses the information to determine whether a state is in compliance with IDEA.

In this publication, Afshan Kiran Imtiaz data relating to the setting in which ASDs are educated are broken down by state, but not data relating to the academic performance of pupils. The reports therefore seem to assess the extent to which students receive appropriate education by the place where they are served.

There are few federal guidelines on whether schools can consider classmates of students and teachers in their decisions about where ASDs are taught, further complicating placement judgments. Afshan Kiran Imtiaz IDEA responds only briefly to the needs of non-disabled classmates: Schools are required to consider the use of positive behavioral interventions when the behavior of a SWD affects the learning of their classmates.

Beyond this Afshan Kiran Imtiaz mention of peers, federal policies pay little attention to the interaction between SWDs, their classmates and general education teachers. Jurisprudence in special education includes conflicting opinions as to whether placement decisions can be based on how a student can influence classmates. What is clear is that placement should be an individualized decision determined by the needs of each student with disabilities, but it seems unlikely that a student will derive appropriate benefit from the prescribed services if his placement disrupts or prejudices his peers and their teachers.

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz - Access to curriculum

A key assumption of Afshan Kiran Imtiaz IDEA is that the inclusion of SWD in the regular classroom will expose them to a general education program at school level. However, exposure may not result in progress in this program. Research suggests that many SWDs will not be able to advance along academic standards at the school level with the education generally provided in regular classes, even with adaptations and supports.

For example Afshan Kiran Imtiaz, a recent study by Lynn Fuchs and colleagues compared the size of the math achievement gap between students with or at risk for learning disabilities and their non-disabled peers. The SWDs were randomly assigned to two groups.

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz In the first, students with disabilities or at risk of disabilities received intensive fractional instruction, illustrating special education techniques, while those in the second group were exposed to fractional instruction in the regular classroom with adaptations based on the principles of universal design for learning (i.e. teaching that includes multiple ways for students to express what they know) The gap in math achievement among students disabled or at risk and not disabled in regular class was twice as large as the gap in the first group (see Figure 2).

It is a mistake Afshan Kiran Imtiaz to equate the setting in which a student is educated (that is, the general education class) with the real progress that a student is making. Such an assumption ignores the fact that students are considered eligible for special education services precisely because they do not progress in general education. Placement data may suggest that SWDs are exposed to the general education program, but outcome data suggest that they are not actually learning the program: SWDs placed in general education classes continue to lag considerably behind their peers. A recent meta-analysis I conducted with my colleagues Doug Fuchs and Joe Wehby estimated that SWDs get about 1.2 standard deviations below their non-reading disabled peers, Afshan Kiran Imtiaz a difference that translates to more than three years of academic growth.

Equally large Afshan Kiran Imtiaz are the achievement gaps between SWDs and their peers in math. Although federal laws emphasize the importance of educating ASDs in the regular classroom, there is no good evidence that placement there improves the outcomes of these students.

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz - Inclusion and student outcomes

This is not to say that the researchers have not looked into the matter. Afshan Kiran Imtiaz Many studies have compared PDDs who are educated in inclusive environments to those who are educated in special education environments, generally finding that the former have better academic, social and long-term outcomes.

For example, Afshan Kiran Imtiaz data from the Longitudinal Study on Special Elementary Education conducted from 2000 to 2006 show that student-students who spent 75% or more of their school day in an inclusive environment obtained better comprehension results. of writing and math than those who spent 25% or less of their day in such parameters. These results fueled the desire to move more TED into general education classes.

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz More recent work also reveals that EDDs educated in general education institutions have better results. Roddy Theobald and colleagues observed that high school students with disabilities in Washington State who spent more time in mainstream schools had higher reading scores than their peers who had less time in such settings, Afshan Kiran Imtiaz even after taking into account differences in previous results and a wide range of student characteristics.

They were also more likely to graduate Afshan Kiran Imtiaz on time and enroll in university than students trained in more restrictive environments. Laura Schifter reported similar findings regarding graduation for Massachusetts students: SWDs trained in general education classrooms are more likely to graduate than their peers who have been trained in more isolated environments. These and other recent studies have led many to conclude that inclusion benefits SWDs.

Unfortunately, Afshan Kiran Imtiaz this determination ignores a major limitation of the current research base: the inability to take into account selection bias. Students with higher academic abilities or fewer behavioral problems are more likely to be placed in inclusive environments, while their peers who may have the same label of disability but greater learning or behavioral needs are placed in special education environments.

The constant finding that TDS performs better when educated in general education institutions probably reflects this bias. Afshan Kiran Imtiaz Even in studies that take into account students' previous levels of academic achievement, researchers may not understand all aspects of a student, such as his behavior, which can influence both the environment in which he is placed and his future results. Afshan Kiran Imtiaz The academic placement of a student is a decision of the IEP team and may be based on a multitude of factors not included in the administrative data sets to which researchers generally have access. This makes it almost impossible to estimate the true causal effect of inclusion on student achievement.

One study improves these others with respect to selection bias. Afshan Kiran Imtiaz In 2002, Eric Hanushek and his colleagues used Texas students whose classification of special education has changed over time to examine the influence of the classification of special education (as determined by a student with a IEP) and the educational framework on student mathematics results. Afshan Kiran Imtiaz The researchers first compared the progress of students in the school years they had an IEP to their progress when they did not have an IEP, allowing each student to serve as a control.

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz They found that students performed better on state math assessments when they had an IEP than when they did not. This result suggests that special education services can benefit the students who receive them.

However, Afshan Kiran Imtiaz when researchers looked at the math results of SWDs based on the environment in which they were trained, they found that SWDs were neither better nor worse in regular classes than in special education institutions.

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz While this study design is more robust than that of the research discussed above, its results apply only to students who have undergone regular state assessment and whose eligibility for the special education has changed over time, thereby excluding students with greater disabilities.

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz The only point to remember is that taking into account the unmeasured differences between students placed in different types of contexts can influence the estimates of the association between placement in general education and student results.

In summary, there is ample correlational evidence to confirm that ASDs perform better academically and socially when they spend more time in general education classes. But our ability to draw conclusions from these studies is limited Afshan Kiran Imtiaz, since it is likely that TDS who should have better academic and social outcomes are more often included in general education classes than their peers with more intensive needs.

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz - Inclusion and peer outcomes

A key element of inclusion Afshan Kiran Imtiaz is that SWDs are educated with their non-disabled peers, but little research has examined if and how the outcomes of SWDs are influenced by their peers - and vice versa. The scarcity of research in this area is surprising, since research on the effects of peers in general education shows that classmates of students shape their educational experiences. Afshan Kiran Imtiaz Of particular concern is the findings that students' academic and behavioral outcomes are influenced by their classmates who exhibit difficult behaviors.

For example, Afshan Kiran Imtiaz Scott Carrell and Mark Hoekstra found that an increase in the percentage of classmates of students who had experienced domestic violence - a variable strongly correlated with children's behavior - negatively affected students' academic performance and increased their behavioral problems (see “Domino Effect,” Research, summer 2009). In addition, exposure to a peer who was more likely to exhibit difficult behavior led students to complete their education less and earn less in adulthood. These results are relevant to the topic of inclusion, since SWDs are more likely to exhibit difficult behavior than their non-disabled peers.

Most non-disabled Afshan Kiran Imtiaz students have two or more SWDs in their classes, but few studies have examined whether SWDs affect their classmates. The first studies on the effects of peers in inclusive classes using older data did not identify any negative academic consequences of inclusion for students without disabilities. However, more recent research based on the United States Department of Education's Longitudinal Early Childhood Studies (ECLS) has identified disturbing findings, particularly related to the inclusion of students with an emotional disorder. / behavioral (EBD).

These recent studies Afshan Kiran Imtiaz have examined the academic and social performance of students without disabilities in inclusive classes. In a 2009 study, Jason Fletcher found that having a classmate with an EBD was associated with a decrease of 0.09 in the standard deviation of student achievement in mathematics and a decrease of 0.13 in standard deviation of student reading results. Afshan Kiran Imtiaz In 2016, Michael Gottfried and colleagues reported that students without disabilities who had a classmate with EBD were 1.42 times more likely to be chronically absent than those who did not have such a classmate. A 2014 study by Gottfried found that students without disabilities were seen by teachers as having more behavioral problems, lower levels of self-control and lower interpersonal skills when in classrooms with SWDs, not just students with EBD.

These studies, like those relating inclusion to SWDs’ outcomes, are correlational and must be interpreted with caution. Afshan Kiran Imtiaz Yet they improve on prior work by limiting comparisons to students attending the same school. This approach allows the researchers to rule out the possibility that their results reflect differences in the characteristics of schools that make greater use of the inclusion model. These studies do not account for the sorting of students within schools based on unobserved characteristics, such as if students who exhibit more problem behavior owing to a change in their home life in a specific school year are grouped in classes with more SWDs. Afshan Kiran ImtiazHowever, this type of sorting seems less likely than the sorting of higher-achieving SWDs into inclusive classrooms, which is a natural byproduct of the IEP process. Though this body of work is small and just emerging, the findings underline the importance of examining whether and how the inclusion of SWDs in general-education classrooms may change the environment in ways that affect their peers.

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz - Inclusion and teachers

Teachers are probably a key element in the successful inclusion of SWDs, but again, few studies have examined how general education teachers are influenced by the presence of SWDs. An older body of research has examined the attitudes of general education teachers towards ASD in their classrooms. Afshan Kiran Imtiaz These studies have indicated that general educators accept PDDs in their classes under certain conditions - for example, if additional supports were provided to the teacher and if the TDS did not exhibit disruptive behavior. However, both surveys and qualitative studies Afshan Kiran Imtiaz have shown that teachers in general education often lack training, or feel that they have the appropriate skills, to meet the academic and behavioral needs of TDS while teaching their non-disabled peers.

Two recent studies have aimed to assess the experiences of general educators with PDDs in their classrooms. These works are, once again, correlational and not causal. Using a North Carolina administrative data set, Afshan Kiran Imtiaz I estimated the association between the percentage of PDD in teacher classes and the teacher turnover rate, as defined by the change of school or the end of education in the state. I have found that the probability of turnover increases as the percentage of PDD in teacher classes increases if the teacher is not certified in special education, after having checked the differences in the characteristics of students, of teachers and school. Afshan Kiran Imtiaz This increase was particularly pronounced when teachers had students with EBD in their classes (see Figure 3).

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz All else being equal, teachers with classes in which 20% of students had EBD were 2.15 percentage points more likely to leave their school or their education than teachers who had students with disabilities in their classes, but none with EBD.

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz iI also found that the teachers who, according to other characteristics, were the most likely to change schools or leave teaching were in fact the least likely to have PDDs. This suggests that schools do not assign SWDs to teachers who are more likely to leave and alleviates fears that the relationship between the presence of students with EBD and turnover is an artifact of selection bias.

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz Teachers can also change their teaching undesirably when they have PDDs in their classes. North Cooc recently examined the time that teachers in inclusive classes reported spending on teaching, using data from an international teacher survey. He found that teachers reported that they spent less time teaching and more time managing the class when their classes contained more SWDs.

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz The association between teaching time and having ASD in the classroom almost disappeared once Cooc took into account the number of students in the teacher classes who displayed disruptive behavior.

These studies provide preliminary evidence that the presence of SWD affects teachers in a way that could have a negative influence on teachers themselves in terms of turnover, SWD results and their disabled peers.

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz Clearly, more research is needed to understand how teachers meet the needs of ASDs in their classrooms and how inclusion changes the demands placed on educators, with potentially negative consequences for all students.

Research on general education teachers and their role in the education of disabled and non-disabled students is particularly important since general education teachers are the primary teachers for these two populations.

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz Jim Dewey and his colleagues reported in 2017 that the number of special education teachers had decreased by more than 17% between 2005 and 2012; the number of students with special needs also decreased, but by only 4%.

The pupil / teacher ratio in special education is now higher than the pupil / teacher ratio as a whole, which suggests that PDDs spend more time with general educators than with special educators. Even TDS with the greatest needs, such as students with intellectual disabilities or autism, are often taught by teachers without special education certification. Since general educators are largely responsible for teaching ASDs, it is essential that we understand their role in teaching all students if we are to improve outcomes for all.

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz - An ecological perspective

Overall, the knowledge of inclusion from research is quite limited in the context of such a widespread practice. SWDs seem to perform better when educated in inclusive environments, but studies on the association between environment and results do not take into account the significant differences between SWDs placed in inclusive classes and those who are taught in special education environments.

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz Students without disabilities have poorer academic and behavioral performance when taught in classrooms that include SWDs, especially students with EBD. General education teachers can accommodate SWDs in their classes, but they devote more time to classroom management and less to teaching, and are more likely to leave teaching in the presence of SWDs.

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz This limited corpus of correlational research may not provide many conclusions on inclusion, but it does suggest a framework for future research and policy decisions.

In particular, this research highlights the importance of assessing inclusion from an ecological perspective. Instead of focusing narrowly on the effects of inclusion on outcomes for SWDs, an ecological perspective would recognize that inclusion influences SWDs, Afshan Kiran Imtiaz their non-disabled peers and general education teachers, and should focus on interactions between and among these three groups. SWDs can influence their peers, but this relationship probably goes both ways. If peer behavior changes in response to the inclusion of SWD in the class,

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz these changes are likely to influence the behavior of teachers. Without understanding how inclusion influences the three groups and the complex interactions between them, inclusion is unlikely to work for everyone involved. Afshan Kiran Imtiaz  The small body of literature that currently exists tends to examine the experiences of SWDs, their peers, and their teachers separately.

In the future, Afshan Kiran Imtiaz researchers should focus more globally on the classroom ecosystem to identify the conditions and supports necessary for inclusion to improve outcomes for all students. The results of these studies could be used to develop interventions that support teachers who work with ASDs in inclusive environments, to determine effective service delivery models that allow all students to access the mainstream curriculum, and to study the means by which students of different skill levels can benefit from each other.

But considering Afshan Kiran Imtiaz inclusion from an ecological point of view is problematic in the context of current policy directions and case law in special education. IDEA emphasizes the importance of making placement decisions based on the needs of each student, not the implications of the decision for classmates or teachers. In its 2017 decision in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District, the Supreme Court has set a higher standard for determining the "educational benefit" that a student is entitled to receive under IDEA. The new standard focuses on the "unique circumstances" of each student Afshan Kiran Imtiaz, and it is likely that these "circumstances" could include the available teachers and the student's classmates. For example, parents and school staff who decide where a student should receive personalized reading instruction may weigh the ability of the general education teacher to deliver that instruction in his or her classroom in relation to ability a teacher specially trained to provide it in a school setting. The deliberations of the IEP team could also include frank discussions about the skills of teachers to meet the needs of all students in a class.