Do Special Education Children Benefit From Inclusion?

Do Special Education Children Benefit From Inclusion?

Many children have had learning disabilities for many years. Each year more and more of these children are being helped. Schools are working to improve their special education programs and to have all kinds of students work together in the same classroom. The practice of inclusion was started because educators felt that special needs students would achieve more in traditional classrooms with non-learning disabled students than they would in special education classes. However, research findings suggest that there really is no difference in academic achievement levels for special needs students when they are placed in regular classrooms.

Inclusion can be defined as a term, which expresses commitment to educate each child, to the maximum extent appropriate, in the school classroom he or she would otherwise attend. Inclusion involves bringing the support services to the child as opposed to bringing the student to the services. Inclusion requires only that the special needs or learning-disabled child will benefit from being in the regular classroom. The term “full inclusion” means that all students, regardless of their handicapping condition or the severity of it will attend a regular classroom all the time. All the services, such as instructional aides or assistive technology, will be provided for the child in that classroom setting.

The terms inclusion and mainstreaming are often used interchangeably; however, they are different methods for educating learning disabled students. Mainstreaming is the selective placement of special education students in one or more regular education classes (Special Education, 2001). When the decision to place a child in a mains...

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...ith special education students. It provides definitions of inclusion and mainstreaming. It also gives information about IDEA and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Wildrot, K, & Claybrook, S. (n/d) Effects of Inclusion on Academic Outcomes. Retrieved April 12,2003 from http://ebsochost.com

This article is about a study that compared math and reading achievement between regular and inclusion classrooms. They used the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills to find the results.

Zigmond, N & Jenkins, J. (1995) When Students Fail to Achieve Satisfactorily. Phi Delta Kappan, 77, (4) Retrieved April 11,2003 from http://ebsochost.com

This article looks at how students fail to achieve satisfactorily because of their learning disabilities. They did some research on students with learning disabilities and came up with a design for inclusive school.