Chapter 2 Universal Design and Inclusion

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Chapter 2Universal Design and Inclusion
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Standards-Based Reform

• The basic idea is to raise the educational
  standards for all students.
• No Child Left Behind Act adopted the following
• The principle of accountability by requiring all
  states to carry out annual statewide reading and
  mathematics testing of all students in grades 3
  through 8, set statewide objectives that must be
  achieved.
• The principle of parent and student choice by
  requiring states to provide funds so that parents
  and students can leave failing schools and enroll
  in other public or private schools.

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• The principle of flexibility by allowing states,
  school districts, and schools to spend federal
  money in ways that they think most help their
  students meet the state achievement objectives.
• The premise that reading is the beginning of all
  learning by increasing federal funds for reading
  instruction.

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Standards

• Content standards These define the knowledge,
  skills, and understanding that students should
  attain in academic subjects.
• Performance standards These define the levels
  of achievement that students must meet to
  demonstrate their proficiency in the subjects.

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General Curriculum

• General Curriculum is the same curriculum as for
  nondisabled children. It emerges from the
  content and performance standards set by each
  state.
• Some argue that students with disabilities should
  be held to the same standards because 1) it will
  result in higher expectations and higher
  achievement and 2) by being part of the standards
  process for assessment students with disabilities
  will be part of the reform movement of education.
  

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• On the other hand, opponents argue that the same
  standards puts students with disabilities at a
  disadvantage by 1) they can conflict with the
  students IEP and 2) they may become frustrated,
  discouraged and drop out of school.

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Accountability Issues

• In the early 1990s, fewer than 10 of students
  with disabilities were included in the
  assessments of most states but by the late 1990s
  about two-thirds were participating in state-wide
  assessments.
• Participation in statewide assessment fulfills an
  IEP requirement to state how the student will be
  involved and progress in the general curriculum.
  
• Accommodations in the assessment procedures might
  include changes in presentation, responding,
  timing, and setting. The content is not changed,
  however.

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Accountability

• High stakes accountability involves using
  assessment results to determine whether the
  student is eligible to progress through the
  grades, attend a magnet school, or even graduate.
  
• Teachers are also held accountable in high stakes
  accountability because some states provide
  financial incentives.

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Universal Design

• Universal design is a process for 1) considering
  the needs of all students in the classroom and 2)
  designing curriculum, instruction and evaluation
  with sufficient flexibility so that each student
  benefits.
• For Universal design of the curriculum, you will
  need to differentiate between 1) content you
  present and the students to whom you are
  presenting it and 2) the level of performance at
  which you expect each student to perform.

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Flexibility in Curriculum

• Augmentation- The teacher adds content to the
  general curriculum and/or raises performance
  levels to meet students particular needs.
• Alteration- The teacher teaches foundational
  content in the general curriculum and/or scales
  back performance levels.

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Universal Design of Instruction

• Augmentation- The teacher teaches additional
  skills (for example, learning strategies that
  will increase the students capacity to learn
  independently and to generalize their skills to
  new situations).
• Adaptation- The teacher changes how the content
  is presented during instruction (a student who is
  not able to read grade-level textbooks uses and
  audio version of the text), changes how the
  environment is arranged, provides environmental
  modifications, and/or changes how the student is
  expected to respond.

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Universal Design of Evaluation

• Adaptation- The teacher changes how the content
  is presented during evaluation and/or changes how
  the student is expected to respond.

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Inclusion Placement Trends

• Over the past 10 years, there has been a
  progressive trend toward having more students
  with disabilities spend a greater percentage of
  time in general education classrooms.
• Aside from the general education classrooms,
  students with disabilities are served in
  residential/home/hospital settings, special
  schools, and specialized settings (resource rooms
  and special classes) within typical schools

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Inclusion

• There have been four phases of implementing
  inclusion
• Mainstreaming- an education arrangement of
  returning students from special education
  classrooms to general education classrooms
  typically for nonacademic portions of the school
  day.
• The Regular Education Initiative- an attempt to
  reform general and special education by creating
  a unified system capable of meeting individual
  needs in general education classrooms.

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• Inclusion through adding accommodations- an
  additive approach to inclusion that assumes the
  only viable approach to including students with
  disabilities in general education classrooms is
  to add instructional adaptations to the
  predefined general education teaching and
  learning approaches.
• Inclusion through restructuring- a design to
  inclusion that recreates general and special
  education by merging resources to develop more
  flexible learning environments for all students
  and educators.

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Inclusion

• Inclusion has four key characteristics
• All students receive education in the school they
  would attend if they had no exceptionality.
• Consideration is given to placing students in
  classrooms according to the principle of natural
  proportions.
• Teaching and learning is restructured for all
  students so that special education supports
  exists within general education classrooms.
• School and general education placements are age-
  and grade-appropriate.

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Inclusion

• Teachers are concerned about the following issues
  related to inclusion
• Time- teachers report a need for one hour or more
  per day to plan for students with disabilities.
• Training- Teachers need systematic, intensive
  training, either as part of their certification
  programs, as intensive and well-planned
  in-services, or as an ongoing process with
  consultants.
• Personnel resources- Teachers report a need for
  additional personnel assistance to carry out
  mainstreaming objectives.

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Inclusion

• Materials resources- Teachers need adequate
  curriculum materials and other classroom
  equipment appropriate to the needs of students
  with disabilities.
• Class size- Teachers agree that their class size
  should be reduced, to fewer than twenty students,
  if students with disabilities are included.
• Consideration of severity of disability-Teachers
  are more willing to include students with mild
  disabilities than students with more severe
  disabilities, apparently because of teachers
  perceived ability to carry on their teaching
  mission for the entire classroom.

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Inclusion

• Parents of students with disabilities and without
  disabilities tend to be positive about inclusion.
• Students with learning disabilities reported
  several benefits of resource rooms They provide
  help, offer a quiet place to work, and have less
  difficult and more enjoyable instructional
  activities.
• Inclusive settings provide more opportunities for
  making friends. Students report feeling
  stigmatized when they leave the general education
  classroom to receive special help.

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Outcome Research

• With adequate support, students with disabilities
  demonstrate high levels of social interaction
  with typical peers in inclusive settings.
• The social competence, communication skills, and
  other developmental skills of the students with
  disabilities have improved in inclusive settings.
• The presence of students with disabilities does
  not compromise the performance of typically
  developing students.
• Some evidence suggests that the costs of
  inclusive services over time are likely to be
  less than those of segregated forms of service
  delivery.

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Outcome Research

• Some research shows that placement in a special
  education class results in lower achievement for
  students who have lower cognitive ability.