high school inclusion programs

Thomas Hehir - Eliminating Ableism in Education
Article that discusses teacher's and other's abelist philosophy that inherently discriminates against students with disabilities. Hehir is saying that labeling a student with a specific learning disability as "non-categorical," it prevents a better education and the label of dislexia, etc., helps the teachers, parents and students to accommodate the student's needs more effectivly.
It is an interesting philosphy and I think, connects well to the All Kinds of Minds philosophy of Mel Levine in that it seems to be the opposite of what Levin is saying. Rather than focusing on the weakness, which is what Hehir is saying, Levine states that focusing on the student's strengths are the key to educating the child.

"The research discussed thus far indicates several clear implications for educational practice. First, there is a population of children who are likely to experience significant difficulty with reading even with the best interventions. Dyslexia is clearly a disabling condition. Second, reading improvement for these students can continue to occur throughout their schooling if that intervention is sufficiently intensive and appropriate. Third, those with the most severe problems in reading print are likely to experience increasing difficulty in school as the cumulative effects of reading deficiency become apparent. Fourth, significant numbers of these students are receiving inappropriate educational assistance in terms of both the interventions they receive and their access to the curriculum."

Success with high school students

Best Schools Share path to Success
In a first report:
"while not the strongest performers in all areas, have been able to make better-than-expected gains with their students, including large numbers of minority and low-income youths..."

In the second report, researchers found:

• Principals are more likely to match talented teachers with students who need them most, instead of following a more common practice of assigning department heads and other experienced teachers to advanced or honors classes.
= this was not the case 5 years ago in Fort Worth ISD where I was one of 4 certified teachers. Everyone else was going through emergency certification. I guess one good thing about NCLB is the highly qualified label re quired for teachers to teach at schools who receive Title 1 funds. However this blocks some "qualified" but not teacher certified teachers who have been excellent educators for years.

• Support for new teachers tends to be more thorough and includes such techniques as providing model lesson plans and teaming a beginner with an experienced colleague.
= this is like the mentor program in FCPS. It would be good to implement this at CCPCS.

• Early intervention programs — often mandatory — are used to help students before they fail and become discouraged; requiring summer school or after-school tutoring is common.
= this should be required of students before they graduate from CCPCS's eighth grade.

• Academic support services for struggling students keep them in current-grade-level classes while they are catching up; in more typical schools, such students are put into remedial classes, reducing their chances of meeting rigorous graduation requirements on time.
= this is the same research that I found 3 years ago when I did the inclusion research. I can't remember where it was, but they stated that students who were pulled during content area instruction received a lot less content and the remediation kept them further behind their peers. This, thankfully, does not occur at Capital City.

• The focus is on preparing students for life beyond high school, not just on getting students to graduation day; academic expectations are high — often including a college-prep curriculum for all students — and consistently communicated to parents and students.

CCPCS needs to enroll students into summer school and make it a requirement. Is this going on already?