This paper challenges the generally accepted norm that special education is a place in which to put students rather than a process for supporting inclusion into the general education curriculum. The process of determining the Least Restricted Environment (LRE) for a student may actually serve to restrict students who have disabilities from participating in classes alongside their non-disabled peers. The paper offers an alternative model for developing lesson plans that can include students of varied learning abilities and identifies qualities that can and must be present in order to create an inclusive classroom

Blessing, Carol

Levitz, Barbara

Levitz, Michael

English

DigitalCommons@ILR

 
 
 
    
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Policy and Practice Brief: 
 
 
Establishing a New Standard for 
Inclusion in the Classroom 
 
Summer 2003 
 
adapted in part from 
 Setting the Standard for Inclusion in the Classroom 
(Blessing,2003) 
 
 
 
Prepared by 
 
Carol Blessing, CSW Extension Associate 
with the Employment and Disability 
Institute with Cornell University, 
Barbara Levitz, Mitchell Levitz 
   Table of Contents  
 
 
 
 
Inclusion Programs, Special Ed and the Collateral Damage of Good Intentions .............. 2 
 
Creating the Conditions for Inclusion ................................................................................ 2 
 
Making All Education Special ............................................................................................. 3 
 
It Takes A Village................................................................................................................. 5 
 
Resources and References................................................................................................... 6 
 
  
 
 
 
Inclusion Programs, Special Ed and the Collateral 
Damage of Good Intentions 
• "Vicki is in special education" 
• "There are 20 students in this year's Inclusion class" 
• "She has received her certification as a special education teacher" 
 
The term special education originally was used to describe a specific set of services and 
supports a student might receive so that they might join to participate and contribute in 
the classroom activities embedded within the curriculum of general education.  
Somewhere along the line the term has evolved to that of a description of some place 
students with unique approaches to learning spend their time or some program that 
takes place outside the general learning community of a particular class or grade level.  
Rather than being a process or a means to an end, (a way in which to insure that all 
students have maximum opportunity learn and grow with and from one another in 
school), special education has become an end in and of itself, an outcome.   
 
The authors believe that the principle of the least restrictive environment (LRE) 
contributes significantly to the perpetuation of special education being thought of as an 
entity versus as a process.   
 
 The concept of a least restricted environment gives credence to segregated, self-contained 
class rooms and serves as the basis for justifying the need for a continuum of services that 
require students with disabilities to achieve mastery in skill areas before they will be 
considered "appropriate" for inclusion into the general education classrooms, (Kunc, 
1992). 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In its day, the principle of the least restricted environment seemed a progressive 
approach to creating alternatives to individuals with disabilities.  At its heart, the LRE 
principle was intended to facilitate the inclusion of students with disabilities in the 
general classroom.  Unfortunately, it has had the reverse effect and creates a vehicle for 
holding students away from the mainstream of the academic and social life of school for 
students who are classified with disability labels. The principle of the LRE carries the 
built-in assumption that there are circumstances under which a segregated environment 
is appropriate, thereby perpetuating a belief system that there are certain conditions 
that create the criteria for placing people in restrictive or segregated environments.  
 
 
 2 
Creating the Conditions for Inclusion 
 
 
 
 
Inclusion of a student who has challenges to learning in a general education classroom 
may mean that the student receives his or her special education program of instruction 
at the same time his or her non-disabled peers are learning about or working on 
something else. Often this brand of special education also carries with it the presence of 
a special education teaching assistant or aide.   
 
 
                                                                                                                                                                  Presence in classrooms is not enough. It is not about receiving instruction in the regular
classroom. It is about membership in the student body of a classroom. It's about opportunities to 
make a friend and to be a friend to others and to share in the learning process, (Bunch, 1999) 
 
 
 
Placement in a general education classroom is only a portion of the equation leading to 
inclusion.  Real inclusion focuses on celebrating diversity and dealing with difference. 
Anything less leads to exclusion.  Research has shown that inclusion is academically and 
socially stronger for all students than are other educational responses to disability, 
(Bunch & Valeo, 1997).   
 
 
 
 
 3 
  Making All Education Special! 
 
 
 
 
 
Diversity when celebrated and embedded within the classroom curriculum across all 
subject areas creates the ideal environment in which inclusive classrooms thrive. The 
elements of inclusive classroom communities include:  peer tutoring, focus areas of 
interest, complementary group composition, meaningful content, and a focus on 
student abilities and talents.   Good teaching methods incorporate all of these elements 
into the exchange of information and experiential learning to maximize the opportunity 
for student success while simultaneously weaving the content of the lesson into the 
fabric of the academic learning standard(s) the lesson reinforces. 
 
Schumm, Vaughn and Leavell, (1994) provide a framework to facilitate the development 
of lesson planning that identifies the materials/resources; instructional 
strategies/adaptations; and evaluation/product needed for each level of student within 
an academic/project assignment.  To be a fully effective planning tool it is important 
that the teacher knows and understands the specific strengths, interests and needs of all 
of the students who are to be engaged in the lesson.  This allows the teacher to set 
different goals and objectives for each student while allowing all of the students to 
participate in the same academic activity, (Wehmeyer, 2002).  What follows is an 
example of the planning framework as it relates to one topic within the broad subject 
area called "biology," assuming the instructor is applying differentiated instruction 
methods for all of the students in the classroom.   
 
An instructor must be able to answer the following questions in order to complete the 
framework for planning:  
 
? What is the essential knowledge to be gained? 
? How do my students learn best? 
? What modifications to a lesson would permit more students to learn effectively in 
my classroom? 
? How will my students show how they have learned? 
 
 
Subject: Biology 
Project: Create an Argument For/Against Science and Ethics of Prenatal 
Testing for Determining Medical Conditions  
Academic Learning Standard: Mathematics, Science and Technology 
Standard Detail: Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles 
and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living 
environment and recognize the historical development of ideas in 
science. 
Performance Indicator: Present an argument and related evidence supporting one of the 
positions in the statement using historical and current data to 
sustain the position. 
  
 
 
 
what all students will learn 
what most students will learn
what some students will learn
Connect to additional 
appropriate learning 
standards! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 It Takes A Village... 
 
 
 
The inclusive classroom has a committed to upholding a distinct set of core values and 
principles concerning the learning community.  It accepts all of its members as equal 
participants within their abilities, talents and needs.  It is a classroom that presumes 
competence in all and believes that each and every student is capable of learning, 
(Bunch, 1999).   
 
For the educational professional this means that the classroom must create a 
community that shifts from thinking about the least restricted environment, (as in 
"should" a particular student participate), to thinking about how to 
 
? Celebrate Diversity 
? Develop A Sense of Belonging 
? Teach to/Learn from Difference 
? Keep Everyone Informed 
? Engage Students in Joint Decision-Making  
? Cultivate Shared and Personal Responsibility 
 
In an environment in which all students are welcome to participate.  
 
This can occur if educators are willing and have the support to 
 
? Spread Diversity Awareness Across All Curricula  
? Set the Expectation That Everyone Belongs  
? Cultivate Roles of Citizenship (i.e. service learning projects) 
? Presume Competence of All Students- Teach to the Strengths 
? Allow All Teachers to Become "Special" Educators 
? Use "Multiple Intelligence" as the Basis for Teaching Methodologies 
? Think About Learning Standards in Broad Terms 
? Develop Partnerships in Cooperative Learning Ventures 
? Use Existing Resources Flexibly 
 
Remember that the development of curriculum and learning standards were never 
intended to preside over the learning process. They were invented to facilitate the 
leaning process.   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 6 
   Resources & Reference 
 
 
 
Blessing, C. (2003). Setting the standard for inclusion in the classroom. Cornell 
University: Program on Employment and Disability 
 
 
Bunch, G. (1999). Inclusion: How to: essential classroom strategies. Toronto: Inclusion 
Press 
 
Bunch, G. & Valeo, A. (1997). Inclusion: recent research.  Toronto: Inclusion Press 
 
Kunc, N. (1992). The need to belong: rediscovering Maslow's hierarchy of needs. In 
Villa, R., Thoursand, J., Stainback, W. & Stainback, S.  Restructuring for Caring and 
Effective Education. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. 
 
Schumm, J.S., Vaughn, S. and Leavell, A. (1994). Planning pyramid: a framework for 
planning for diverse student needs during content area instruction.  The Reading 
Teacher, 47 (8), 608-615. 
 
Wehmeyer, M. (2002). Teaching students with mental retardation: providing access to 
the general curriculum. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. 
 


Establishing a New Standard for Inclusion in the Classroom

This paper challenges the generally accepted norm that special education is a place in which to put students rather than a process for supporting inclusion into the general education curriculum. The process of determining the Least Restricted Environment (LRE) for a student may actually serve to restrict students who have disabilities from participating in classes alongside their non-disabled peers. The paper offers an alternative model for developing lesson plans that can include students of varied learning abilities and identifies qualities that can and must be present in order to create an inclusive classroom.T14_PDF2.pdf: 2996 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020.0-T14_TXT.txt: 94 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020.1-T14_HTML.htm: 92 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

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