At Baltimore's Eastern Technical High School, the Resource Center helps make full inclusion effective for all students. In this small and busy classroom, there is no way of distinguishing the school's 80 special needs students from the more than 1,200 regular education students. All who enter have special needs, whether they are deemed gifted and talented in English or are identified as having a severe discrepancy between their intellectual ability and their achievement in mathematics.
Some students are required to report here each week. Their Individualized Education Plans mandate that they must have a specific number of hours of service from a special educator. The school's two special educators, or resource teachers, are based in the Resource Center. Many of the visitors, however, are students who are having academic difficulties but have never heard of an Individualized Education Plan (the legally required plan for educating students identified as having disabilities).
Today, for example, Jerome, an 11th grade special education student, walks in and signs his name in the Resource Center Log. “Miss Jan, I need help with my math—again,” he tells the instructional assistant.
“You're not alone, Jerome. I've needed help in math my whole life,” she responds, her smile radiating welcome. She beckons Jerome to join four other students being tutored in math.
Elsewhere in the room, the two special educators work with small groups of students. In one corner, Miss Lynn assists three 12th graders with their interdisciplinary senior project. Meanwhile, Miss Barb prepares to lead four 10th graders to the Media Center to help them revise their science assignments using the computers there.
At lunch time, three small “lunch bunches” will meet as usual in the Resource Center, where they study together for tests or just talk about life in the teenage lane. They respect others in the room and often sit quietly, enjoying the company of friends—those with and without an Individualized Education Plan. “It's better eating lunch in the Resource Center than the cafeteria,” explains Rich, a 9th grader with a severe reading disability, “because you can have a working lunch and read or study. If you do that in the cafeteria, people call you a nerd.”
Students may ask their teachers for a pass to go immediately to the Resource Center, or they make arrangements ahead of time with the resource teachers. Because of the center's open, invitational approach, it can get crowded. Last year, more than 5,000 signatures were entered in the Resource Center Log. The students and teachers have managed the flow, however.
It gets especially busy on Fridays—typical test days—and during exam weeks. During these times, the Resource Center spills over into unassigned classroom space, where both regular education teachers and parents volunteer to provide testing support.
Supporting Full Inclusion
Eastern—a comprehensive high school that offers programs in 15 career majors and the usual academic courses—also offers the added bonus of instruction and internships in construction technology, culinary arts, and engineering. The 80 learning disabled students currently enrolled range from Intensity I to Intensity IV students. No seriously emotionally disturbed students (Intensity V) attend the school.
Eastern has been a full inclusion school since 1993. The school has no self-contained special education classrooms, and none of the stigma of special education. No more than four or five students identified as disabled are placed in any regular education classroom.
An inclusion team works with faculty members to provide ongoing staff development and support, as needed. The team consists of the two special educators; as well as the Humanities Department chair and the associate principal, who chairs the Admission/Review/Dismissal team.
The team provides teachers with a one-page “snapshot” Individualized Education Plan—a brief summary of the full plan for each student with a disability. These written sketches enable teachers to assess students' requirements quickly, without having to plow through the voluminous cumulative file.
In addition, the resource teachers often go to classrooms or to the library to facilitate a lesson or activity. Most teachers consider “resourcing” another way to deliver academic support schoolwide.
Accommodating Learning Styles
Although some teachers were initially skeptical of the inclusion philosophy, they've learned that having special education students in their classrooms requires minimal instructional modifications. In Principles of Technology, for example, regular education students may have as much trouble mastering the highly challenging calculations as do the students whose Individualized Education Plans specifically address their problems with math calculations. And sometimes an English or career education teacher will send a group of as many as five students of differing abilities to get feedback from one of the resource teachers on their compositions or career portfolios.
Teachers and administrators work collaboratively with the resource personnel to ensure that they address various learning styles or modify curriculum materials as needed. In this sense, the Resource Center has been instrumental in improving instructional practices. Teachers drop by to receive aid in lesson planning, or simply to observe. They also volunteer some of their unassigned time there.
In the mirror of their colleagues' practice, teachers see the strengths and weaknesses of their own instruction. They witness the problems that vague or confusing testing or classwork directions give rise to, or the impractical length and content of assignments from colleagues in their own department.
From seeing for themselves the vast numbers of students who come to the Resource Center, teachers have revised their attitudes about learning disabilities. They realize that some students are visual or kinesthetic learners, and therefore have trouble comprehending information delivered in lectures.
The new Principles of Technology teacher, for example, had been a college instructor for several years and was used to presenting information through lectures. One of the special education teachers helped him alter his delivery for students with a range of learning styles.
Obviously all students—not just those who are learning disabled—will benefit when, for example, a teacher changes his or her usual auditory style to a more visual approach (or vice versa). Too often, however, regular education teachers have been taught to teach curriculum, not students. Teachers also may neglect to individualize instruction because they feel pressured by supervisors to cover course material within a given period of time.
As teachers at Eastern have worked together and shared ideas, techniques, and materials in the Resource Center, the sense of community has had positive outcomes both pedagogically and socially. Parents, too, have become part of the community. They have volunteered to cover the Resource Center when the resource teachers participate in Admission/Review/Dismissal Team meetings each month, and to assist other faculty members in their classrooms. As a result, Eastern students have become comfortable with a variety of adults in the Resource Center.
Reaping Results
In the two years of full inclusion and the use of the Resource Center, both special education and general education students have seen their course grades and standardized test scores improve. This is in keeping with findings of research and evaluation of inclusive education nationwide (Lipsky and Gartner 1995). Disabled students who are integrated into general education classrooms after experiencing self-contained special education classes repeatedly do better and often say, “I don't want to go back.”
At Eastern, a number of factors may have contributed to the improved performance. Low-achieving students have received the review, practice, clarity, and systematic feedback they need (Wang et al. 1994/95). As one grandmother wrote of her 9th grade grandson, without the “patience and hard work of Miss Lynn and Miss Jan, he would be sitting in summer school this summer.”
In addition, as one teacher remarked, “Individual and small group work is exactly what these students need for self-esteem and academic advancement.” The two special educators also believe that an inviting, caring climate, and a positive work ethic have motivated all students to experience success.
The inclusion team has also seen an evolution in the resource concept. During their Admission/Review/Dismissal team conferences this year, several students asked to be removed from special education. “Why do I need special ed?” one student asked. “All I need to do is go to the Resource Center; anyone can get help there. Sometimes we help each other when the ladies are real busy.”
The inclusion team stresses that self-advocacy is one of the keys to learning. If students know their strengths and weaknesses and can articulate their needs, then they can go on to address them with appropriate assistance.
In addition, special education students have realized that their classmates also have strengths and weaknesses, and that by working collaboratively, they all can learn and grow together. Indeed, this has been one of the most positive outgrowths of the Resource Center. It has become a place where there is a reduced fear of human differences, accompanied by increased comfort and awareness; growth in social cognition; improved self-concept; and the development of personal principles and warm, caring friendships (Staub and Peck 1995).
