A recent article in the Reno-Gazette Journal investigated how successful inclusion of students with disabilities translated in a higher graduation rate for students with disabilities. In the article several experts are interviewed who believe there is a positive link between inclusion and graduation rates.
Below is an excerpt from the article by Siobhan McAndrew titled “Districts that prioritize inclusion cited for high graduation rates for children with disabilities”
Deborah Telfer, director of education at the University of Dayton in Ohio, said the conversations about special education need to change. Telfer was the principal investigator for the National Center on Educational Outcomes, a federally funded research group that studies school outcomes for children with disabilities.
She also worked on the national report, Moving Your Numbers, a research project that profiled districts that have improved graduation rates for students with disabilities.
“We spend all this time on where kids are going to sit and what program,” she said of discussions about special education.
“If we change the mentality in special education and know that children are going to be side-by-side in the classroom, there’s less angst and time wasted on finding the golden ticket,” she said of segregated programs that often group children with disabilities together.
“Instead, the conversation should be, they are going to be in that class, in that seat. What do we have to do to make it work?”
Click the link below to read the entire article.