This article identifies seven "sins", which are barriers to inclusive practices in secondary schools: Negative teacher perspectives; lack of knowledge regarding special education terminology, issues and laws; poor collaboration skills; lack of administration support; limited instructional repertoire; nappropriate assessment procedures; and conflict between scheduling and time management. The literature on inclusive practice is cited as evidence for each "sin," and advice for avoiding each of them is provided. When the term inclusion is spoken in the realm of education, it sparks controversy. The term inclusion refers to the practice of including another group of students in regular classrooms, those with problems of health and/or physical, developmental, and emotional problems" (Nelson, Ralonsky, & McCarthy, 2004, p.
442). The way inclusive practices are implemented at the secondary level varies substantially from school to school, istrict to district, and state to state. In one middle or high school, inclusion may mean that only students with mild disabilities are educated in the general education classroom and only for their core academic subjects.Another school's inclusive practices may have all students with disabilities, regardless of the severity of the disability, educated for the entire day in general education classrooms while receiving only supportive services from the special education teacher.
This second example of inclusion is referred to as "full inclusion" (Kauffman, Landrum, Mock, B. Sayeski, ; K. L. Sayeski, 2005). The inclusion of students with disabilities has significantly increased over the past decade (Kamens, Loprete, ; Slostad, 2003).
According to the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, it was reported that around 76. % of students with disabilities are educated in the regular classroom for some part of the school day (U. S. Department of Education, 2002). Mastropierie and Scruggs (2001) have identified significant challenges that prevent inclusive education from being successful at the secondary level, including the level and pace of content being taught, expectations of independent study skills, ncreasing number of content area classes, and meeting the demands of high stakes testing.
These and many other obstacles must be overcome before inclusion can be deemed effective by parents, teachers, students, and administrators.This article identifies seven deadly "sins" that are barriers to establishing effective inclusive practices in middle and high schools, and it gives some advice on how to avoid them. School district personnel, school administrators, school consultants, general educators, special educators, and paraprofessionals must work together to avoid hese school-wide sins because committing, them could ultimately crumble efforts to effectively include students with disabilities into secondary general education classrooms.S Research has shown that negative attitudes of staff members involved in inclusion programs can undermine the efforts of inclusion (Centra, 1990). deBettencourt (1999) conducted a study which investigated the attitudes of secondary general educators who taught in inclusive classrooms. Of the seventy-one teachers who were surveyed, the majority of general educators either disagreed with the concept of ainstreaming or did not have strong feelings regarding the issue (deBettencourt, 1999).
When administrators, teachers, guidance counselors, parents, and related service personnel have negative perspectives about inclusive education at a particular school, those who teach in inclusive classrooms at that school find it very difficult to achieve a high level of success because their support networks are abolished. Negative perspectives about inclusive education make schools who try to implement inclusive classrooms likely candidates for failure. I believe a great way to void negative perspectives for staff members is to start each morning by giving themselves and others affirmations.State something positive about yourself or a colleague, and then state something positive that you will do for the students on your school's campus.
It may help to write down positive thoughts on a sticky note and place it somewhere so it will be seen it throughout the day. Middle and High School personnel may also want to display encouraging thoughts throughout their school campus and provide simple recognition for staff members' hard work. This will help to better establish a positive schoolwide climate (Bauer ; Brown, 2001).Another way to avoid negative thinking is to read a passage out of an inspirational book each morning.
If one does not have time to do these things in the morning, it is important to reserve a specific time during the day to evaluate daily thoughts and feelings, even if it is Just twentyminutes. Journaling your thoughts is another way to focus on the positive and not the negative. When feeling frustrated and overwhelmed, write down the feelings and think critically about what triggered those feelings and what you can control in your environment to change those feelings into something positive (Maxwell, 2006).
