Re: Wall Street Article/

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

I am one of those parents your referring to. Zeb has been in a general

classroom since kindergarten. He will be starting high school in the fall. We

have had our good years and bad. Inclusion does not work without staff technical

training in differentiated instruction, built in collaborative time for the team

including the parent and proper supports. The general education teacher must

have a good attitude toward students with differences and be willing to work

closely with the sped teacher and parent. Zeb has had a few teachers with

attitudes in elementary school. Times have changed for teachers. Teachers need

to understand that when they chose a profession to teach, it is to teach all

students, including those with disabilities. I do not believe that inclusion is

for all students. I work at an autism school and most of the students could

never survive even five minutes in the general classroom. It would not be their

least restrictive environment. I do believe that

inclusion benefits all students in the general classroom. The typical students

that Zeb has gone to school with since kindergarten have all accepted him and

understand his strengths and weaknesses. They have advocated for him many times

when the teacher was having difficulty, telling a teacher what works and what

doesn't. My decision to place him in the general classroom verses a resource

room was not because I was ashamed of him. I based my decision soley on

education. I never expected him to learn as much of the general curriculum as

his typical peers but he would be exposed and learn the grade curriculum

material modified to his instructional level. Had he been educated in a resource

room, with lower expectations, he would have not been taught the grade

curriculum but exposed and taught a lifeskills curriculum. Our district resource

room graduates can all color within the lines. I chose to forgo that goal and

aim for higher expectations. Zeb sucks at coloring but he can

stand up in front of a class and present an awesome oral report. Zeb

understands that he has DS and has difficulty learning but he can learn. He

likes to be included and will shut down if he is made to feel differently than

his typical peers. A few times in middle school a sped teacher tried to remove

him from the classroom to take a test seperately than his classmates. The

teacher was highly insulted when Zeb refused siting procedural violations. He

has been taught to advocate for himself. He recently attended the his 8th grade

graduation dance with a date independently. My kid with SID that hates loud

noise. He had a blast but complained of sore feet! I do not regret the decision

that I made nine years ago. I do resent the time I spend to advocate each year

on his behalf, teaching teachers and defending my position to them regarding

inclusion.

Charlyne

Mom to Zeb 14 DS/OCD/ASD?

cmedrano@... wrote:

Sadly this is the case in most all cities. The problem is that it is

throwed on the teachers to teach special ed and I would say 85% are not able to

handle kids with disablities. I can see being a parent wanting my child included

but I also see it from a teachers side too. My daughter is 13 and mainstream

does wonderful with it. NO she can not do 7th grade work but she included

social. That is my goal for her to be included and have a life. Then my son who

is 9 and had DS and Autism and SID... fully special ed. I dare for him to be in

reg class.. the teacher and the kids would not learn/ teach a thing. He may one

day be main stream but for now.. he not ready for it! Then my 5yr with DS is

fully included 5K.. So I see it from all angles.

Sadly some parents push for inclusion for wrong reason(I see it locally not sure

if anywhere else) A few are ashame to admit there child is in special ed and

push for full inclusion and I hear the teacher(a friend) talk how horrible this

child does in class and how far behind she is and yet the child not socailable

and wants to play with no one.

I think parents need to get cue off the child where the child can learn best! I

also think the schools needs to educate more to our teachers and it not even a

fair number to have 16 kids and 10 special needs! Not unless you got 3-4

teachers in there!!! That where the fault is!

Stepping off my soap box!

Wall Street Article

SCRANTON, Pa. -- When school started last August,

veteran first-grade teacher McDermott made

sure to place one student, 8-year-old Gavern,

in a seat beside her own desk.

suffers from a rare genetic condition called

Syndrome, which causes learning disabilities

and medical ailments such as heart problems and

difficulty eating. Knowing that had disrupted

her kindergarten classes a year earlier, Ms. McDermott

wanted to keep her new pupil under close watch.

The strategy backfired. One morning, swept an

arm along the teacher's desk, scattering framed photos

of Ms. McDermott's family across the classroom. A

glass frame shattered, and another hit a student in

the arm. Though no one was hurt, Ms. McDermott says

she lost hours of instruction time getting the

children to settle down after the disruption.

From the first weeks of school, Ms. McDermott found

's plight heartbreaking. " No! No! No! " she

remembers her student screaming at times. " Want Mommy!

Want Mommy! "

" She looked at me, like she was saying, 'Help me,' and

I couldn't. How could I possibly give what she

needs? "

Years ago, students like would have been taught

in separate classrooms. Today, a national movement to

" mainstream " special-education students has integrated

many of them into the general student body. As a

result, regular teachers are instructing more children

with severe disabilities -- often without extra

training or support.

This year, Ms. McDermott counted 19 students in her

class at Whittier Elementary School. Five had

disabilities, including attention deficit disorder and

delays in reading and math. The teacher worried that

she was failing all her students -- especially .

" It used to be a joy to go to work, " she says. " Now

all I want to do is run away. "

In Scranton and elsewhere, the rush to mainstream

disabled students is alienating teachers and driving

some of the best from the profession. It has become a

little-noticed but key factor behind teacher turnover,

which experts say largely accounts for a shortage of

qualified teachers in the U.S.

See a chartbook showing the new challenges facing

teachers as a result of mainstreaming.

Each year, about 16% of teachers quit their jobs,

either leaving the profession or moving to another

school, according to recent U.S. Department of

Education surveys. Of those, 35% cite difficulties

with mainstreaming special-education students as a

main reason for their dissatisfaction, according to an

analysis of the data by Ingersoll, a professor

of education and sociology at the University of

Pennsylvania.

" It's a red flag, " Prof. Ingersoll says.

" Mainstreaming is putting pressure on teachers... and

the proponents of this reform are going to need to

address it sooner or later. "

Neil Hunt, a seventh-grade math teacher in the Fairfax

County, Va., public schools, recently quit his job in

part because of mainstreaming. " I don't feel I can do

what's necessary for these kids, " says Mr. Hunt, a

former Navy lieutenant who plans to return to the

service in a civilian job. " And some of the kids'

behavior is such a distraction for the rest of the

class that they're losing a lot of time, too. "

In Arizona, Tom Horne, the state's superintendent of

schools, says mainstreaming special-education students

with behavior problems can be " extremely destructive "

to teachers' morale and " a big factor in teachers'

leaving. "

Also known as " inclusion, " mainstreaming reverses a

once-common practice that Congress determined was

unjust: the segregation of disabled children in

settings without proper instruction. Many educators

say children learn more through mainstreaming because

they are taught by better-qualified teachers and gain

valuable social skills from their peers. By 2005,

about 54% of special-education students were taught in

" fully inclusive " settings -- spending 80% or more of

the school day in a regular classroom -- up from 33%

in 1990.

Pennsylvania has been a major battleground in the

national wars over special education. Litigation here

helped lead to the 1975 federal legislation now known

as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act,

which requires a " free appropriate " public education

for children with disabilities. The law fostered

mainstreaming by mandating that disabled children,

when possible, be taught in the " least restrictive

environment. "

Despite its key role, Pennsylvania was slow to embrace

inclusion until 2005, when the state and the Public

Interest Law Center of Philadelphia received court

approval to settle a decade-old class-action case

brought on behalf of 280,000 special-education

students who demanded inclusion in regular classrooms.

Districts that aren't sufficiently inclusive risk

losing funding.

But even some advocates of inclusion say it isn't

working as they had hoped. Judith Gran, the

plaintiffs' lead attorney on the case, says that some

districts aren't mainstreaming but " main-dumping " --

packing classes with disabled children without

adequate staffing. " You hear a lot about it from

teachers, " she says. " They are the ones on the front

lines, and they aren't getting support. "

The Scranton district has 9,800 students, 16% of whom

are in special education. About half have learning

disabilities, such as dyslexia. Others struggle with

problems that include intellectual impairment, autism

and emotional disorders.

LEARNING CURVE

.. The Issue: The trend of mainstreaming

special-education students is drawing increasing

criticism, especially from teachers.

.. Behind the Debate: Some parents and educators say

students with disabilities get better treatment in

general classroom settings. But many teachers lack

training and support.

.. The Bottom Line: Dissatisfaction with mainstreaming

has become a factor driving teacher turnover, a major

problem in U.S. education.

Until 2004, most of these students were set apart in

about 70 special-education classes. By last year, the

system had eliminated most of those classes, which

generally had 15 students, a special-education teacher

and an aide. Last year, 75% of students with

disabilities in the Scranton School District spent 80%

of their day or more in regular classrooms, up from

28% in 2003.

The shift has sparked fierce opposition from the

Scranton chapter of the American Federation of

Teachers, which has long been critical of

mainstreaming. The issue is expected to be an

important part of negotiations next year, when the

teachers' contract expires. In a recent union survey

of Scranton's 750 teachers, two-thirds of those

responding listed inclusion as their No. 1 or No. 2

complaint, outranking all other concerns. (The survey

didn't ask about pay and benefits.)

" Inclusion doesn't work unless class sizes are greatly

reduced, " wrote one teacher. " Children are suffering

due to lack of support, " wrote another. " We need more

help! " added a third.

Janet Strelecki, president of Whittier's Parent

Teacher Association, says she was inclined to favor

inclusion because she runs a home for the

developmentally disabled. But when her own daughter,

Miranda, who has no special needs, was placed in Ms.

McDermott's classroom last year, Ms. Strelecki changed

her mind. She says Miranda often felt frustrated

because she didn't get much attention from Ms.

McDermott, whom she calls " a wonderful teacher. "

Ms. Strelecki says as many as 40 Whittier parents have

complained about inclusion. " The general consensus is

that it doesn't work having all these kids together, "

she says.

Some, however, praise inclusion. Sarene O'Malley says

her dyslexic daughter felt " ashamed " when she

was in a separate special-education classroom.

Educators say that's a common sentiment among children

with learning disabilities. Through the inclusion

program, Ms. O'Malley says , who just graduated

from Scranton High School, won new friends and

confidence and plans to go to college next year. " She

never would have gone on this path " without inclusion,

Ms. O'Malley says.

Sheridan, Scranton's school chief, says he

sees only " pockets of resistance " to inclusion. For

evidence that the policy is working, Mr. Sheridan

cites the system's overall results. Last year,

Standard & Poor's, the bond-rating agency, listed

Scranton as one of only 29 Pennsylvania school systems

that were " outperformers " in state tests of reading

and math proficiency for each of the preceding four

years.

Mr. Sheridan says that President Bush's No Child Left

Behind law requires that all students take the same

state tests and be instructed by a teacher " highly

qualified " in each subject. In his view, inclusion is

the best way to meet the demands of both No Child Left

Behind and the federal disabilities law.

McDermott teaches first grade at Whittier

Elementary School in Scranton, Pa.

Still, many teachers complain that they lack training

and support. When Scranton started the program three

years ago, teachers say they received about three days

of training, primarily in " differentiated

instruction, " which often entails breaking up classes

into several groups and using different sets of

materials for each. Administrators say principals

often provided more training, including sessions on

autism and other disabilities.

Special-education instructors assist in regular

classrooms and pull students out for extra help, but

there are few to go around. Scranton has 86 specially

trained instructors, along with a support staff of 30

speech and language experts, psychologists and others.

Together, they must serve roughly 1,600

special-education students in 18 schools.

Under the teachers' union contract, the district is

supposed to place no more than two disabled students

in each classroom " where possible. " But, despite that

wording, principals often use their discretion to

place more special-education students in certain

classes.

Ann Langan, a ninth-grade teacher at Scranton High

School, teaches a basic science class. This year, she

had 16 children in one class, 12 of whom were in

special education. Another of her classes had 20, 14

with disabilities. Zaleski, a fifth-grade

teacher, had 16 students, half of whom were in the

special-education program. She says the IQs in her

class range from 50 to 150. As far as understanding

how to teach disabled children, she says, " How much

knowledge did I have? Probably zip. "

Last October, the union filed a grievance with the

school system, alleging a violation at the high school

of the teachers' contract. Administrators told the

union they would divide special-education students

more evenly this fall.

Few have struggled more with inclusion than Ms.

McDermott, who teaches at Whittier Elementary, a

century-old red-brick building perched on a hillside

with views of downtown Scranton's faded storefronts

and factories.

Ms. McDermott tries to maintain a bright, welcoming

classroom, with shiny laminated paper apples hanging

on strings from the ceiling, a " birthday train "

marking each child's big day with a cake and a candle,

and a picture of Luther King Jr. by the door.

The daughter of a fireman and a Scranton schools'

secretary, Ms. McDermott wanted to be a teacher since

she was in kindergarten. In 1974, she graduated from

Penn State with a degree in elementary education, then

worked as a substitute teacher until she won her own

classroom a decade later. " I ran to work, " says Ms.

McDermott, now 54 years old. " I couldn't wait to get

there. I loved being in charge of this world of

learning. "

Whittier, which is housed in two buildings several

blocks apart, has only one special-education teacher

-- and two aides -- for the entire school, leaving Ms.

McDermott largely on her own. Larry Miner, Whittier's

principal, says he tends to concentrate special-needs

students in one classroom for each grade to make it

easier to schedule services. He acknowledges that Ms.

McDermott has an unusually large number. But to handle

those children, he says he looks for the most capable

instructors. Ms. McDermott " is a very gifted teacher, "

he says. " She is very patient. "

From the start of this year, Ms. McDermott's biggest

challenge was . Along with Syndrome,

has sensory processing disorder, also common

among autistic children. The first-grader, who gets

nourishment from a feeding tube in her stomach, hit

other children, screamed for hours, pounded computer

keyboards with her fists and tore up worksheets,

according to the teacher.

Mr. Miner says the school system offered to have her

attend one of the district's few separate classrooms

for the severely disabled. Her parents, Philip and

Johanna Gavern, recall no such offer. Based on the

report of a private psychologist they hired, they

believed that could make academic progress in a

mainstream classroom, as long as she had a full-time

aide trained in special education. They asked the

school system for one, but were refused.

Mr. Miner maintains that the approach wouldn't have

made " much difference. " The school's special-education

aides, he says, have only high-school diplomas and

scant disability training. did get full-time

classroom assistance from a local mental-health

agency, paid for by the state. But that aide has no

education training and was present only to help

stay focused and perform basic tasks.

received 6½ hours of special services a week.

These included speech and language support and

occupational therapy -- mostly in half-hour or

one-hour pullout sessions, according to 's

individualized education program, or IEP, the legal

document that outlines what the district must provide.

After school, 's family privately arranged for

her to spend afternoons receiving a variety of

physical, music and social-group therapies.

Ms. McDermott has no expertise in handling

Syndrome or any of the other disorders she must manage

each day. So she improvised, finding a number board

with tiles that engaged , and, with her own

money, buying kindergarten reading primers.

Soon after the start of the school year, Ms. McDermott

started keeping a journal, recording her time with

to document what she considered an intolerable

situation.

Ms. McDermott wrote of touching and hitting

other students -- albeit gently, with a kind of

slapping motion that didn't pose any threat.

also threw papers and tore up assignments.

Her behavior could be unpredictable and unnerving. " At

story-time, turned to children next to her on

either side and was making forceful spitting sounds

into their ears, " she wrote in an entry for Aug. 31.

" I can't listen because of , " Shaun Hopkins, 6,

a general education student, said recently.

, who can be quick to smile and laugh and wears

a neat part in her short blonde hair, loves computers

and, at home, enjoys listening on headphones to the

Lion King and other Disney movies. But, even when

happily ensconced on a terminal in the back of the

classroom, she could grow frustrated. On Sept. 7, she

banged the keyboard with her fists, took off her

headset and threw it down on the keys. Her aide from

the mental-health agency took her out of the room.

On Sept. 27, , who had been moaning quietly,

launched into a full-throated scream, which lasted

from 1:25 p.m. to 2:15 p.m., according to a journal

entry. Ms. McDermott didn't know why. 's aide

moved her into the hall and then to a room in the

basement, though the class could still hear muffled

cries, the teacher says.

The school called her mother to take her home. Ms.

McDermott says she still remembers Ms. Gavern picking

up her screaming child and carrying her, legs

dangling, past other parents gathered for pickup. Ms.

McDermott says she later learned that was

feeling pain from her feeding tube.

Through December or January, Ms. Gavern says she would

have to pull out of school and take her home

once or twice a week, usually in the late morning. Ms.

Gavern used to work as a property manager for the

rental units she owns with her husband, a real-estate

agent. The couple had to hire others to do her job, so

she would be available to pick up . " I couldn't

do anything because I was waiting by the phone, " Ms.

Gavern says.

Tensions grew between teacher and parent. Ms. Gavern

says she became convinced that Ms. McDermott didn't

want in her class and, at a fall IEP meeting,

expressed her concerns.

" I don't think she has the knowledge, " Ms. Gavern says

of Ms. McDermott. " I don't think she has the support.

It's not entirely her fault. She was overwhelmed. The

school system was not there to back her up. I blame

them, too. "

Ms. McDermott says she agrees with that assessment,

adding that " the system was not set up for children

like . "

On May 3, Ms. McDermott planned an art project

painting flower pots for Mother's Day. " Oh, no! Oh,

no! " shouted, stamping her feet and waving her

arms, before being led out of the room. had

wanted to spend more time on the computer.

With the art assignment finished, , dressed in

an embroidered blouse, a pressed khaki skirt and pink

sneakers, returned to her place in the back of the

classroom, where she sat next to her mental-health

aide. The two worked on their own, while the class did

a reading lesson.

" Do you know six minus three? " her aide asked. " No! "

replied. With the help of her attendant,

copied the numbers 16, 19 and 20 from a workbook.

" Very nice 20, " her aide said.

Later, briefly rejoined the class.

raised her hand, volunteering to read a book out loud

in front of the class. " All fall down, " read,

clearly, though from a book simpler than those of her

classmates. " Good job! " Ms. McDermott told her.

Despite such glimmers of hope, the Gaverns have given

up on Scranton. This month, due to their

dissatisfaction with 's school, they sold their

house and moved to nearby s Summit. The family

had heard positive reports from other parents about

the school system, which may put in a separate

class for at least part of the day.

" It just hasn't worked out at all, " says Mr. Gavern,

surrounded by packing boxes. " Inclusion sounds great

on paper. But the [scranton] school system isn't

prepared. "

With the school year just over, Ms. McDermott says she

feels tremendous relief, and the migraine headaches

that once afflicted her almost weekly have

disappeared. But she is still struggling with her own

future. Ms. McDermott has decided to stay through the

end of next year -- her 31st as a teacher -- when she

can quit with full health benefits and start a new

career.

" It's the end, " Ms. McDermott says. " I don't have it

in me any more. I used to think I'd stay forever until

they kicked me out. It's sad. It's too sad. "

__________________________________________________________

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