A state of the union on inclusion, this book issues a report card for the nation's schools. Phil Smith weaves a compelling story told in numbers about the lack of progress made in including all students, particularly those with intellectual disabilities, in the general education classroom. Contributing authors contextualize this larger story by focusing on the state of inclusion in particular contexts.... Smith and his contributors convincingly document small moments of possibility and progress, as well as the incessant backwards pull toward the status quo of segregated special education. Smith shows how the general education classroom remains a sacrosanct space - exclusionary, normative, and unyielding - and the disparate impact such exclusionary policies and practices have on students of color and students with disabilities.... Smith concludes this groundbreaking work with a set of guiding practices great and small that we can (and must) do as communities, as teacher educators, as policy makers, and as teachers to finally realize the promise of inclusion. (Beth Ferri, Associate Professor in the School of Education, Syracuse University)
A state of the union on inclusion, this book issues a report card for the nation's schools. Phil Smith weaves a compelling story told in numbers about the lack of progress made in including all students, particularly those with intellectual disabilities, in the general education classroom. Contributing authors contextualize this larger story by focusing on the state of inclusion in particular contexts.... Smith and his contributors convincingly document small moments of possibility and progress, as well as the incessant backwards pull toward the status quo of segregated special education. Smith shows how the general education classroom remains a sacrosanct space - exclusionary, normative, and unyielding - and the disparate impact such exclusionary policies and practices have on students of color and students with disabilities.... Smith concludes this groundbreaking work with a set of guiding practices great and small that we can (and must) do as communities, as teacher educators, as policy makers, and as teachers to finally realize the promise of inclusion. (Beth Ferri, Associate Professor in the School of Education, Syracuse University)