Common Misconceptions About Students with Disabilities

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The most daring solution to this problem, though it does not seem ideal or possible, is to allow all special needs students to be mainstreamed in to all regular classes and ask the teachers to modify their lessons to fit all students. As previously stated, this is a very daring thing to ask of teachers; although, this would be an ideal solution. The steps to carry out this solution would be to first properly educate teachers about the needs of these students, place students in the regular education classroom, then differentiate instruction to fit the needs of those students. Those who are involved, the teachers, would say that this would be too much work and much more pressure on them than what they already are under. Teachers would have to develop new rubrics and grading systems specifically for those students with special needs. This is not an easy task, “Teachers at all levels of education today struggle in their efforts to assign fair, accurate, and meaningful grades to students with special needs.” (Guskey, Jung) These grading systems take time and would only add to the already daunting task that teachers must undertake. Teachers would also have little outside help, “Despite increased numbers of students with disabilities being included in general education classrooms for greater portions of the school day, little guidance has come from the special education community to address the challenge of grading included students. Lacking specific policies or recommendations, most general education teachers make informal, individual grading adaptations for such students. (Guskey, Jung) This would also cost the state to educate these individuals before the implementation could begin, adding to the already high cost of educating students with special needs. A cost that has only been rising in the last decade, “…the total expenditure to educate the average student with disabilities is approximately 1.9 times the amount required to educate the typical student in regular education who has no special needs” (Christie) Nonetheless, you can never put a price on properly educating students.

The main goal and solution to the majority of problems that surround the special education system is to integrate these students back into the regular education classroom. With options of co-teaching, differentiated instruction, and standard based assessments and grading. Co-teaching is a great method that some schools have piloted and begun using, “As co-teaching was originally conceived, its most important goal was to place students with special needs in general education so that they could learn alongside their peers.” (Friend) This method includes a regular education teacher and a special education teacher together in the same classroom at one time, “Co-teachers were told that they should build a relationship that was like a professional marriage, sharing instruction equally.” (Friend) The two teachers will work together to bring differentiated instruction and techniques to allow special needs students to meet the goals of their individualized education programs. Co-teaching can use such strategies as station work, small groups, and parallel teaching. Any and all instruction that is done is to meet the needs of all the students in the classroom. Making sure that the regular education students and the students with disabilities are receiving the same amount of instruction, without being singled out because of their differences. That is co-teaching’s main goal, “Their aim is to create a classroom culture of acceptance, in which learning variations and strategies to address those variations are the norm. The result is that students with disabilities learn the grade-level curriculum but also learn the strategies that will help them succeed throughout their lives.” (Friend) This strategy, is the only true way to provide equality for all students.

If teachers were able to overcome these obstacles and include these students in their regular education classroom, the results could be outstanding. Teachers could use differentiated methods such as a standard based report card to help the student and parent better understand their placement in the classroom. These standard based report cards could be based on several different things and could maximize on the abilities that they already have. Informing parents of how their exceptional students are doing in their classroom is sometimes difficult, “A standards-based report card, on the other hand, that includes grades or marks based on carefully articulated learning standards in each subject area, provides families with the specific feedback they require to ensure that improvement efforts are appropriately focused and more likely to succeed.” (Guskey, Jung) By using these standards students can focus on optimizing the abilities that they already have.

Nonetheless, no matter the obstacles involved, the benefits would definitely outweigh the negatives. Students would have much more self-confidence, better prepared to enter the real world, reduce bullying, and allow students to experience the general education classroom. Alternate solutions that might be suggested by by-standers include: keeping students in segregated classrooms (just as they have always been), only allow them in regular education elective classrooms, allow for special instruction time with the teacher, or to begin excluding students from the special education system who “don’t really need it”.

Works Cited

Christie, K. “Expectations for Students with Special Needs.” Stateline. 2002. 650-651.

Friend, M., “Welcome to Co-Teaching 2.0.” Educational Leadership. 2016. 16-22.

Guskey, T., Jung, L., “Grading and Reporting in a Standards-Based Environment: Implications

for Students With Special Needs.” Theory Into Practice. 48. 2009. 53–62.

Jobling, A., Moni, K., “‘I never imagined I’d have to teach these children’: providing authentic

learning experiences for secondary pre-service teachers in teaching students with special needs.” Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education. 32. 1. 2004. 5 – 22.