Measuring Inclusive Education: Volume 3

This chapter provides an overview of inclusive education, specifically examining conceptualisations of inclusive education and some of the models used to frame an evaluation of the practice. While international human rights agreements, covenants and legislation provide definitions that focus on equity, access, opportunity and rights, inclusive education continues to lack a tight conceptual focus that may contribute to its misconception and often confused practices. In the absence of a unified definition of what inclusion is, attempts to measure or compare such a complex equity issue are challenging. Some promising models do, however, exist and are explored in this chapter.

This chapter draws on data from an empirical study investigating ethical challenges and dilemmas in inclusive classrooms in order to consider the ways in which such issues may impact the effective implementation and measurement of inclusion. Data from interviews conducted with 12 classroom teachers show that teachers frequently face ethical problems in their practice. Most concerning are those related to the discriminatory behaviors and practices of colleagues. While teachers acknowledge that these behaviors and practices disadvantage students, most elect to compromise their beliefs, professional responsibilities, and ethical principles in order to protect fellow professionals for fear of negative reprisals. Electing loyalty to colleagues over the best interests of students raises questions regarding the measurement of inclusive education. Responses on measurement tools may reflect a desire for teachers to protect colleagues or themselves, providing an inaccurate picture of the situation. On the other hand, honest responses to measurement initiatives may come at the expense of collegial relationships, potentially undermining the very inclusive practices such measurement processes are trying to encourage.

The concept of inclusive education has been largely debated and developed within a western context and its application within other cultural situations can be challenging. This chapter considers how the interpretation of inclusion within India is influenced by traditional values from within that society which may challenge some of the more conventional ideas within this area. In particular, consideration is given to the ways in which teachers and policy makers define those conditions that might support inclusive schooling and evaluate the ways in which schools are responding to change.

All countries need to track the implementation of their educational policies and legislation. The justifications and pressures for mapping such developments are very clear at the international level, as can be seen in the 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) call for data collection and monitoring at State level. They are also apparent at the European level, as outlined in the European Council priorities and targets outlined in the education and training ET 2020 strategy. This chapter will focus on the current situation in European Union member countries. It will attempt to identify the issues that must be addressed by systems of data collection at international and national levels in order to monitor learners’ rights to inclusive education.

This chapter will address four key areas related to resourcing inclusive education. Consideration will be given first to an international perspective on models of funding, reviewing direct or student-based approaches, and decentralized versus local organization of funding. The relationships between funding and implementation of inclusive education will then be explored, looking at ways of measuring these using indicators or protocols. Third, continuous improvement, planning, and accountability will be reviewed for their role in setting priorities, targets, and benchmarking progress while addressing competing resource needs. Finally, approaches to building capacity to support inclusive practice through a range of approaches will be proffered.

This chapter will provide an overview of the types of concerns that are evident in the research literature regarding how well teachers are prepared to teach in inclusive classrooms citing both preservice education and in-service professional development/learning. It will present an overview of the measurements that have been used to measure teachers’ perceptions of preparedness for inclusive environments and the use of surveys to assess attitudes, beliefs, and values. The chapter will conclude with a discussion regarding measuring teachers’ perceptions to inform/improve teacher preparation efforts/policies/practices and what needs to be done to improve teacher preparation for inclusive education.

Leading inclusion is a complex field of practice that is framed in traditional conceptions of school administration. Leadership in inclusive schools is a constant struggle with fluctuating dimensions, often compounding difficulties for students with difference and disability. Nevertheless, inclusive school leadership remains an important component of successful practice of inclusive education, where all students with diverse abilities equally benefit. This chapter provides an introduction to different types of leadership practices that promote inclusive practices. A key focus of the chapter is to discuss the social theory of Bourdieu in relation to understanding and measuring what we consider as effective inclusive school leadership. This framework provides both theoretical and practical approaches in developing inclusive school leadership practices and ways effective inclusive leadership practices could be measured.

Over nearly two decades the Supporting Effective Teaching project examined the characteristics of teachers that result in successful inclusion of students with disabilities in Canadian regular education classrooms. These studies revealed that teachers who rate high in adapting and calibrating instruction for students who have special needs are the most successful overall with all their students. In this chapter, we present an adaptation of the observation scale that we used to rate effective inclusive instructional practices. The adapted scale can be used both as a self-rating and as a third-party measurement scale of effective teaching practices. We link each element of the scale to the Universal Design for Learning framework. We discuss how challenges to effective practices are affected by teacher beliefs about ability and disability, collegial differences in beliefs and practices, and the focus set by the leadership in the school.

This chapter reviews the international literature in order to support ongoing international development work on indicators for measuring inclusive education. Building on previous work in this area, this chapter outlines 13 themes in the international literature that should be considered in the development of a set of indicators for measuring inclusive education and has produced one extra thematic area for consideration.

There is a need for a more critical perspective and reporting about the value of taking a model of inclusion developed in western countries and based upon the human rights ethos applying it in developing countries. This chapter will report firstly on how the Index for Inclusion (hereinafter referred to as the Index) was used in Australia as a tool for review and development; and secondly how the process of using the Index is adjusted for use in the Pacific Islands and other developing nations in collaborative and culturally sensitive ways to support and evaluate progress towards inclusive education. Examples are provided from both contexts to demonstrate the impact of the Index as an effective tool to support a more inclusive response to diversity in schools.

This chapter reviews the history of an approach to networking between practitioners which uses inquiry-based methods to document innovative examples of inclusive education. The networking task is located in the context of efforts to promote Education for All which have so far failed to include the economically poorest and most marginalised children. The case of the Pacific region’s efforts to include children with disability in education is presented as a particular challenge, given its small, multilingual and geographically scattered population. An emerging strategy is presented as a framework for analysing the context of, and promoting greater conceptual clarity around, inclusive education in the Pacific region. Ultimately this networking approach has the potential to measure progress towards a more nuanced conceptualisation of the inclusive education agenda.

Despite the existence of legislation and policy, the inclusion of students with special needs remains a challenge for teachers when research-based pedagogies and collaboration are not translated into practice. Given emerging Indexes for inclusion, perhaps we should be attending to measuring school and classroom indicators of inclusive education to allow for professional development for teachers in an empirical and guided manner. Following a brief introduction to the importance of inclusive practice in schools, this chapter will address teacher use of research-based pedagogies and curriculum differentiation required to enhance success with students in schools; teachers’ capacity to communicate about learning using professional language and collaborative problem-solving processes; teachers’ sense of self-efficacy when working with students who have special needs; and translation of these research-based skills into actual classroom practice.

The chapter will address comparative teacher preparation programs for teachers who wish to teach in inclusive settings, including those in the United States and People’s Republic of China. Consideration will be given to developing course objectives and outcomes for teacher preparation programs through the alignment of teacher standards and content standards. Further, discussion will review assessing pre-service teacher candidates for inclusive settings. It will conclude with recommendations for inclusive teacher preparation programs.

This chapter describes the development and use of a framework, based on a set of theoretical principles that can support teachers, teacher educators and researchers make informed judgements about inclusive pedagogy in each unique setting. This chapter will address the concept of inclusive pedagogy; how the framework was developed; and will provide an introduction to the framework. Discussion will focus on how the framework was used by researchers to better understand how the ideas of inclusive pedagogy were enacted by newly qualified classroom teachers and how it was used to support experienced classroom teachers and specialist support teachers to challenge and alter some existing practices.

Inclusive education in the United States has been a focus of government policy for the past 30 years. The underlying goals of the inclusive education movement are to provide the most efficient and effective education in the least restrictive environment for students with disabilities. In response to federal and state mandates, students with disabilities increasingly are being educated in more inclusive settings. One way to measure the success of inclusion is to examine graduation rates for students with disabilities. Although accountability related to state curriculum standards and standardized test scores is important, graduation rates may be the critical factor in deciding whether current educational policy is resulting in successful outcomes for students. To determine the effects of inclusion, a statewide study was conducted to look for trends in inclusion and corresponding graduation rates for students with mild disabilities. The researchers examined the records of 67,749 students with mild disabilities in Georgia during a six-year period to determine the amount of time spent in general education classrooms and the graduation rates for each year’s cohort of students. Results indicated a 62% increase in the percentage rate in inclusion for students with mild disabilities, while graduation rates for students with mild disabilities remained stable (+0.4%) at less than 30% during that same period. This chapter will describe the results of this study, discuss barriers to graduation, and present inclusive practices that support students with mild disabilities.