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Principal Lawrence: After the meeting with my superintendent, I set
up an appointment with Mr. Sherman, the principal of Monet High

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School. I learned so much during my visit! For starters, a few years
ago, Monet High's students with disabilities regularly scored poorly

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on their tests. Similar to what we did at Central Middle, Mr.
Sherman instituted additional supports for both the teachers and the

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students—more professional development on instructional and
behavioral supports, and more intensive interventions. But he still

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wasn't seeing the kinds of improvement he wanted.

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Mr. Sherman: It seemed like the different initiatives we were
implementing were fragmenting our program. For example, we were so

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focused on our students' poor reading and math skills that we
unconsciously began to isolate them when it wasn't necessary. We

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pulled our special ed students into separate classes with smaller
teacher/ student ratios in order to give them more help. We

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instituted interventions and tutoring for other struggling learners,
but that often took time away from academic courses.

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I'd been hearing this phrase—"access to general ed curriculum"—that
seemed rather obvious and self-explanatory. But it was more

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complicated than I realized. We were, in practice, moving many of
our students away from the general ed curriculum. What we needed to

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be doing—and what we're doing now—was to provide appropriate
interventions in areas where they were struggling, but also to use

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things such as differentiated instruction, technology, and
accommodations to support them so that they could stay in the

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regular ed classes with the same learning and behavioral
expectations as everyone else. As I investigated that further, I

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started to learn about inclusion.

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Principal Lawrence: For kids with disabilities?

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Mr. Sherman: Actually, inclusion is for all students, making sure
that everyone has the opportunity to participate in all aspects of

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the school experience.  Let's take a walk around the school; it's
easier to understand if I show you what we've done.

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Mr. Sherman (VO): Two students in this class have learning
disabilities. Reading instructional materials is a challenge for

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them, as is writing required to complete worksheets, reports, and
tests. So the social studies teacher provides them with multiple

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options for learning and for being tested on the information. These
students are held to the same high expectations as everyone else,

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and they get support through various technologies and accommodations
that they need to be successful.

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But inclusion is more than that. We realized that kids were being
excluded in other ways. Students with disabilities often sat at

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separate tables in the cafeteria, as did our English learners. They
didn't mix with the general student population, which limited their

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potential for making friends—and that's a crucial element in the
high school experience.

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Involvement in extracurricular clubs and activities was lacking. A
large percentage of our school population comes from a single

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low-income neighborhood. Yet those kids weren't involved in
after-school activities because they were dependent on the school

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bus system; they had no way to get home if they stayed after school.
If they wanted to do football or track, they couldn't do it. But, I

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was able to work with the city to have their bus repeat its
afternoon route to that neighborhood. You wouldn't believe how the

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participation rates in the after-school activities have improved!
It's great.

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In the end, we realized that all of our students needed to be fully
included in all school activities. We needed to provide them with

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access to the general ed curriculum, maintain high expectations, and
give them the necessary supports to ensure success. Our teachers

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needed to collaborate and accept responsibility for every student,
regardless of whose class role or caseload they were on. Inclusion

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applies to more than just the classroom. It applies to all aspects of
the school—the hallways, the cafeteria, and extracurricular activities.