Paula Kluth, Richard A. Villa and Jacqueline S. Thousand - ASCD - December 2001 - January 2002
This article was linked in a Tweet from the excellent Think Inclusive website. It is the best article I have ever read on the basics of Inclusion … both the legal requirements and the educational philosophy. Note that it was written almost 14 years ago, but it feels like it could have been written today. Why are we still “debating” this? I also noticed that in the article, parents are assumed to want inclusive education for their kids with disabilities. Yet, it seems like there are still a lot of parents who are as unfamiliar with and confused about inclusion as many teachers and administrators.
The central misconception about inclusion seems to be that it means that all disabled students will be pushed to "keep up" academically with the nondisabled students, which is NOT the point. Some disabled kids probably do need the bar raised higher, but that is a different issue. Inclusion is about equal integration and participation, not necessarily equal performance.
Read the whole article … it’s very good!