Charles A. Peck

Parent and Teacher Perceptions of Outcomes for Typically Developing Children Enrolled in Integrated Early Childhood Programs: A Statewide Survey.

We conducted a survey of 125 parents and 95 teachers currently involved in programs integrating children with disabilities into regular preschool and kindergarten classes. In contrast to the predominance of earlier research on mainstreaming and social integration which has focused mainly on children with disabilities, the focus of this study was on outcomes of this arrangement for typically developing children. Results indicated that both parents and teachers of typically developing children perceived important benefits accruing to these children as a result of their Involvement in the integrated program. The data further indicated that common concerns about potential drawbacks to integration, such as reduction in teacher attention to typically developing children, were not generally perceived as problems in these programs. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for broadening the rationale for Integrated programs to include more focused consideration of the potential benefits of mainstreaming for all children.

Outcomes of Interactions with Peers with Moderate or Severe Disabilities: A Statewide Survey of High School Students

Research on the interactions between students with disabilities and their peers without disabilities has focused primarily on cognitive, academic, and social outcomes for students, with most of the attention on the students with disabilities. Only recently have researchers begun to direct more attention to students without disabilities, and to examine a broader range of outcomes, including those related to the effects of participating in social relationships with students with disabilities. In this study, high school students without disabilities responded to a survey in which they indicated their agreement or disagreement with a variety of positive and negative outcome statements that were drawn from descriptive research on relationships between students without disabilities and peers with disabilities. Factor analysis of the responses from the statewide sample of 166 students yielded seven categories of perceived positive outcomes of integration experiences: (a) increased responsiveness to the needs of other people, (b) valuing relationships with people with disabilities, (c) personal development, (d) increased tolerance of other people, (e) development of personal values, (f) increased appreciation of human diversity, and (g) positive changes in personal status with peers. Results also suggest that more positive outcomes are associated with more contact, receiving credit for the experience, and more substantive interaction (e.g., friendships). Students did not experience major difficulties in their relationships. Difficulties that were mentioned generally related to knowing how to interact with the person with a disability (e.g., how to communicate with a student). The results suggest that integration may afford opportunities for students without disabilities to develop a sense of personal responsibility and an ethic of caring and commitment to others.

Strategies That Promote Social Relations among Elementary Students with and without Severe Disabilities in Inclusive Schools

Using qualitative research methods, we studied the strategies that general education classroom teachers use to promote the development of positive relationships between children with and without moderate to severe disabilities in inclusive classrooms. We used observations and interviews with teachers, specialists, and administrators in two inclusive schools as bases for identifying five strategies used by classroom teachers: active facilitation of social interactions, empowering children, building a sense of community in the classroom, modeling acceptance, and developing school organizational supports. These practices are discussed in terms of their congruence with broader goals and best practices within K-12 education.

Four Portraits of Friendship at an Inclusive School

The movement toward creating inclusive schools has accelerated rapidly over the past several years. As they learn more about the effects of inclusion on students with disabilities, consumers, practitioners, and researchers are becoming more interested in the effects of inclusion on students without disabilities. One area of great interest is the social relationships between students with disabilities and students without disabilities. The purpose of this study is to present case studies of four students without disabilities who are friends of students with moderate and severe disabilities in their classroom. Data for the case studies were collected through observations, videotaped samples, and interviews. The case studies illustrate the uniqueness of each friendship and highlight some similarities across relationships. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for promoting relationships in inclusive educational settings.

Negotiating Implementation of High-Stakes Performance Assessment Policies in Teacher Education: From Compliance to Inquiry

Teacher education programs in the United States face a variety of new accountability policies at both the federal and the state level. Many of these policies carry high-stakes implications for students and programs and involve some of the same challenges for implementation as they have in the P-12 arena. Serious dilemmas for teacher educators arise in these contexts, as compliance with prescriptive state mandates is often interpreted by faculty to signify a demoralizing loss of program autonomy and integrity, whereas noncompliance may result in loss of program accreditation. The authors describe how one teacher education program negotiated these dilemmas in a fashion responsive to local values and concerns while also meeting state requirements. Results are discussed in terms of tensions between (a) policy goals seeking alignment and coherence across institutions of higher education and (b) motivational conditions likely to engage faculty in the difficult work of programmatic renewal and change in teacher education.

Creating “Cultures of Evidence” in Teacher Education: Context, Policy, and Practice in Three High-Data-Use Programs

One of the important rationales for the development and implementation of a rigorous classroom-based measure of preservice teacher quality is that such a tool will provide new sources of data that are highly relevant to the task of improving programs of teacher preparation. However, research on data utilization within organizations from a variety of disciplines makes it clear that even when relevant and useful data are available, they are often not used for decision making. We studied three “high-data-use” programs from among the 32 California institutions implementing the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT) to identify organizational practices associated with the use of PACT data for program improvement. We describe practices within and across these programs that were identified by informants as important to their success in using teacher performance outcome data to make decisions about program renewal and improvement.

Blending qualitative and behavior analytic research methods to evaluate outcomes in inclusive schools

Following Harings (1992) recommendation, we have utilized qualitative research techniques to assist us in designing a program of research on inclusive education which is responsive to the outcome values and priorities identified by teachers and parents. Using interviews, observations, and document analysis to follow 35 children in full inclusion classrooms over a period of two years, we have described outcomes for these children in three major domains. These outcome domains, and subthemes within them, have been evaluated and revised based on interviews and social validation ratings by parents and teachers. Dependent measures based on our qualitative research findings are currently being used in a series of behavior analytic studies designed to evaluate the effects of specific interventions on outcomes of inclusion for children with and without disabilities.

Identifying the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) for Children with Severe Handicaps: Toward an Empirical Analysis.

This article presents an empirical orientation for defining the least restrictive environment (LRE) for children with severe handicaps. The focus is on empirical analysis of both individual placement outcomes and general programmatic arrangements. A review of research explores the types of data that must be considered if educators are to make the best possible judgments regarding appropriate educational settings in terms of LRE for children with severe handicaps.

Beyond Access: Moving toward Increased Participation, Membership, and Skills in the Inclusive Classroom

Abstract This chapter provides a conceptual framework for inclusive education for learners with low-incidence disabilities grounded in the argument that increased access and participation in socially valued roles, activities, and settings are both the most fundamental goals of the inclusive education process and also the primary means in which these goals are achieved. By challenging traditional views of learning development as merely the acquisition of skills, the proposed framework largely considers the social contexts in which the development of new skills takes place. Through the presentation of three case illustrations, the authors describe ways in which the framework may be relevant to designing and evaluating programs of inclusive education that are responsive to the needs of diverse communities, including those in a variety of international contexts.

Staging the Work of Teacher Education through Public Conversation

The value of university-based programs of teacher education in preparing high-quality teachers is currently the focus of increasingly contentious debate among researchers, policy makers, and media experts. To a large extent, public awareness and understanding of the work of teacher education is filtered through one or another of these lenses because direct public experience with programs of teacher education is limited. The authors developed a capstone event, termed the “Public Conversation,” for their graduate-level, Teacher Education Program as a means of introducing graduates to the community and engaging a variety of community members in substantive dialogue around significant and enduring issues related to teaching and learning in the public schools. This article reports on impacts of the Public Conversation on community members, public school professionals, and university faculty, who participated as critical friends in this process.