Path For Inclusion

The article I read was called “Clearing a Path for Inclusion: Distributing Leadership in a High Performing Elementary School” written by David E. DeMatthews. The article is about a year long study of Dewey Elementary School which is a school known for inclusion of all students and high-performance all across the board. The article’s main question was how was Dewey Elementary School able to be an inclusive school while also attaining phenomenal test scores? It all starts with the idea of distributing leadership effectively. The article’s main hypothesis was that Dewey Elementary was so effective at including all students in the classroom and attaining high-performance was due to the communication and distribution of leadership. The participants
Smith the principal started implementing inclusivity into every classroom. This meant that the entire staff would have to be up-to-date on procedures and aspects of students different IEP’s and needs as a whole and eliminating the process of pulling students out of the classroom. Some of the staff was resistant to the process as the school was producing student achievement levels that were in the high 90’s De(Matthews, p.1015). So why change the process if the school was producing high levels of success for all students in a school district that is otherwise failing to live up to standards? Mrs. Smith would just tell them that it was in the best interest of all students to implement inclusion into the classroom (DeMatthews p.1015). This meant firing teachers who produced good results, but were not willing to move towards this inclusive program and hiring the teachers that were the best fit for the new program. Mrs. Smith made it a priority that teachers attend meetings and get involved outside of the classroom. These meetings were more teacher driven than administrative run, meaning that leadership and voices were spread out throughout the meetings. Throughout the year it was noted that teachers grew more confident as leaders and took charge for making positive changes in the classroom for all
I love that this school was able to step away from test scores and focus on the inclusion of every students. This was a risky decision as most schools really emphasize the importance of students test scores. It’s also impressive that Mrs. Smith had no background in special education, but she saw the importance of inclusion for all students even when of around 6% of the school’s students qualified for an IEP. By hiring teachers that showed drive and passion for inclusion, as well as distributing leadership duties, Dewey Elementary School and Mrs. Smith was able to include all students and maintain their high performance throughout the school