Less-Integrated Classroom

My paper focuses on how students with intellectual or behavioral disabilities are placed in less-integrated classrooms. This is important because the placement of students affects their social and academic success. Students who require special education are usually pulled out of general education classrooms or placed in less-integrated groups in order to receive accommodations, despite research showing that this harms their social and academic skills, barring students with severe disabilities who require full-time care. I will reference A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Placement on Academic and Social Skill Outcome Measures of Students with Disabilities by Oh-Young and Filler where they theorize that academic and social inequalities between students with special needs and students in general education classes exist because of the placement of special needs students into less-integrated classrooms.

This allows the classroom to operate with split-groups, representing an inclusion model with a paraprofessional. All students will hear the entire lesson, instructions, and expectations. They will all complete the coursework in the same classroom, with additional help provided as needed. The academic expectations are not lessened for those with special needs and they do not require individualized lesson plans. Variations in coursework could be approved if widely different levels of abilities are present. Keeping students in classrooms with strong instruction will increase their chances of success and lessen the need for separate special education classrooms with higher teacher student ratios. To negate boundary lines between the two groups, additional instructors in the classroom would focus on children who qualify for special education, but should not ignore other children who need