Page 1
Achieving high standards and the inclusion of pupils with
special educational needs (Updated)
Lani Florian and Martyn Rouse
Cambridge Journal of Education, Vol. 31, No. 3, 2001
Schools have had to face major demands by parents, governors and
government. These demands have arisen mainly from the expectation that
they will raise the academic standards of their pupils. More recently, this
expectation has been joined by a second, which is that children with special
educational needs should be included in mainstream schools. How have
schools responded to these demands, which, to many of them, seem to
stretch resources in opposite directions? To see how schools committed to
inclusive policies have tackled the issue of pupil diversity the authors
investigated the inclusion policies and practices of five secondary schools.
Their findings suggest that it is possible to combine an inclusive approach to
education with the achievement of high academic standards.
Readers should note that whilst the journal article does contain some pupil
outcome data, a detailed report containing original data can be found in earlier
work produced by the authors for Barnardos. (Rouse and Florian, 2000)
Page 2
Contents
Page 3
Does inclusion have an impact on school effectiveness?
All schools have been affected by the expectation by government, parents
and school governors that they will raise academic standards. Large numbers
of schools have developed policies which have sought to increase their
effectiveness. More recently schools have also faced the challenge of
including pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools.
The authors suggest that whilst some schools have come to regard these
challenges as incompatible, others have seen them as providing an
opportunity to develop policies to improve the education of all their children.
The authors acknowledge the view held by some schools and teachers that
there is a clash between the principles that lie behind the move towards
market-based reforms and the principles which underpin policies of inclusive
education. In these schools the authors suggest that this perceived clash has
produced tensions between:



inclusion and exclusion;
the education of individuals and the education of groups; and
equity and universal access on the one hand and academic excellence
on the other.
The authors have identified a range of schools which do not see these
principles as working in opposition, requiring commitment one way or the
other. Rather, the authors maintain, these schools see the issue in terms of
the challenge to be both inclusive and excellent.
Page 4
What did the researchers set out to do?
Building on work they had carried out earlier in eight secondary schools, the
authors investigated policies and practices in a further five schools with longstanding commitments to inclusive education, to discover how they combined
an inclusive approach to education with the achievement of high academic
standards
What were the main findings?
The schools included in the study were ones which the authors considered to
be successful in their approach to inclusive education. According to the
authors these schools treated difficulties in learning as a result of disabilities,
or other special educational needs, as a challenge to schools to develop
practice for the benefit of all children. A range of characteristics of successful
schools were identified in the research including that they:





encouraged classroom teachers not to distinguish between ‘special’
and other children;
worked extensively with the parents of pupils with SEN;
maintained detailed records of pupils’ progress;
made extensive use of support assistants and adopted a flexible
approach to their activities; and
made great efforts to involve all pupils in extra-curricular activities like
school visits and trips, choirs, drama, sport and IT clubs.
Teachers observed by the authors were skilled in whole class teaching,
offering differentiation by task and outcome. The approach shown by these
teachers was characterised by the way they embedded a responsiveness to
individual need within the process of whole class teaching. Evidence from
observation and from the records kept by teachers showed that they were
fluid and pragmatic in their approach to inclusive practice and modified their
plans in the light of pupil responses.
The authors reported that in these schools pupils with SEN participated in and
belonged more fully to the school community. They commented favourably on
the extensive natural interaction between these pupils and other children in
lessons and at breaks and lunchtimes.
In one school visited by the authors they reported that teachers, parents and
pupils felt that school initiatives towards understanding of disability and
diversity had helped to reduce bullying in the school as a whole.
Page 5
Did inclusion affect pupils’ achievement?
According to teachers interviewed in the schools, inclusion has not lowered
the achievement of other pupils. This view was supported by evidence from
one of the schools, where recent results in the GCSE examinations were as
follows:
Year
5 A–C%
5 A–G%
1997
1998
1999
23.7
23.5
28.9
80.6
80.2
95.0
In one of the schools four pupils, who may otherwise have attended a local
Special School, each gained at least six GCSE grade A – G passes. By
comparison this Special School did not enter any of its intake for GCSE.
Page 6
How was learning support used?
All the schools made use of learning support departments which teachers
regarded as sources of knowledge and support for teaching and learning.
Ways in which schools involved support staff in teaching and learning were:



reallocating learning support staff from direct work with individual
children to working with a specific subject department;
developing the role of the teaching assistants so they became a
resource for other children in addition to the targeted child; and
supporting children in learning tasks during lunchtimes and after school
homework clubs in addition to in-class support.
The authors reported that schools saw particular advantages to assigning
teaching assistants to departments. Firstly by being part of a department
team, it helped them to learn more about the subject they were supporting.
Secondly, they could participate in the planning process. Thirdly, because the
teaching assistant also became a learning resource for other children, it
helped to reduce the dependency of the individual child.
Teachers valued the contributions made by subject specific support workers.
One teacher said:
Eighty per cent of the time (support workers) are assigned to
departments and this has made a huge improvement. The ISW
(support worker) gets to know all the kids and kids can go to all the
ISWs for help…. The ISWs get familiar with the curriculum. (The ISW)
knows all the lessons and can predict who to work with.
There was also some evidence to support the view that classroom support
helped teachers change and develop their teaching methods, another teacher
commenting:
I know that the support will be there when we need it and it’s easier to
use group work and to keep the kids more involved. The help is there
when they need it and it’s reassuring to me. I suppose they spend less
time sitting around waiting for help. I think all kids learn more under this
arrangement.
Page 7
What concerns did staff have about inclusion policies and
practices?
Teachers were concerned particularly with social barriers with which SEN
pupils sometimes had to face. For example one teacher wrote in her journal:
I noticed that Brian was very much left out of the small group
discussions, because the boys with whom he was working were able to
write down their answers much quicker than Brian could...
Disappointed that despite all the work we have recently done on
disability and prejudice the boys in my tutor group unwittingly exclude
Brian.
The teacher tried to help Brian in the short term by scribing for him while a
teaching assistant worked with another child but noted also that it was
something she would have to discuss further with the other pupils. Teachers
were particularly concerned about students’ personal privacy, friendship and
belonging. Support staff reported variability in the extent of differentiation of
tasks and materials and in the range of teaching approaches used. One
support worker commented, “Some lessons still have lots of teacher talk.”
There was also concern felt by staff in one school that the success of
inclusion policies would promote the reputation of the school as catering for
predominantly low-ability pupils. This problem did not materialise as the
school has been able to demonstrate that it is possible to be inclusive while
improving academic achievement.
Page 8
What did pupils and parents think?
Parents expressed a feeling of confidence in the schools. One parent
observed that, “Mark is full of life, happy. This means everything to us. Other
boys call him at home.”
A parent of a year 9 child interviewed in one school highlighted the important
effect of extra-curricular activities in helping to maintain an ethos of inclusion:
Harry has higher self-esteem now. The trip on the barge was fabulous.
For him to have the confidence to go was a real breakthrough....You
see he was never allowed to go on any trips in his primary school.
One boy who was interviewed reflected the views of other pupils and parents
when he made the following comment:
There is no bullying in this school...other people recognise my problem.
I used to fight all the time in my other school when people called me
names.
Pupils with special needs suffered examination pressures as did other
children. The researchers observed that they seemed to understand the need
to challenge themselves. A year 11 pupil with moderate learning difficulties
commented:
When I came here (from a special school) they didn’t think I could get
any GCSE’s but now they think I can get them. Before I came to this
school I was ungraded but now I think I will pass.
Page 9
How was the research designed?
The authors' aim was to describe successful practice in schools committed to
inclusion. In order to do so they investigated successful inclusion policies and
practices in five secondary schools with long-standing commitment to
inclusive education, using a range of methods, including:





a survey of teachers;
interviews with teachers;
analysis of teacher log books;
observations of subject teachers; and
interviews with parents.
The authors conducted a survey among 268 teachers to find out what sorts of
strategies subject teachers favoured in addressing inclusion. The authors also
observed and interviewed eight teachers of five different subjects. Each
teacher was observed on several occasions up to the equivalent of two full
teaching days. A total of 48 observations and 24 interviews were carried out.
The teachers also kept journals in which they logged what they did and their
reflections on practice.
Page 10
Implications
In completing this digest its authors began to ask the following questions
about implications for practitioners:


teachers in the study noticed that SEN students sometimes had to face
social barriers from other students – could observation and feedback
help you to become more aware of the social climate in your class and
to take steps to tackle such barriers?
effective differentiation was perceived to be important by teachers and
LSAs in the study – would it be helpful for teachers and LSAs to plan
jointly and share strategies for effective methods of differentiation?
In completing this digest its authors began to ask the following questions
about implications for school leaders:



schools in the study that effectively supported students with SEN made
flexible use of learning support assistants to support groups of students
and integrated the LSAs into specific subject departments – can the
deployment of LSAs be used more flexibly with students and in ways
that more effectively support teachers in your school?
effectively inclusive schools kept detailed records of progress and
ensured there was a good two-way flow of information between the
school and the parents – to what extent do your school policies on
inclusion promote these practices?
schools in the study made great efforts to involve pupils with SEN in
extracurricular activities – what range of extra curricular opportunities
does your school offer? To what extent are the needs of SEN students
actively addressed when planning extra-curricular visits and activities?
Are such students encouraged to get involved in these activities?
Page 11
Where can I find out more?
Rouse, M. and Florian, L. (2000). Developing inclusive education at
Rawthorpe High School (final report of the second phase of the evaluation).
Ilford: Barnardos.
The DfES offers information and support to a range of professionals and other
stakeholders at: http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/sen/
The British Dyslexia Association can be found at: http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/
The National Association for Special Educational Needs (NASEN) can be
found at: http://www.nasen.org.uk/
Readers may also find the following Research of the Month summaries useful:
‘The impact of study support’
‘Which strategies are effective for primary school pupils with emotional or
behavioural difficulties (EBD) in mainstream classrooms?’
They can both be found at:
http://www.gtce.org.uk/PolicyAndResearch/research/ROMtopics/
An EPPI systematic review relevant to the inclusion of SEN pupils is: Howes
A, Farrell P, Kaplan I, Moss S (2003) The impact of paid adult support on the
participation and learning of pupils in mainstream schools. In: Research
Evidence in Education Library. London: EPPI-Centre, Social Science
Research Unit, Institute of Education. Available at:
http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/EPPIWeb/home.aspx?page=/reel/review_groups/inclusio
n/review_two.htm