The Alberta Teachers’ Association

Inclusive education: a key promise of public education

The majority of citizens value public education that includes all students, though a vocal few still call for students with special needs to be taught in segregated settings. We also see private schools devoted to cultural or ethnic groups or the especially able. Alberta’s public education system accepts all comers, and our pluralistic society means that many different ethnic and religious groups coexist in our schools. As well, our schools welcome students of differing abilities and from different backgrounds, whether that difference relates to social class, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, language, skills or size.

My own teaching experience is so many years ago (I’ve been chained to my desk at Barnett House for almost 28 years) that I’m one of those teacher relics who has not actually experienced inclusive education. In my day, students who did not fit the norm were taught somewhere else, and it wasn’t my classroom—it was down the hall or in another school. Students isolated in this way were always targeted by others. A feeling of social cohesion was absent and in many ways, differences were emphasized.

A key element of the teaching profession’s view of diversity, equity and human rights is the provision of inclusive education. The goal of inclusive education must be to maximize student success. A model of inclusive education is not about dumping less able students at the back of the classroom and hoping that they will succeed. Society, teachers and parents must ensure that these students’ needs are met, and doing that takes appropriate diagnosis and resource allocation. Student success is about more than their learning needs; it is also about the intellectual, social, physical, emotional and spiritual development of each student. The Alberta Teachers’ Association has comprehensive policy—some of it going back 30 years—governing the education of students with special needs and the funding of inclusive education (Members’ Handbook 2011, pages 116 to 118).

On February 9, 2012, the Alberta government brought down its pre-election budget. According to government, Budget 2012 will invest $6.5 billion in K–12 funding. Of this, $375 million (an increase of 22 per cent, according to government) is earmarked for inclusive education to assist students who need additional resources and programming. A new feature is a $68-million school year grant to meet the needs of the province’s diverse student population.

Teachers and their Association are relieved to hear that funding for inclusive education is on the way. After all, students with special needs and their teachers have been waiting for three years for this funding. The funding framework lists resources and services that should be available in an inclusive system—instructional supports; learning coaches; assistive technologies; counselling services; speech, physical and occupational therapies; health and wellness support; and vision/hearing support and diagnostic services.

Still, it is unclear how the new funding model will work in the real world of classrooms. Over the next few months, the accountability and reporting requirements for the funding framework will be released. At present, it appears that districts will spend fewer resources on diagnostic testing of students to justify a code; instead, these resources will be redirected to providing resources at the classroom level.

In the end, what is essential is that the least advantaged students receive the resources necessary to address their realities. The job of our public education system is to meet these students’ needs. It does not stop with them, either. Public education is the platform for all students to maximize their potential.