Pros and cons of full inclusion for LD students

Full inclusion, as an educational practice that educating children with disabilities in classrooms with regular children, has been around a decade. Is it delivering what’s it has promised? Is full inclusion always good for LD students? I did some research on the topic for other class also and find the followings: Inclusive teaching has many advantages that benefits students with disability such as challenging the students to come out of their comfort zone to grow full potential. But not all parents of students with disabilities support the approach. In order to get most out of the inclusion, more work needs to be done.
Obviously, many children have benefited from being included in their public schools. According to Harchik (2004), inclusion gives children with special needs the opportunity to learn in natural, stimulating environments. It makes it possible for friendships to occur with non-handicapped peers, it provides positive role models, and may lead to greater acceptance in the community. The approach is in line with state and federal requirements for a child to be educated in the "least restrictive environment." But the place where a child is educated does not make instruction effective. Rather, it is the content and method of instruction that are most likely to result in improvement in the child's language, social skills, and other behaviors.
Even with consultation from specialists, a regular school setting cannot always provide the intensive, focused, constant instruction these children require throughout the entire school day. Although schools may have a mandate to include all children, it is not uncommon that some eventually re-create special classrooms because the children did not receive the appropriate education or their behavior problems could not be addressed within the regular classroom. Inclusion involves re-structure of the regular classroom. Inclusive classes may require more than one teacher. And teachers and students may need specific technology to help students with disabilities perform better. It involves extra planning training time for teachers to plan, meet, create, and evaluate the students together, reduced size based on the severity of the student needs, professional skill development in the areas of cooperative learning, peer tutoring, adaptive curriculum, varied learning styles, etc.
While few educators oppose inclusion completely, some express reservations about how full inclusion works in the classroom. Some are completely support it. Michael F. (2007) argues that even students with severe disabilities are best served within the “regular” education classroom along with their typically developing peers. Michael F ‘s work suggested to approaching inclusive education through hard working, collaboration, and creativity, through implementing either multilevel curriculum and instruction or curriculum overlapping model. Which result in an authentic inclusion of students who function substantially below grade level.
James M. (2004) and his coworkers argue that the goal of education for students with disabilities should be to increase their level of competence and independence. They conclude that full inclusion involves “excessive” accommodations that actually become barriers to achieving this goal. I agree with Albert S (1996), full inclusion isn't always the best way to meet student needs. Children with disabilities are individuals with differing needs; some benefit from inclusion and others do not. For example, children with severe behavioral disorders or medically fragile are more likely to be harmed than helped when placed in regular classrooms where teachers do not have the highly specialized training to deal with their needs.
Harchik (2004) believes that inclusion is not always the best choice for every special needs student. Not all parents of students with disabilities support the approach. Some parents fear losing special-education services they have fought for and believe their children will be "dumped" into regular classrooms without appropriate support. In order to make inclusion work, it requires support from school and state. It requires to overcome the cons of the inclusion that involved extra work and costs. The policymaker and school has to determine the balance between making the most benefit of the full inclusion and disadvantages that involved such as cost and the extra work for teacher and parents. I support the approach of full inclusion for some children with disabilities and for other children with disabilities a different approach such as the least restrictive environment which may be outside the full inclusion scoop.
1.Alan H. 2004 http://www.newsforparents.org/experts_inclusion_pros_cons.html
2.Albert S.1996 www.aft.org/pdfs/teachers/wwsstandassessaccnt0603.pdf
3.James K. 2004 www.kappanmagazine.org/content/85/8/
4. Michael F. 2007 www.uvm.edu/cdci/archives/mgiangre/EL0764(5)34-37.pdf