Shelley Moore, a renowned advocate for inclusive education, took to the stage Monday three times for keynote speeches at Poway Unified School District’s first inclusion summit.
It was the first time all teachers were included in the training.
“It can’t look the same for every student. It can’t look the same for every teacher. It can’t look the same for every school,” said Moore, a Canadian educator and expert on special education.
Poway’s Inclusive Practices Program began in 2018 with three model schools — Monterey Ridge Elementary in 4S Ranch, Twin Peaks Middle School in Poway and Mt. Carmel High in Rancho Peñasquitos — working to increase special education students’ access to and inclusion in general education settings.
Schools have since shut down their day classes, which removed students with special education needs from general education settings. And special education students who had been bussed for specific coursework at other schools are now going to the school in their neighborhood.
The initiative prompted a mindset shift from the istration to the classroom.
Monday’s summit was a chance for teachers to explore what inclusion means to them and their students.
Because inclusion looks different to each person, all teachers should have an understanding and training, said Greg Mizel, associate superintendent of Student Services.
“Everybody has to embrace that our students are all different,” Mizel said after the keynote speech for high school teachers. Earlier in the day, Moore spoke to elementary and middle school teachers. Work related to inclusion requires everyone’s , he said.
“I really believe all of our students are general education students first,” Mizel said. “We have to continue working to adjust.”
In her keynote speech, Moore recalled one of her first teaching positions when she taught special education in its own wing. It was thought at the time that special education students should be segregated from the rest of the students.
She said she felt defeated.
Moore decided to rebrand the experience by saying the classroom was exclusive and the doors were not designed to keep special education students in but to keep everyone else out. At the time, she felt inclusion wasn’t possible and it took a years and a change of mindset to make it work, she said.
“It can mean the same thing for every grade, but it will look different in different grades,” Moore told the teachers gathered at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts.
Moore had the teachers talk with their neighbors about what inclusion looks like for them and their schools.
Educators need to stop looking at diversity as a burden, Moore said.
“This is becoming a conversation about all of the kids. Inclusion doesn’t mean you have to change who you are,” she said.
“We put so many resources into changing things in kids that we can’t change,” she said of issues such as learning disabilities.
Moore said she believes total inclusion is doable with a redesign of the curriculum.
“It is so possible,” she said. “It’s different work than we know.”
