Rethinking Inclusion: Schoolwide Applications

Efforts to bring about a unified system of educational supports and services from the standpoint of special education have focused primarily on the concept of inclusion. Various models of inclusion have suffered from a variety of ills, including a shift of educational responsibility from teachers to paraeducators in many cases, and isolation of students with disabilities in general education classes with one-on-one paraeducator support. Sailor and Roger offer a different concept to achieve unified services and supports called the Schoolwide Applications Model (SAM). This approach proceeds on the basis of six guiding principles and is operationalized with 15 critical features that collectively integrate all categorical programs, including special education, with a site-based management model that reconfigures all resources in such a manner as to benefit all students.(7pp.)