ABSTRACT
A vigorous, ongoing academic debate is taking place between those who support and those who oppose the inclusion of special education students in general education classes. 1 Much of this debate has addressed the appropriateness of instructing special education students in classrooms with their general education peers, in contrast to doing so in separate, exclusionary spaces. When special education students are “included” in general education classrooms, they are expected to adhere to a modified version of the standard curriculum and are graded according to alternative standards. A lot of emotion is associated with this debate, with each side accusing the other of not properly representing the interests of children who, by definition, have not functioned effectively in general education classrooms.
