Adaptation of an American school-wide tool for assessing and improving inclusive practice in one local school context.

Abstract

A primary school with high and diverse learning needs across disability, socioeconomic, and ethnic indicators and with many behavioural and learning difficulties participated in a partnership with Griffith University researchers in order to improve school capacity for inclusive practice. The partners at this school adapted an 83-item Californian tool designed to systematically examine six practice topics, from "big picture" conceptual framing of the school vision for inclusion to "on the ground" specifics about numbers of staff qualified to support inclusive practice. A series of meetings throughout 2004 took place on a university campus, in a district education office, and at this school site. The school team undertook to review the tool in their specific educational setting. Team meetings involved progressive, intensive discussions about item meaning, group rating of their school's actual practice on each specific item, and documentation of information available to support that rating. The school review involved three phases: (a) item analysis, revision, and extension up to 90 items; (b) 5-point item rating and collation into subsection and topic areas; and (c) group reflection on the summary rating profile of section ratings of inclusive practice within the school. The community teamwork and university-school collaboration involved in this process demonstrated the effectiveness of action research to engage people in productive discussion about inclusive practice in a whole-school context.