UC Researcher Goes Back to High School to Write New Book

A Cincinnati high school is the setting of a new book that examines how students can not only embrace their differences but also flourish in a diverse environment.

The book, Adolescents and Inclusion - Transforming Secondary Schools, is co-edited by Anne Bauer, University of Cincinnati professor of teacher education, and Glenda Myree Brown, a UC adjunct professor of education. The book is the result of a two-year study conducted at Purcell Marian High School, a Catholic school that serves a general population in Cincinnati. The book features several academic success stories and the voices of 19 Purcell Marian teachers who participated in the research project.

The student population is about 50 percent Euro-American and 50 percent African American. Bauer's research project focused on the triumphs of high school students at risk or who have disabilities. Those groups make up about 20 percent of the student population. She pointed out something the able-bodied may not consider...the effort it takes to navigate a high school when the student is using a wheelchair.

"In a typical high school, classes run 50 minutes. For students, that involves seven moves a day. Purcell Marian went to block scheduling, so each student has only four classes a day. That reduced the number of class changes by half."

Bauer says acceptance and support for one another was stressed from the start of the two-day freshmen orientation and because of the school philosophy of supporting each other. Bauer says she was familiar with Purcell Marian's philosophy because her son and daughter graduated from the high school and because of her personal experiences at the school.

"There was a girl leading a conversation with a group of her friends, and another girl separate from the group who was using a wheeled backpack...she had cerebral palsy. As the group of girls approached the stairs, one of them, without breaking a beat in the conversation, acknowledged the girl with cerebral palsy, picked up her backpack and carried it to the top of the stairs where she gave it back to her."

A passage from the book describes another example:

"The van pulls up, and the driver moves to the back of the wheelchair lift. A young lady rolls off the lift - book bag in her lap and computer strapped to the back of the chair. Four young men in warm-up jackets and football jerseys move over to her, and one says, 'Hey, Shari, you ready to fly?' The student in the wheelchair laughs and nods, and the boys lock her wheelchair brakes and carry her up the stairs to the first floor on which Shari has her classes. When she has 'landed,' one of the boys says, 'See you at lunch,' and the others say 'bye' and proceed to their classes. Shari gathers her breath and says, 'See ya,' and begins to push her way down the hall with her foot."

The researchers worked closely with the high school teachers, getting their input on chapters that focus on how to:

Design instruction for inclusive classrooms

Identify, accommodate and adapt to student needs

Take positive action to turn around negative student behaviors

Evaluate student learning

As for evaluations, Bauer says inclusive classrooms should provide every student the opportunity to demonstrate what he or she has learned. She explains that equal opportunity does not always mean equal treatment for students with special needs. "In the same classroom, there would be three or four different tests distributed to students, depending on their level. The students understood this, and they were advocates for the students with special needs in terms of whether accommodations were fair."

Adolescents and Inclusion - Transforming Secondary Schools is published in paperback by the Brookes Publishing Company for $29.95.