CLOSING THE LEARNNING CENTERS IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY

In his article, published in Gazette Net, Mr. Moore reported that Maryland Superintendent Jerry D. Weast has accelerated the time line for closing the special education centers. Montgomery county public schools have eight learning centers that move and teach students at a slower pace, it has small class sizes to make sure that high and middle schools students with special need receives extra attention to master the curriculum and do well in school. It was noticed through many years of research and monitoring that the students in these centers are not doing well academically compared to their pairs in a regular classroom. In the light of the above, the superintendent of schools proposed to close down these centers and move the students to regular classrooms over a six-year periods to give room for successful transition. However, closing these centers will affect the teachers, students and parents.This move will help the special needs students to integrate in a normal classroom and learn with them, but the intention is very much to make the student fit the program rather than adapting the program to suit the student. Integration in the mainstream enables students with disabilities to benefit from the stimulation of mixing with relatively more able students and having the opportunity to observe higher models of social and academic behavior (Elkins, 1998). Students from both groups will have social interaction: mealtimes, playtime, and extracurricular activities. For this program to be successful there will be many interventions given to both the teachers and the students involved.Attitude of the teachers and the other students is very important for the success of the integration. Many teachers have negative attitude toward students with special needs and will not like to help them or have them in their classroom. The regular ED students need to receive lecture on the need to accommodate the special need students. They all need to tolerance and respect for each other.Another intervention will be training the regular Ed teachers on how to guide these students. Many teachers do not appear to have had any training in guidance and as such do not know how to help them For this to be effective teachers need to go for training especially paid training will motivate them and afterwards they need to be given time to learn and implement what they have learned.For this to be effective teachers need to use differentiated instructions, teaching methods and curricula will need to change in order to accommodate the diversity of students to be included in the regular classroom. Teachers need to tailor instructions to meet the learning needs of all the students in the classroom. However, according to the article this will be another burden on the teachers, who already have a lot of work at hand. Teachers will now start learning a lot about individual students and how to reach them.The report they are getting is that academic of the students that have been integrated has not improved or worsen, however, this is something that will take a gradual process .We, as educators must have a desire to teach all children. Although there is extra time in planning but it requires dedication from teachers to make sure that this students receive the education. We as educators need to have the interest of all students at heart and do everything possible to reach them for if the special needs are integrated successfully in regular classrooms the success is largely dependent upon positive attitudes of the teachers.