Last of a three-part series

By JENNIFER MANN
The Patriot Ledger

Shakespeare comes in many different forms at the Patrick O’Hearn School. Some children read it with their eyes; another reads it with his or her fingers. One student interprets it with a drawing; another performs a skit. There is no uniform way to learn, and there is no single benchmark for success.

But most children do succeed at this Dorchester elementary school.

The philosophy is simple: ‘‘Wherever you are, we take you higher,’’ Principal William Henderson said.

The nation still has ways to go in meeting the 1975 federal requirement of teaching all students, to the extent possible, in an ‘‘inclusive’’ environment. But in Massachusetts and across the country, there are pockets of excellence that serve as road maps.

At the O’Hearn School, nearly one-third of the students are on a special-education plan, and half are identified as low-income. Students with autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and significant development delays are in the same class as their non-disabled peers.

Test scores are among the highest in Boston, and the school is held up as a model by educators and advocates.

The school is close-to-home proof that although money talks, it doesn’t dictate. There are many more ingredients to creating an enriching environment for special-ed and regular-ed sudents.

‘‘I believe that’s what makes the Patrick O’Hearn School so remarkable,’’ Kristen Layton of the Urban Special Education Leadership Collaborative said. ‘‘They have done this as somewhat of a grass-roots effort, and the techniques they have, the community they have developed - these are really things that any district can do.’’

Something that the O’Hearn School and the nation’s other standout schools have in common is an emphasis on educating all children, researchers from Newton’s Educational Development Center say.

‘‘...If you meet the needs of students with disabilities, and they are successful, everyone else will succeed,’’ said Cynthia Mata Aguilar, who was part of a three-year study that looked at three high-performing schools that differ culturally, demographically and in their curriculums.

The study, ‘‘Good High Schools for Students with Disabilities,’’ focused on Choctawhatchee High School, in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Centerville High School in Fairfax County, Va.

In addition to having a core commitment to educating all students, these schools share other characteristics: flexible learning, with high expectations; teacher collaboration and layers of support; extensive parental involvement; and education beyond the classroom.

At Centerville High, for example, the special-ed director handles schedules for each of her students, allowing her to match teacher and student strengths with material.

At Murrow High School, students can take Algebra I for one semester or four. Two special-ed students at Choctaw found academic drive in the ROTC program.

‘‘Each of the high schools had its own way of supporting students,’’ Aguilar said. ‘‘They were able to provide access to standards-based curriculum to students in multiple ways.’’

Kevin Lenane works in the Newton Public Schools as a facilitator for mainstreaming special-ed students into regular classrooms. He also has a 7-year-old daughter with Down syndrome in the Milton school system.

He said success is more than just test scores: there are social components, communication aspects and more.

‘‘I see it almost as, this is life,’’ he said. ‘‘In life you have to deal with all kinds of people, and if we can keep her in a situation with nondisabled people as much as possible, then she can learn to exist in the real world.’’

Although the resources have to be available, and nobody disputes the importance of money, much also has to do with allocation, educators say.

Henderson, the Dorchester principal, starts with what the school would be paying if the student was not included.

‘‘If we’re taking one of those kids from private placement that costs $100,000, let’s see what we can do with $60,000,’’ he said.

Take Norwell, where 95 percent of special-ed students are in regular-ed classes for most of the day: It is among the state’s top-ranked school districts for graduation and dropout rates, and it spends most of its special-ed budget in-house rather than on private placements.

GARY HIGGINS/The Patriot Ledger

O'Hearn School Principal Bill Henderson, right, who is blind, greets students, from left: Mia Burton, E.J. Spellman and Ciara O'Dwyer in the hallway along with 4th grade teacher Danielle Merdin.

Norwell educators cite several contributors. For one, there has been stability in leadership - turnover in the special-ed field is generally high. And there is a district-wide commitment, from the school nurse to the gym teacher, toward including all students.

This fall, professional development focused on how to teach students of all abilities in a single classroom, what educators call inclusion. And several regular-ed teachers taught classrooms in the special-ed summer program.

‘‘In Norwell, it works because (the administration) makes sure we’re well-supported with special-ed teachers and aides,’’ said fifth-grade teacher Christine Fitzgibbons, who led one of the summer classes.

Norwell is light on top-level administrators and heavy on ground-level special-ed services. Each building has someone assigned to make sure the director is in tune with what’s going on.

The situation is similar in Newton, where inclusion facilitators like Lenane help teachers, aides, speech therapists and other specialists coordinate their efforts.

Layton, of Urban Special Education Leadership, said approaches can range from co-teaching to having pull-out services.

‘‘Inclusion is not a place,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s a way of thinking, a way of planning, a way of educating.’’

Districts also have found ways to save without skimping on services.

Scituate is participating with other districts in a transportation collaborative for out-of-district students.

It is also expanding the number of in-house programs for students with more severe disabilities, benefiting financially from those students who pay tuition.

‘‘It benefits the families (of special-ed students) and it benefits the community ... ,’’ Superintendent Mark Mason said.

Meanwhile, continued focus on early intervention and support services is necessary, said Marcia Mittnacht, the state’s director of special education.

‘‘Take the key areas you have the most concerns about first and have assistance built around those areas where failure often results in a referral to special ed,’’ she said.

Mittnacht said this early attention can curb special-ed enrollment, with districts still providing services but ‘‘not in that same civil-rights-entitlement kind of environment’’ that fosters dispute.

Ellen Chambers of the advocacy group SpEdWatch, said no one should forget why all of this matters.

‘‘We have to keep going back to the fact that we’re talking about human beings,’’ she said. ‘‘These are children.’’

Jennifer Mann may be reached at jmann@ledger.com.