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Home > Resources > Classroom Practice
Notes on this Issue
Even before joining CES as Horace’s editor in 2001, I started writing about the similarities between inclusive classrooms and Essential schools. At the time, I was working toward an additional teaching credential in special education and had the good fortune to see some excellent, progressive and inspiring collaborative teaching and thoughtfully designed curriculum and assessment in a fully inclusive South San Francisco middle school classroom. I was thrilled and intrigued by how inclusive education reflected the ten Common Principles, even in a school that had no affiliation with or awareness of the Coalition of Essential Schools.
Since then, as Horace’s editor, I’ve been able to visit many Essential schools and have seen how CES practices create fertile ground for inclusive teaching and learning. And I have seen how incredibly challenging it can be to push against the historical tide of tracking and homogeneity and create differentiated yet collaborative learning that works for all students. So this is one of those issues of Horace that I have lived with for a long time, and I’m having trouble letting go. If we could have added more time and pages, I wish we could have focused more intensively on inclusion as a strategy that can reduce the intertwined phenomena of overrepresentation of students of color in special education, the black-white achievement gap, de facto school segregation, and the faltering graduation rates of both students of color and special education students.
I hope that this issue resonates with many of you. For those that are doing this work in Essential schools, thank you, and if you can, take a moment to drop me an email at jdavidson@essentialschools.org and tell me about your work.
I talked to many CES network educators, students, parents, and friends in the course of researching this issue, and many wise words and key insights didn’t make it to these pages.
Nevertheless, I want to thank everyone who took the time to educate me. In particular, groups of students from the Crefeld School and North Central Charter Essential School allowed me to interview them, and I learned much more than I was able to report here.
As always, thank you to all Horace subscribers and CES affiliates. You’re making it possible for us to continue to tell the stories of what’s happening in Essential schools. If you don’t already subscribe but find Horace useful, consider joining us. Subscription rates are $35.00 per four-issue year, with discounts for multi-year subscriptions. Subscribe online, call us toll-free at 1.800.62HORACE, or go to www.essentialschools.org/horace. Affiliation with CES as a school or network friend also puts Horace in your hands, and the connection with CES is well worth it. Read more information about affiliation online at
www.essentialschools.org/pub/ces_docs/schools/schools.html
or call us at 510-433-1451.
Jill Davidson
Editor, Horace
Page last updated: August 12, 2005
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