Bennett Report Card 2012: New Brunswick Hides Denial of Evidence Based Learning for Children with Autism and Severe Learning Disabilities Under Cloak of Radical Inclusion Philosophy

In Scares, Misadventures, and Reversals in Canadian K-12 Education Paul W. Bennett, Founding Director, Schoolhouse Consulting; Instructor, Mount Saint Vincent University; author, provides his 2012 report card on the state of education in Canada. There were some hopeful signs including the landmark decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in the Moore case in which the Court ruled that BC school board: 

"had discriminated against a dyslexic child who was not given adequate help to attain literacy. “Adequate special education is not a dispensable luxury,” Judge Rosalie Abella ruled. “For those with severe learning disabilities, it is the ramp that provides access to the statutory commitment to education made to all children in British Columbia.”"

There were also some not so positive signs including the Ontario education meltdown, still underway, and the dominance of radical, everyone in the regular classroom inclusion philosophy under the current Alward-Carr government influenced heavily by Gordon Porter:

"Plight of the Severely Learning Disabled and Autistic Children 

Somewhere between 2 and 4 per cent of all school children and teens, numbering from 2,100 to 4,200 in New Brunswick, are reportedly struggling with serious learning challenges, while served mostly in inclusive regular classrooms. During a 2012 five-year provincial review of Inclusive Education, Harold L. Doherty of Facing Autism in New Brunswick lambasted the radical inclusionist review co-chair Gordon Porter for abandoning autistic and severely learning disabled kids by denying them access to intensive, research-based intervention strategies and programs. His legitimate concerns and those of the New Brunswick Learning Disabilities Association (LDNB) fell mostly on deaf ears."

In the Alward-Carr-Porter education department successful training of Education (Teacher) Assistants by the recognized UNB-CEL Autism Training Program was replaced by an in house model that had been rejected 6 years earlier by the Autism Society New Brunswick in repeated, sometimes intense, meetings with government leaders.  In its place is  a model of in house training (why not train all teachers in house, if its good enough for students with severe autism disorders why aren't in house trained teachers good enough for all students?) In house training is subject to competing demands, adult interests such as those present in union seniority provisions, budget financial constraints etc. work against the best interests of the child in in house training models.  

Next target for the radical inclusion philosopher kings in NB's department of education is likely to be all individualized education arrangements in NB schools and the resource centers that allow students with special challenges to meet in a comfortable environment where resource teachers and assistants can help them start and finish their days and ensure a true sense of friendship,  belonging .... and personal security. 

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Building a Bigger Tent Is A Badly Needed Critical Analysis of New Brunswick Inclusive Education Policies and the Porter Aucoin Report

New Brunswick Legislature Fredericton 

Photo By Harold L Doherty June 17, 2012

The New Brunswick government needs to do a critical analysis of the Porter Aucoin inclusive education report. Porter Aucoin is not an arms length objective review of NB inclusion practice and policy. Too many ties between Alward-Carr government and Porter-Auocoin-NBACL-CACL. Paul Bennett and Yude Henteleff are two excellent external critics whose views should be considered carefully by NB government in setting inclusion policies if the 2009 NB government policy defining inclusion as evidence based on the best interests of the individual child is to mean anything. Yude Henteleff's 2004 paper on flexible, evidence based inclusion recommendations consistent with Canadian jurisprudence is already posted and his presentation to Atlantic Human Rights Centre inclusive education review June 14-16-2012 at the Crowne Plaza in Fredericton will be posted on this site when it is made available to participants.

Building a Bigger Tent Serving all special needs students better in New Brunswick’s inclusive education system  by Dr. Paul W. Bennett, June 2012  is an arms length analysis that has been made available free of charge to New Brunswick. From the Building a Bigger Tent summary on the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) Facebook page:

"Many research findings in New Brunswick’s 2012 report Strengthening Inclusion, Strengthening Schools raise serious questions about whether the existing ‘full inclusion’ model can ever serve the diverse and complex needs of today’s students. There is a place – and perhaps a need – for specialized learning programs where provincial education authorities build a bigger tent. 

....

It’s time for New Brunswick to embrace 21st century education. Bennett recommends a provincial review of New Brunswick’s current model of special education delivery, and ultimately the development of a new continuum of service, including self-contained classes and special education alternative schools."

New Brunswick education policy is important to all New Brunswickers.  It is of particular importance to students with special needs who require accommodation within our education system, including those students for whom the mainstream classroom is not an appropriate or even a safe learning environment. The contributions of serious analysts like Yude Henteleff and Paul Bennett should not be ignored in  designing policies to address the complex and demanding challenges facing special needs students in our education system.

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