Teachers Navigating Placement Decisions

This case depicts a scenario centered on Ms. Campbell, a first-year itinerant adapted physical education specialist, who navigates placement decisions at Sunnyside Elementary School. At Sunnyside, Ms. Campbell provides direct instruction to students in 6:1:1 and 12:1:11 self-contained settings, while also serving as a consultant for the school’s general physical education (GPE) teacher, Mr. Jacobs. Mr. Jacobs is a popular physical educator among the students because of his largely unstructured, games-only approach to teaching. Because of this style of teaching, Ms. Campbell grows concerned with a notable push toward full integration of her students into Mr. Jacob’s classes. This concern his heightened because recent students who have moved from Ms. Campbell’s self-contained classes to Mr. Jacob’s GPE classes have struggled to successfully participate in activities. In an effort to support her students, Ms. Campbell confronts the school principal and the special education staff to request that her students remain in her self-contained classes because they are the most appropriate setting for them to successfully engage in physical education activities. However, her efforts to help her students are thwarted by the school’s desire to support an increasingly “inclusive” school culture.