Access to the core curriculum - Critical ingredients for student success

Access io the core curriculum for students with disabilities has been a god of many practitioners and a focus of much research. The purposes of this s tudy were to describe the ways in which students with significant disabilit ies accessed the core curriculum and to identify the services and supports necessary for participation in general education classrooms. The experience s of three students with significant disabilities (one elementary, one midd le school, and one high school) who had been members of general education c lassrooms in urban schools for at least 3 years ore described. Four themes emerged: (a) individualized, content-specific accommodations and modificati ons: (b) collaboration among the teaching team: (c) involvement of peers; a nd (d) a disconnect between the IEP and curriculum and instruction. Implica tions for instructional design and teacher roles are discussed.