It's no secret that in this day and age of 'No student left behind' and the Individual Education Plan (IEP) for special needs students, we all want to achieve the best education possible for these students. Mainstreaming has been proven as an effective means of accomplishing this goal.

There are many benefits that the IEP student receives as a result of mainstreaming. These include improved social skills, exposure to curriculum that might otherwise be unavailable, and an overall higher standard of education. And the list goes on...

The downside to mainstreaming is what teachers must deal with on a daily basis. When a teacher presents the class material to 24 students, and 2 of them have special needs, there is usually additional attention and time required for the 2 students to be able to keep up with the class, and the teacher must figure out a way to help those who are struggling while at the same time, not boring those who are at or ahead of schedule. There are several strategies that teachers use for mainstreaming and more coming to light as educators continue to think 'outside the box' about improving education.

These strategies can take several forms.

1. A Teacher's Aide in the classroom to assist with the struggling student(s).
2. Co-Teacher strategies.
3. Separate assignments and curriculum.
4. Do nothing in hopes that the student can keep pace on their own.

There is one common denominator with all the strategies that must be accounted for.

Time. The pressure is on for teachers nowadays to not only perform for the Fully Included students, who will have varied levels of abilities as it is, but also the additional mainstreamed students. Teachers feel it like a vise. No matter what strategy for mainstreaming is utilized, it is very frustrating for teachers that have, for example, 22 students waiting in class for what's next while time is spent with the IEP students on review material. This is not a negative statement about IEP students, but only the admission that students with special needs require extra time and resources from the teacher, and that it can be a frustrating situation.

All teachers I know wish they could spend an adequate amount of time with every student, including the extra time needed for those who struggle the most, but it is just not possible to be effective to all at the same time. Let's take a look at each strategy to see how they solve the time issue and compare it to cost.

Teacher's Aides, while an effective means of helping a struggling or IEP student, has a limited reach. Great for the one or two that they are helping at the time, but when there are others that struggle, they might tend to get missed. I'm sure that all teachers would want every student that struggles to have their own tutor, but school budgets in this economy often are making cuts in this area rather than bolstering it. Even in good economic times, there usually are not enough School Aides to go around.

Co-Teaching strategies are an example of teaching teamwork. This is where two teachers will combine efforts (and classes) and both teach the class. This has a similar effect as the Aide, but two certified teachers in the class can organize and facilitate groups based on abilities more effectively. There are several challenges to this approach. One is a class size that is now doubled, and the other is teacher's ego. With a doubled class size, there is still a high student to teacher ratio and it is still difficult to attend to all the students according to their need. Teachers can also be very possessive of their classrooms at times, and it takes open communication and shared authority to make it work. Although it would seem that this option would cost less to a school than having an Aide assist.

Creating a separate curriculum for segments of your class might help to not overwhelm some of your students with material that is beyond their current capability, even if it is right in line with others'. The downside is that you may be overwhelmed by teaching 10 mini-classes per day; 5 classes with 25 students each and 5 more with 2 to 3 students each, or more. Now you have a duplicate set of educational standards to uphold for the IEP students in addition to the Included Students. That's another set of prep materials and another set of grading materials, ie math worksheets, spelling worksheets, etc., for example. Great for the students, hard on the teacher, and there is still the issue of additional face time for the IEP students who need it. The additional curriculum will have an additional cost to it, but still less expensive than the previous two options.

The last option is to do nothing and let the IEP students fair like any other in the class. This may seem like a cruel statement, but wait before you get the tar and feathers. I'm not suggesting that this is an option to be considered across the board. But certainly there are varied degrees of learning disability, as there are varied aptitudes of each student towards each topic. What I am suggesting here is that there may be specific subjects that is of particular interest or ability for an IEP student with a minor level disability. Certainly it would give these students a sense of accomplishment knowing that they were on an even playing field with the rest of the class. And of course, this is the most economical solution, when it applies.

In conclusion, we all want the best education possible for mainstreaming students, we don't want our teacher to be over burdened, and we also want to keep the costs under control. There are no easy answers, and it can be frustrating for teachers. As we continue to improve educational standards for IEP and mainstreamed students, more methods, tools, and strategies will emerge to improve the situation for everyone.

Joel B. is the chief designer and developer for the Math Drill Sergeant, educational math work sheets software. The program that self-generates and self-grades math worksheets exercises, along with increasing in complexity with the students abilities. It saves the math worksheets results for teachers to use however they see fit.

This software can assist in giving back to the mainstreaming teachers some of the time required for IEP students, as well as increasing the level of confidence and abilities for the students that use it.

To learn more about this math worksheets tool, please visit http://www.mathdrillsergeant.com.