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Research-Supported Results

"After a full year of study and researching the Welsh Inclusion Model, the findings in many schools where the model is in use demonstrate clear evidence that it has a direct, positive impact on academic achievement for special needs learners. In the one school selected for my case study, multiple measurement instruments revealed that both special needs learners as well as non-disabled students achieved both academic and social growth with the Welsh model. The North Carolina test scores for the year 2006-2007 at the targeted school show a double-digit growth in composite scores for category ten under the No Child Left Behind mandate."

Stephen Pickard, Ed D.

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Effect on Teaching Staff

"Rick Welsh has the gift of changing the mindset of teachers. Through kind, compassionate wisdom, he is able to take professional teachers at their specific level and move them forward. His high quality professional development has been instrumental in moving our district forward to provide the best possible intervention model for our students. Every single teacher that went through the training (six buildings) had positive reactions and all surveys had comments that they learned from the experience. In my seven years experience providing professional development I have never had such an overwhelmingly positive response by teachers, or seen such monumental changes in teaching strategies."

Wendy Carothers, Coordinator Special Programs
Boardman Local School District
Boardman, OH

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Elementary Inclusion

"Thanks for a great week of learning!"

The Co-teaching Staff at Robinwood Lane Elementary
Boardman Local Schools
Boardman, OH

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The Model in High School

"Over the course of 2 years, Rick trained 8 inclusion co-teaching teams at our High School. Five teams co-taught English and 3 team co-taught math. Some of our master teachers were skeptical about needing training at first, but they quickly came on board because Rick affirmed the staff and maximized their positive attributes while simultaneously teaching them new, effective instructional techniques and teaming skills. A year later the teachers are still incorporating the strategies they learned and are welcoming the EC teachers who now take a significant role in classroom instruction. Students are now more fully engaged for the majority of the time with the result of fewer discipline referrals."

Connie Jones, Assistant Principal
Enka High School, Buncombe County Schools
Asheville, NC
828-670-5000
connie.jones@bcsemail.org

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Effect on Test Scores

"Again I just want to say Thank You for the wonderful inclusion training you offered at our school during the beginning of the school year last year. Our inclusion teams, upon implementing the teachings from your training, saw tremendous student success and can now tell stories of individual students who were finally ablel to make growth/progress within the classroom setting. Not that we measure all gains by test scores, but sure enough our math scores for last year do provide further evidence in support of the success of our inclusion program. We eagerly await our language arts scores as we feel they will show similar progress. We couldn't have done it without the insight and wisdom of the training you have developed.

A few numbers for you:
1. An 8th grade class showed proficiency of 59%, with 13 of 22 students passing the math EOG. Six more would have passed with a standard error of 1 or 2.
2. In another 8th grade inclusion class we had 49% proficient with 11 of 23 students passing; an additional student would have passed with a standard error of 2, and in this class 7 students took NCEXTEND2.
3. The 7th grade inclusion math class showed 59% proficiency with 11 students having a score of 3 or 4, and with 13 of 22 students passing. Two more students would have passed with a standard error of 2.
4. The 6th grade inclusion math class showed 75% proficiency, with 12 of 16 students passing the test and 2 more passing with a standard error of 2.

These scores are indicative of extremely hard work from both teachers and students, and show growth for our school. We are grateful to you and look forward to the next level of training in order to become even better at what we do."

Shawna Taylor, Assistant Principal
Waynesville Middle School
Haywood County, NC

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Bridging Differences

"From almost the first moments of the training, Rick and I knew we had philosophical differences when it comes to educating children. To his credit, Rick was open to discussing and varying points of view. The result was he and I learned from each other, and were ablel to work together to implement and fit many of his instructional strategies to my classroom and teaching style. Teachers like me who believe in traditional methods can certainly adapt many of Rick's ideas and their students will benefit from the effort."

Jon Schleifer, 4th grade Teacher
North Canton Elementary
Haywood County, NC

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Enduring Change

"You can tell when teachers have participated in Rick Welsh's workshops. Years after the training, they are still using many of the strategies learned in their lessons with him. Thank you, Rick, for continuing to provide wonderful ideas to help teach our students!"

Diane Burnette, Assistant Principal
Union Elementary School
Lincoln County, NC
704-276-1493
dburnette@lincoln.k12.nc.us

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High School English

"I recently attended an Inclusion Co-Teaching Workshop taught by Rick Welsh for the Cabarrus County School system in NC. While at the workshop I received hands-on practice with a variety of materials which I have been able to adapt for my High School inclusion English class. One of those activities we participated in during the workshop was a character web that we put together to review the plot of Snow White. I easily adapted this activity to my exploration of Romeo and Juliet. It was the perfect kinesthetic follow-up activity to our reading of Romeo and Juliet (the graphic novel version). I modeled the activity on the board with sentence strips while my students each had their own smaller version which they could cut out, manipulate, and tape down. My students were then able to keep these character webs in their notebook to use as review materials. After the success of this activity, I am also planning on redesigning the way I teach The Odyssey to use Rick’s idea of a living map. Rick showed me how to create a living map of the areas that Odysseus travels inside the four walls of a classroom. I really believe that my students are more actively engaged and excited about learning when I have used the ideas I learned at Rick’s workshop. Thanks for the ideas."

Kate Highsmith
Inclusion English I
Mount Pleasant High School, Cabarrus County

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