Towards Inclusive Education: The Evaluation Challenge

Abstract

School inclusion embodies an educational philosophy aimed at ensuring that each and every student, regardless of individual characteristics, abilities, personal circumstances, or social conditions, is fully engaged and actively involved in the educational experience. This approach emphasizes diversity as a value and promotes the acceptance and appreciation of individual differences within the school environment. Despite the desirability of inclusive education systems being enshrined in many international and national Declarations and regulations, practical approaches still often lean towards school “integration”, understood as a paradigm of “assimilation”, which involves adapting disabled students to a school structure primarily designed for typical students.

This article underscores the essential functions of assessing inclusion policies within individual educational institutions and, more broadly, evaluating mechanisms within the larger educational system to achieve continuous improvement in the real inclusion of all students, dedicating an in-depth analysis to the Italian context. The effective and adequate assessment in this field is challenging and methodological reflection is absolutely indispensable to define shared frameworks for evaluation policies. Building upon the recent OECD framework proposal (2023), this work suggests expanding the set of indicators to provide a more comprehensive and in-depth evaluation of school inclusion policies.