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This article articulates what might be called a value-based argument, a philosophical statement, one that emphasizes principles and perspectives that have remained precious to the author throughout 40 years in the field of education. It is the author's perspective on research and the school experience rather than a review of the research literature and, as such, strongly reflects a point of view. The author argues that heterogeneous classrooms and differentiated instruction must form the core of the classroom experience for students in a democracy that works.
IN THE EARLY 21ST CENTURY, Americans appear deeply divided in a number of crucial areas of national concern. Education is one of those critical areas, suffering from the effects of greatly contentious disagreement over goals, strategies, and methods of accountability for public schools. All over the nation, advocates for various groups of students continue to differ over what appear to be conflicting goals and priorities for those learners and, consequently, for the school as a whole. To satisfy these varied and potentially conflicting constituencies, policy-makers and educational leaders may simultaneously support both the inclusion of some students and the removal of other students from the regular classroom. A profusion of magnet programs, charter schools, and voucher systems, growing from attempts to satisfy varied advocacies, further challenges the viability of the traditional public school.
A pessimistic forecast, based on the ultimate outcomes of such prolonged struggles, might suggest that citizens will discover that public schools, a decade or two ahead, have become little more than pauper schools serving the few remaining uncategorized students. This scenario may be all too likely if affluent parents and advocates of students with perceived special needs reach a point of complete disillusionment with public education, withdraw their children from conventional public schools, and join the already sizable system of quasi-private and private education based largely on the ability to pay or the capacity to serve special needs. In the face of these challenges, educators committed to public education must find ways of providing excellence and challenge to all students, while integrating most students whenever appropriate, into the life of the regular classroom. Success for all students is more than a slogan or even a laudable goal; it may be a key to the survival...