Analysis of measures for attention to diversity in Compulsory Secondary Education

This research shows an analysis of the measures to cater for diversity in a group of students with special education needs in the Compulsory Secondary Education cycle, in the region of Murcia (12 to 16 years old). The aim of this paper is to learn about the curricular and organisational dynamics activated in a secondary school to cater for student diversity, by applying the ordinary measures of attention to diversity (individual monitoring, flexible groups, subject grouping).The research also analyses the complementary measures established by national laws (curricular diversification programmes, initial personal qualification programmes, specific measures for students with special educational needs, with high intellectual capacities and who join the education system late), and those implemented by the autonomous region of Murcia (adapting the curriculum for students with low psychic capacity, open classrooms for students with permanent education needs derived from autism and other disorders, job-oriented classrooms and workshops). By means of a qualitative methodology, this research analyses the opinions of the staff members of the school, the headteacher, the counsellor and the teachers of the 4(th) year of Compulsory Secondary Education, regarding the attention to diversity in their school and the students' reactions. Under current regulations it is advisable to apply ordinary measures before specific ones, given the needs for educational support and, whenever possible, in a normalised context (the mainstream classroom). The evidence obtained form our research shows that extraordinary measures are first applied in the school, and usually outside the mainstream classroom. The teachers interviewed in our research consider this an adequate practice. Consequently, those students who show some curricular lag associated to a disability, to their adscription to a minority cultural group or to other issues have a number of specific measures applied to them, usually outside the mainstream classroom, thus creating a two-way education current in the school: the mainstream and the special.