Our Center’s Approach

Imagine a learning ecology where every child has the chance to succeed in a nurturing, engaging, and safe environment. The Center for Inclusive and Special Education seeks to advance a more equitable education system that transforms leading, teaching, and learning.

We are guided by a philosophy that presumes the competence of all people in their different ways of knowing, learning, and expressing.

Our collaborative team approach

allows for flexible and creative interventions that inform educator practice and support movement toward a safe, supportive, trauma-sensitive school culture. The Center’s work in schools and ongoing connection with educators allows us to learn from listening to the daily stories, co-identify pain points, and respond to urgencies with resources, coaching, research, and innovative support

The Center’s activities focus intensively on issues of equity, inclusion, and trauma by:

  1. developing and supporting educators,

  2. consulting with partners and districts,

  3. researching and supporting scholarship.

Our Goals:

  • Research and disseminate equitable, inclusive, and trauma-sensitive pedagogy

  • Collaborate with educators to disrupt exclusionary and harmful practices in schools

  • Document and disseminate practices that support all students to achieve academically,

  • thrive emotionally, and live to their fullest potential

  • Design transformative processes for school culture change and critical inquiry into systemic

  • inequalities and challenge the status quo

History

Tracing the history of the Center parallels the story of exclusion to inclusion moving towards equity in education. Here is a brief overview of this journey. Lesley began in 1909, educating early childhood educators in Edith Home, Cambridge, living room. Equity was front and center with the 1954 landmark ruling of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Boston went through turbulent times with attempts to racially integrate schools in the early 70’s. These attempts did not include students with disabilities. Three thousand children with disabilities were excluded from Boston Public Schools. In 1972, Massachusetts passed Chapter 766, the special education law.

Two years later the US Congress passed the Education of the Handicapped Act modeled after the Massachusetts Act. The Massachusetts and federal law guarantees a "free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment" to all school-aged children (ages 3 to 21), regardless of disability".

At Lesley during the early 70’s, special education programs were initiated, leading to licensure. “Lesley was on the cutting edge!” (Bromfield, 2009, p. 80) In 1975, Lesley created the Summer Compass program in partnership with Cambridge Public Schools to give students with disabilities extended school-year support. As practices of mainstreaming moved toward inclusion in the late 80s the Lesley programs led the way. In 1992, Lesley University moved the conversation and held the very first Inclusion Institute. Ann Larkin, Sue Gurry, and Patricia Crain de Galarce organized the event and then shared this learning with districts across Massachusetts.

An alumnus of the Special Education program gifted Lesley with funding to create a center to support educators, families, and research in the field of special education. In 1997, the Center for Special Education was established with the support of the Morgridge Family Foundation. In 2010, the Center partnered with Urban Teacher Center to develop dually licensed teachers in special education in Baltimore and DC. In the same year, the Center partnered with the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative to launch the trauma and learning project.

The Center shifted the focus toward inclusion, renaming the Center for Inclusive and Special Education and the Lesley Institute for Trauma Sensitivity. The Center team created the Trauma and Learning Certificate, Teaching Children of Poverty, Assessing Bilingual Students with Special Needs, the Inclusion Institute, and continued Summer Compass until COVID.

As the field shifted mindsets to inclusive education, the center developed support for educators to make true inclusion and belonging possible. Currently, the Center advocates for advancing equity in a more just educational environment. Our expanding definition of trauma resulted in the development of an additional course in our sequence, Racism, Equity, and Trauma. We are gathering multiple perspectives on special education with the hopes of redefining inclusive education.

Partnering with us.

We are pleased to partner with amazing organizations that support and advance our mission of creating a welcoming, culturally relevant, and learner-focused ecosystems. We strategically align with those who share our belief in all students genius and work to break down barriers for more equitable and inclusive learning environments.  Our collaborations are created to support educators in their initiatives and embracing practices that are culturally and linguistically responsive, learner-centered, resilience-focused, and trauma-sensitive.

Our partners include but are not limited to educators, districts, and community organizations that envision a culture that supports all students.

LIfTS collaborates with the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative (TLPI) on policy and educational issues related to trauma and learning.

The Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative’s (TLPI) mission is to ensure that children traumatized by exposure to family violence and other adverse childhood experiences succeed in school.

LIfTS collaborates with the Morgridge Family Foundation to strive to spark innovation and sustainable change within stagnant systems, to create poignant connections that address issues holistically, and to build awareness while amplifying the impact of change-makers.

Morgridge invests in organizations that reimagine solutions to some of today’s most significant challenges. We bring different sectors to the table to create meaningful connections and foster innovation.

Teaching Empathy Institute

TEI’s School of Belonging training program helps create a school culture that fosters empathic relationships, emotional safety, and real-world learning. It strives to shift the conversation in K-12 education from standardized testing as the sole metric for measuring effective instruction to a more holistic approach that takes into account the social, emotional, and leadership skills necessary for student success in the 21st century.