Once this number starts pushing 20% or more, one ought to ask the question of how adequate core instruction is.
Ain't that the truth!
Finlands schools actually identify about 50% of students as needing special ed at some point from 1st to 9th grade. It appears to work very well because the general ed/content teacher or whatever they are called can focus on aiming instructions at the 3rd quartile, because they know that students who struggle temporarily or constantly will be taken care of and it’s Not. Their. Job. It appears to work quite well, looking at their PISA results.
I also read that Finland does cluster, group and segregate at the lowest end of the spectrum. Which might go to show that here is another system that has decades of experience at managing a large range of diversity in a mostly inclusive and doing it well, but which has acknowledged the limits.
