Mainstreaming

How it is used

Found in older American texts and in many international documents. Today inclusion or inclusive education is the preferred term in most English-speaking countries. A student can be mainstreamed into a class, and a mainstream school is an ordinary school.

Example sentences

1. With mainstreaming, she spends most of the day in a regular fourth-grade class.

2. Mainstreaming works well for him in maths and art, but he receives reading support separately.

Common collocations

• mainstream school
• mainstream class
• be mainstreamed
• mainstreaming policy

Related terms

• inclusive educationAn approach in which all children, including those with disabilities or other barriers to learning, learn together in ordinary schools and classes with the support they need.
• resource roomA separate room in a regular school where students with special educational needs receive individual or small-group teaching for part of the day.
• special educational needsLearning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for a child to learn than most children of the same age, so that the child needs extra or different support at school.
• IEPIndividualized Education Program: a written plan for a student with special educational needs that sets out their goals, the support and services they will get, and how progress will be measured.

More terms: Special and Inclusive Education

• learning disability
• accommodation
• dyslexia
• ADHD
• gifted