BUILDING A MORE EQUITABLE SOCIETY, THROUGH INCLUSIVE EDUCATION AND THE SUCCESSFUL TEACHER WORK
If the right to education for all is to become a reality, all learners must have access to quality education that meets basic learning needs and enriches lives. The UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education (1960) and other international human rights treaties prohibit any exclusion from or limitation to educational opportunities on the basis of socially ascribed or perceived differences, such as gender, sexuality, ethnicity, language, religion, nationality, economic condition and/or ability. Education should not be simply about making schools available for those who are already able to access them. Instead, it is about being proactive in identifying the barriers and obstacles learners encounter in attempting to access equal opportunities for quality education, as well as in removing those barriers and obstacles that lead 49 to marginalization and exclusion. Education systems should be made inclusive and equitable; that is, every child and young person should have access to education that is welcoming and responsive to his or her characteristics and needs (UNESCO, 2012). Monitoring student progress with learning trackers (observation logs, observation forms, conferring logs, etc.) provides the teacher with data, e.g., the degree to which the student has mastered a learning target, who needs retouching, who needs additional challenges, what the next learning target should be, how students should be grouped for small-group instruction, and who needs to be observed more closely for a possible learning intervention. The existing research does indicate, however, that well-designed classroom testing programs bear a positive relationship to later student achievement.