Evaluating School Inclusion

The Project in Summary

The Italian school system is committed to promoting an inclusive education that, in line with UNESCO’s principles, ensures the full participation of all individuals by removing access barriers for those—both individuals and groups—at risk of exclusion and educational failure.

Since the 1970s, Italy has adopted an integrated school system that accommodates all students, including those with disabilities. However, the actual implementation of inclusive education at both the school and classroom levels remains a critical weakness. Several studies indicate that teaching practices in most schools are still far from being genuinely inclusive. Moreover, only a limited number of studies have analysed school inclusion in Italy as a systemic process involving the entire educational framework, underlining the need for a comprehensive evaluative approach.

Italian schools are required to compile a Self-Evaluation Report (RAV) based on a national framework developed by INVALSI. As indicated in Legislative Decree 66/2017 and its amendment (Legislative Decree 96/2019), it is essential to establish a virtuous synergy between school planning documents and inclusive educational practices. Within this framework, system-level self-evaluation (SSE – School Self-Evaluation) represents a valuable opportunity to promote more inclusive education.

This project aims to explore the potential of school evaluation as a tool for fostering inclusion. Specifically, it seeks to:

• analyse the inclusive practices implemented by schools;
• describe the opportunities offered to students in terms of inclusive education;
• observe students’ learning and relational outcomes in relation to inclusive practices;
• understand how teachers adapt curricula and teaching strategies to support inclusive pedagogy;
• identify organisational and management configurations that promote inclusion;
• validate and assess national and international indicators suitable for evaluating inclusive processes;
• develop, in collaboration with stakeholders, a shared reference framework for school inclusion;
• design integrated evaluative approaches to interpret and strengthen inclusion within the educational system.

The research will be conducted in a selected sample of schools using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, involving all members of the school community: students, teachers, school leaders, families, and external stakeholders.

The development of shared and articulated evaluation tools may provide a significant contribution to understanding the quality of inclusive processes – not only at the level of individual institutions (micro level), but also from an intermediate perspective (such as territorial networks, provincial or regional contexts), and at the broader level of systemic governance (macro level). A deeper understanding of how schools operate inclusively may also support more effective use of human, financial, and training resources.

Since 2018, INVALSI has been actively engaged in the scientific debate concerning the definition of a school inclusion framework aligned with Legislative Decree 66/2017. The two Research Units involved in the project – INVALSI and the University “Magna Græcia” of Catanzaro – bring complementary expertise, enabling them to work synergistically on the development, experimentation, and validation of such a framework.