(upbeat music) - Coming up on "Learning from Maine."

Bath's Morse High School has sparked a revolution in how students with disabilities are included and educated.

May come to your school soon.

Imagine you're a high school junior.

It's the big game, and the gym is filled with your friends and family.

Moments after tip-off, you make a steal, you shoot, you score, but in the wrong basket; you've scored for the other team.

Your life is officially over unless you're Noah on Morse's Unified Basketball team.

Then it's just an occasion to celebrate, get some guidance from a friend, and play on.

The American high school is often portrayed as a hub for cruelty and bullying.

It's a setting for "Mean Girls" and "The Outsiders."

The urge to exclude and demean can seem embedded in teenagers' DNA.

But what if it was cool to be kind in high school?

What if empathy went viral?

What if a school's most popular program involved pairing students with intellectual disabilities with their non-disabled peers to play basketball, to learn to read, to build robots, to dance, and to become friends, all in the service of creating one truly unified community?

Welcome to Morse High School in Bath, Maine.

And to "Learning from Maine."

In this episode, we'll explore how Morse offers a new kind of high school experience: Unified Sports and academics, where inclusion, caring, and connection are the linchpins for learning.

Morse's unified story begins with their longtime PE teacher.

- Physical education is the leader in unified because we have everybody in the school.

We have to adapt.

- [Derek] In 2016, after a monster snowstorm upended the schedule at a Boston teachers conference, Charli Bingham stumbled into a presentation that would transform his life and the lives of hundreds of future students.

He learned about a program called Unified Sports, where students with and without disabilities were combined on the same team, and it led to joy in learning for everyone involved.

Charli was convinced.

The next year, he offered his first unified PE class.

He's been offering it and coaching Unified Sports ever since.

- Our goal in physical education is to get kids to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

It's been life-changing.

I think it's changed our culture of our school.

Personally, it's changed me.

I think I'm a better teacher.

I'm a better person because of it.

- [Team] One, two, three, four!

- [Derek] Basketball may be the most popular unified sport.

- I'm a partner, and Lucas is an athlete.

So what we do for our games is there are two partners and three athletes on the court, and the partner goes like and dribbles, passes the ball.

The athlete will tend to go and shoot and stuff.

When I'm there, I feel really happy, and I feel included like nobody's left out, and it's just a wonderful experience.

- [Derek] Charli is another unified partner and a huge Noah fan.

- He is the number one scorer on our basketball team.

- And make a lot of shots.

Mostly in the hoop.

- I think he's a really good teammate too.

He'll pass, and he'll play with the team, so if somebody else hasn't been making a ton of shots, then he'll make sure that they get a chance too.

- [Derek] One time after a game, Coach Bingham recalled finding one of his player's parents crying with joy.

- "I didn't think my kid could ever do this, or I didn't think my kid ever had this opportunity."

(crowd cheering) - [Derek] Noah's dad can relate.

- I promote the Unified program to anyone who I think has even a semblance of an ear to hear about it because I think it's really huge.

It just turns sports on its head.

I mean, how do I sit and watch a game where they're not competing against each other in an aggressive way towards a goal and where winner and loser are so significant?

- [Derek] During halftime, Morse Unified hoops forego the ritual where coaches spew second-half strategy.

Instead, they invite their opponents to center court for the "Cha Cha Slide."

♪ Right foot two steps ♪ ♪ Left foot two steps ♪ ♪ Slide to the left ♪ ♪ Slide to the right ♪ ♪ Crisscross ♪ ♪ Cha cha real smooth ♪ - [Derek] The unified vibe is contagious.

One Medomak Valley player went gloriously off-script.

(crowd cheering) The Unified Sports movement was launched at a Special Olympics conference in 1989.

The movement rapidly proliferated after 2008 when the U.S.

Department of Education started the Unified Champion Schools initiative.

Less than 20 years later, 25% of school districts nationwide, over 12,000 schools sponsor some kind of unified sports program.

When it comes to educating students with disabilities, America's history and present is far less unified.

- There's a history of structural exclusiveness in education that goes back to my childhood.

I was a child of the 50s, and people with disabilities like my son, they weren't even seen.

They were in institutions.

They were excluded.

- Students like Noah weren't even guaranteed a spot in American public schools until 1975.

And still today, about two-thirds of students with intellectual disabilities are spending most or all of every school day segregated from their non-disabled peers.

Keytin's experience is far too typical.

He moved to Morse from a high school in Kansas.

- Especially at my old school, it was really rough.

They were in a classroom that they never saw the light of day.

You really wouldn't have known they existed otherwise.

- [Derek] Librarian Dawn Lee has similar memories from her first year at Morse.

- Our students that were enrolled in our Functional Life Skills class were in the bottom floor of the school in a room, and I never saw them.

- [Derek] After the pandemic, Morse's new Functional Life Skills teacher, Jonathan Fisk, realized change was needed, and it started with getting his students out of their classroom.

He asked Dawn Lee if they could read in the library.

- As we were coming out of COVID, not only were your students feeling isolated, our students in our general education program were also feeling isolated.

- [Derek] Dawn and Jonathan began to talk between his class visits.

Both had heard Charli Bingham rave about Unified Sports.

By now, Morse was an award-winning Unified Champion School.

What if you tried a similar approach with literacy?

They tried it out with a pilot that paired six of Jonathan's students with six non-disabled students as what they called learning partners.

- This is an answer to some of those issues that teenagers are wrestling with.

- [Derek] Two months later, the learning partners were passionately presenting to the school board about the need to expand the pilot.

So in 2022, Unified Literacy was launched, the first course of its kind in Maine and perhaps the nation.

Class usually starts with Noah reviewing the class agenda and learning targets.

- Okay, so we're going to read for 10 minutes.

- [Derek] Then students get down to reading with their learning partners.

- Sometimes it's hard to fall asleep.

Do you get lonely up there, Moo?

Don't be lonely.

- I'm here anytime you want to talk.

- [Derek] Beyond building literacy skills and connections, the point of the partner reading is often to find books that will work well when the class goes for one of its regular visits to the preschoolers down the hall.

- Roar!

- [Derek] Reading to the littles is something that big kids look forward to as much as the preschoolers.

- Nose feels icky.

Are they stuffed up, Noah?

- [Derek] Even while reading, Noah's able to comfort a unified classmate behind him who's not able to read aloud to littles.

Now that's some gorgeous multitasking.

Learning partners also write and create art together.

They study artists like Miro and Picasso and then make their own masterpieces.

In their planning, Jonathan and Dawn aim to be architects for student accessibility.

Art projects are especially great for less verbal students.

On the day we visited, partners were working on Mardi Gras masks.

- [Partner] That's beautiful so far.

- [Derek] As great as the teachers and curriculum are, the key to the success of Unified Literacy are the learning partners.

Keytin still remembers the first day he met Hunter.

- And we made that wonderful drawing that now hangs in my room very proudly.

- He's so sweet, so kind.

He just has a really big heart.

He brings a lot of smiles to everyone, just like me, and that is what we have in common.

- [Keytin] Unified Literacy and getting accepted was, I have to say, probably one of the best things that ever happened.

It's really helped me learn how to be really just a better human being.

- [Hunter] And the same goes for me.

- [Derek] Charli was Noah's teammate in Unified Basketball before she became his learning partner in Unified Literacy.

- She's a good helper because she gets me through hard times.

- And you get me through hard times, Noah.

- [Derek] At the beginning of the semester, Unified Literacy students without disabilities receive two classes of training that include strategies and tools for communicating well with students who are intellectually disabled and/or nonverbal.

Learning partners rotate every two weeks so all the peers can have diverse connections and experiences.

- Because me and Ajani are friends.

- [Derek] Ajani and Kassidy supported each other on their "I Am From" poems about their hometown.

- I am from the Ferris wheel at... Ajani, help.

- Heritage.

- Heritage Day on 4th of July.

- [Derek] Ajani's poem starts with images of lobster tails, fireworks, and blueberries, but the ending is striking.

- I am from a place of community and inclusivity.

- [Derek] As they finish their fourth year of their course, Dawn and Jonathan are thrilled with the results, even in the lunchroom.

- There's been a huge decrease in the amount of support that's needed from the life skills classroom to have adults out there because our students have made this connection that they'll find students to sit with during lunch or to sit with during breakfast.

- We have 100% work completion rate.

That's unheard of.

But the reason why is that those learning partners hold each other accountable, and they come to school each day because people are depending upon them.

All of our learning partners, their writing skill is increasing, their reading skill is increasing, and their social interaction.

They are learning how to be strong community members.

- And I'm glad that he inspired me to try new things, and he's also one of the people who made me see that I can do hard things.

- [Derek] The Unified Literacy classroom has big windows which overlook Morse's ever-hopping cafeteria.

Passing by, science teacher Julie LaRosa couldn't help but notice the joyful bustle.

- "I'd walk by and it's like, 'Oh, what are they doing in there?

Oh, oh, everyone's working together.

Oh, look at what they're creating.'

And it was like, 'Oh, wait a second.

We could do that.'"

- [Derek] So she invited Jonathan's students into her class for a few labs, and in 2023, she and Jonathan resolved to offer the first-ever Unified Science course.

Still, she admits... - I was petrified.

I thought about it, and then I started to think about it, and I was like, "How is this going to work?"

- [Derek] Just like Unified Literacy, there was no precedent for a Unified Science, no playbook.

- [Julie] How are we going to do this?

What does it look like?

- [Derek] Once again, the essential ingredients for a great unified class turned out to be two deft collaborative co-teachers, an immersive curriculum, and peer mentors.

Instead of learning partners, Julie has one peer mentor working with Jonathan's students at each lab table.

- Two things when I'm looking for mentors is who's kind in the heart and who's flexible.

- [Derek] During my visit, the class was prepping for their first-ever robotics competition.

One student group was responsible for programming the robot to complete certain tasks on a course.

Others had to figure out how to market or promote their team.

All the unified students had to be ready to speak publicly about their learning before a panel of judges.

Yikes.

Class time was set aside for final practice with a mentor by their side.

- So in this small, safe setting, right, we're going to succeed.

- What benefits do you see from being a unified team and having kids with and without intellectual disabilities working together?

- Everyone brings different ideas, and we end up with a mix of creativity.

- Science is being curious.

Science is asking questions.

The pureness of this environment of our unified students is that there's not those inhibitions, and they want to know.

- [Derek] I asked Noah if he was nervous about the robotics competition.

- Well, I'm excited because they're going to have a blast.

- Certain populations weren't getting a full understanding-the-world experience.

They were getting very watered-down, sugar-coated versions.

Everyone deserves to know what's happening around them, and I want to give all my students that experience.

- [Derek] U.S.

Department of Education reports Unified Champion Schools experience reduced bullying and teasing, as well as increased positive social connections.

Evidence also points to improved graduation rates and attendance.

Morse's Unified Academics program clearly amplifies these benefits.

Jonathan's equally pleased with students' academic progress.

Science is a case in point.

- With just a little extra support from the general ed population, they have shown such growth in that class that it's been phenomenal.

- [Derek] Noah's dad sees his son as lovingly surrounded by the school's unified program and the broader connections it has catalyzed.

- The inclusivity that the unified program works to create has just been his medium.

The water he lives in.

I feel like I could drop him off in Bath anywhere, and there would be eyes on him.

And as a parent of someone like Noah, to be able to trust the world that he's in is the biggest, most important thing, because I can't be there, and there will be a time when I'm not there, and I trust this community, and I trust this school.

- [Derek] And the more students who get to partner with students like Noah may be benefiting even more.

Isla was so moved by her Unified Literacy class that she walked the graduation stage with her new friend Eli and changed her career path.

- It really taught me what I want to do for the rest of my life.

I always felt kind of lost in what my career would be, and the second I stepped into this class, it just all kind of clicked into place for me.

- [Derek] Now Isla is studying education at UMaine.

She hopes to return to Morse soon.

- I would be really happy to kind of give back to this community the way it gave to me.

- [Derek] Keytin's parents can't believe how the Unified program has impacted their whole family.

All three of their teens are now deeply involved in the Unified program, following Keytin's lead.

- I think he struggled before with even liking coming to school; like, trying to get him up in the morning to get him to go to school was always hard.

- I was a little lost, new school, new city and stuff, and coming to Unified Literacy really helped open my eyes to a career path that I, not only I think I would want to go into, but that I'd also be really good at.

- Found his purpose.

- Yeah, found his purpose, which was great to see.

- I don't have to change the world, right?

I just have to inspire one person like I've been inspired, and hopefully that helps cascade the effect, right?

- Keytin arrived at Morse thinking he'd follow in his dad's footsteps and become a web developer.

But now... So what are you thinking of doing now after high school?

- My hope is to become a special education teacher, probably for high school.

- [Derek] Ajani and Allison also see a future working with special needs children, perhaps as therapists.

- This class has become a pipeline for people who never thought about education as a career to want to be teachers.

- [Derek] Even though the unified courses involve work that is daunting, hard, and often extra, the unified teachers could be the ones who are most transformed and inspired.

- I love what I do.

I don't go to work every day.

I go to school every day because I learn something every day.

- Teaching's hard, but not a day goes by that when I get in my car in the morning and I drive to Morse, I think, "How lucky am I?"

- [Derek] And the unified vibe is spreading school-wide, even if a student's not in any of the courses or sports.

Allison and Coach Bingham run a school club, Best Buddies, which pairs individuals with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities for friendship and leadership opportunities.

- Thank Noah, because Noah came up with a lot of the stuff that we're going to do today.

(group laughing) - [Derek] Allison reports that the Best Buddies club has grown from 40 to over 70 just in the last year.

It's the largest club at Morse.

Overall, more than 160 Morse students participate in some aspect of the school's unified program.

That's more than one-quarter of the entire school.

- I think all the students of Morse High School have a shared love and a shared understanding of how incredible Unified is.

- Participating in Unified programming is really considered cool here.

It's almost like people are seeking it because I think they understand the inherent goodness in it.

It's a character-building thing, and it's cool to be kind to one another.

- [Derek] Now Morse Unified is committed to spreading the good news.

Unified learning partners have presented at conferences all over the state.

Allison and Lucas went to Washington, D.C., this winter to meet with Maine senators and urge support for the Special Olympics and, more broadly, inclusion.

- To me, inclusion means that everybody is included in said activities and groups, and nobody is sitting in the corner or being alone.

- Lucas is one of the increasing number of students with intellectual or developmental disabilities included in Bath CTE programs.

I had the great fortune of sampling some of Lucas's divine creations at Culinary Arts.

Looking good, brother.

Looking good.

The best part of the day.

Are we ready?

- Yeah.

- Oh yeah.

Cheers, my friend.

- Cheers.

- That's good.

After graduation, Lucas will continue with an internship he started this year at Bowdoin College Dining Services.

He also plans to carry on his work for Special Olympics and inclusion.

(singer vocalizing) In 2024, Morse Unified had another first when MoHiBa, Morse's beloved talent show for nearly a century, featured a unified dance.

Morse parent Michaela Knox was the choreographer.

The explicit purpose of her company, Spark Inclusive Arts, is to... - Bring people with and without disabilities together to experience dance together.

There's no one way to dance.

There's no special equipment required.

If you have a body, you can dance.

There tends to be some fear that shows up around meeting a new person.

Maybe they look a little different, maybe they speak differently, maybe they have a different physical reality.

And so one of the intentions of this work is to de-stigmatize disability and to really experience people who you wouldn't necessarily have a chance to meet in other settings.

- The more we can put students from a variety of perspectives together working on a common goal, the better, and that's what unified programming does.

- And that's a valuable thing to need to know, especially these days, about being open and present with people that aren't like you, that are very different, and what they have to bring to the table that is worth your while.

- It's very authentic.

We're not pretending.

It really is some real connections that are happening.

There's a certain ease and even curiosity about someone who has a difference that's replaced that fear.

- [Derek] Morse's principal, Eric Varney, is clear about his hopes for the future of their unified program.

- I hope it still continues to grow.

I'd love to think that we would have unified in all disciplines.

- [Derek] Keytin's dad agrees.

- Just go for it and do it like Morse has done.

Full commit.

Make it a whole school thing, not a side program.

- We are graduating students who look at the world differently, with a different lens, and they have shown that any school can do this.

- [Derek] Even in tight budget times, even in a town known for being tough, the home of Bath Iron Works.

- We would like to push this out nationally because this makes sense, and it changes communities for the better.

You don't need a big budget.

You just need to have a brave heart.

- [Derek] For the most recent talent show, Unified Dancers interpreted the show's theme of "Back to the Future" by reclaiming and re-imagining a word that's somehow become controversial: inclusion.

The dance opened with a student-written spoken word.

Unified Dancers performed it during our visit.

- [Student] But maybe in the future, we won't have to talk about inclusion so much because in the future, inclusion will just be the new normal.

Yeah, but you know what?

We actually get to determine that.

Why?

Because we are the future.

- What we're trying to do is create good people, and I think you'll see adults will say, "Oh, what's wrong with kids these days?

This is what's right with kids these days."

(upbeat music) - [Derek] Thanks for watching "Learning from Maine."

If you've missed any of the stories from our first season or want to go deeper with bonus content, head to our YouTube page or our website at mainelovespublicschools.org.

And join us next time on "Learning from Maine."

We'll visit the state's largest pre-K to two school and reveal the magic, the expertise, and the joy that goes into teaching children to read.

Thanks again for watching, and let's keep learning from Maine.

(inspiring music)