Does General Education Lead to Higher Educational Attainment? Nuanced Insights From French Retrospective Longitudinal Data

This article used regression analysis of retrospective longitudinal data from the 2011 French Employment Survey to estimate the effect on educational attainment of different school settings across facilities and subgroups of children with disabilities. Controlling for impairments and sociodemographics, educational achievement was significantly lower for individuals who attended a special classroom, a special school, or, more markedly, did not attend any school as compared to those who attended only a general education classroom. However, interaction effects revealed that it was primarily for those with a cognitive impairment and those from higher socioeconomic backgrounds that special school outcomes were lower than general education outcomes. There was little or no difference for those with a major hearing impairment, a major mobility impairment, or disadvantaged backgrounds. These results call for careful attention to the diversity of facilities and audiences when evaluating the direct and indirect effects of educational policies on people with disabilities.