Relationships between the inclusion of students with special educational needs and their classmates’ school outcomes – a replication study

• The study used a large, representative sample of fourth-grade students in Germany. • Inclusive schooling did not negatively affect students without special needs overall. • Inclusive schooling was linked to slightly lower achievement in math and spelling. • This was mainly seen in classes with students with learning or emotional disorders. • The study replicated the original study’s findings with mostly consistent results. Students with special educational needs (SEN) are increasingly included in the general classroom. This study directly replicates results on the relationships between inclusive schooling and the academic, motivational, and psychosocial outcomes of students without SEN. Analyses relied on consecutive representative large-scale assessments of fourth-graders in German primary schools with similar sampling procedures, study designs, and measures between the original and replication studies. Multilevel regression models compared students without classmates with SEN (n = 13,525) to those with at least one classmate with SEN (n = 9,175), with additional analyses for classmates with different types of SEN (i.e., learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, emotional disorders). Consistent with the original study, results indicate that inclusive schooling does not negatively affect students without SEN. However, their academic achievement in spelling and mathematics was slightly lower in inclusive classrooms, with small effect sizes. Overall, most effect sizes were comparable between the original and replication studies.