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The impact of placing pupils with special educational needs in mainstream

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DOI: 10.1080/00131880701717222

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The impact of placing pupils

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in mainstream schools on the
achievement of their peers
a a a
Afroditi Kalambouka , Peter Farrell , Alan Dyson & Ian Kaplan
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a
University of Manchester , UK
Published online: 28 May 2008.

To cite this article: Afroditi Kalambouka , Peter Farrell , Alan Dyson & Ian Kaplan (2007) The
impact of placing pupils with special educational needs in mainstream schools on the achievement
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 Educational Research, Vol. 49, No. 4, December 2007, pp. 365 – 382

The impact of placing pupils with

special educational needs in
mainstream schools on the
achievement of their peers

Afroditi Kalambouka*, Peter Farrell, Alan Dyson and

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Ian Kaplan
University of Manchester, UK

Background
Over the past 20 years or so policy and practice on the education of children with special
educational needs (SEN) has been aimed at placing increasing numbers of children in a
mainstream school environment. Although this policy has been supported in principle by many
teachers, parents and local authority officers, there has been much less agreement about
whether this principle can be realized in practice, and even if it can, about what the impacts
might be on the achievements of pupils with SEN in mainstream schools and, in particular, on
their peers.
Purpose
This paper discusses the key findings from a systematic review of the literature carried out by the
Inclusion Review Group, on behalf of the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information (EPPI)-
Centre, the purpose of which was to review research evidence on whether the placement of pupils
with special educational needs (SEN) within mainstream schools has an impact on academic and
social outcomes for pupils without SEN.
Design and methods
The methodology followed the procedures adopted by the EPPI-Centre. Having agreed on the
inclusion and exclusion criteria for studies that could be included in the review, an initial pool of
7137 papers were identified through electronic databases. After having screened all their titles and/
or abstracts and having marked out possible papers to be included in the review, 119 paper copies
were obtained—all of which were read by one or more of the authors of this paper. This led to a
further reduction to 26 studies that were subjected to the EPPI data extraction process and
synthesis.
Conclusions
Overall, the findings suggest that there are no adverse effects on pupils without SEN of
including pupils with special needs in mainstream schools, with 81% of the outcomes reporting
positive or neutral effects. Despite concerns about the quality of some of the studies that were
reviewed and the fact that the great majority were carried out in the USA, these findings should
bring some comfort to headteachers, parents and local authority officers around the world at a

*Corresponding author. School of Education, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester

M13 9PL, UK. Email: [email protected]
ISSN 0013-1881 (print)/ISSN 1469-5847 (online)/07/040365-18
ª 2007 NFER
DOI: 10.1080/00131880701717222
 366 A. Kalambouka et al.

time when concerns have been raised about the problems that schools face in responding to the
twin agenda of becoming more inclusive and, at the same time, raising the achievements of all
their pupils.

Keywords: Inclusion; Special educational needs; Pupil achievement

Introduction
In general terms the notion of ‘inclusive schooling’ is complex, ambiguous and
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contested (Dyson, 1999; Dyson & Howes, forthcoming; Farrell & Ainscow, 2002,
Farrell et al., 2004; Farrell, 2006), and can refer to many different aspects of school
policies and practices in relation to different groups of students. However, in relation
to pupils with special educational needs (SEN), the term ‘inclusion’ typically refers to
the placement in a regular school population of students who might otherwise be
placed outside the mainstream. This is what we might call ‘population inclusivity’, or
what the Audit Commission has called ‘presence’ (Audit Commission, 2002). On this
definition, a more inclusive school has in its population a greater number and/or a
wider range of students with special educational needs who might otherwise be placed
outside the mainstream than does a less inclusive school.
National education policy in England (and more generally across the UK) pursues
avowedly inclusive aims but within the context of a highly demanding ‘standards’
agenda which focuses on meeting targets for raising the attainments of students to
specified target levels. Not surprisingly, this apparently twin-track approach has led to
some concerns as to how schools can reconcile the twin imperatives of increasing
their inclusiveness, through admitting more children with SEN, while at the same
time not reducing their capacity to produce good outcomes for their students (see
Ainscow et al., 2006). Similar pressures are exerted on schools in the USA. Many
argue (e.g. Evans & Lunt, 2002) that these competing priorities can make it more
difficult for schools to fully include children with disabilities. However, as Norwich
(2002) and Rustemier and Vaughn (2005) indicate, there are some local authorities
that have drastically reduced the numbers of pupils they send to special schools and
hence they seem to have been successful in allaying the fears expressed by staff in the
mainstream sector that this could reduce a school’s overall levels of achievement.
Set against this concern are some powerful theoretical arguments suggesting that
an inclusive approach by schools should enable them to generate better student
outcomes (Ainscow, 1991; Skrtic, 1991; Lipsky & Gartner, 1997). There is also a
good deal of empirical evidence which, whilst not supporting some of the more
ambitious claims made for the effects of inclusion, suggests that some groups of
students with SEN, who are placed in regular schools, do no worse socially and
academically than if they were placed outside the mainstream (see Lunt & Norwich,
1999; Farrell, 2000; Lindsay, 2007). In addition, the previous reviews undertaken by
the EPPI Inclusion Review Group (Dyson et al., 2002; Howes et al., 2003) lend
support to this general view.
 Inclusion and mainstream pupils’ achievement 367

What have not yet been subject to a systematic review, however, are studies that set
out to explore empirically the relationship between the inclusiveness of a school and
the outcomes it produces for the population of students without special educational
needs. The aims of this paper therefore are to report on the findings of a systematic
review of the research literature, using EPPI procedures, that has explored this key
question (see for full report Kalambouka et al., 2005). The findings have the potential
to fill a significant gap in the evidence base which, if left unreported, will increase the
danger that policy and practice will be developed on the basis of an enthusiasm for
inclusion or an antipathy towards it—neither of which is informed by robust evidence.
The need for further work in this area has been given additional impetus as a result of
the recent concerns about inclusion expressed by Warnock (2005) and in the
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subsequent edited book (Cignan, 2007).

Research background
The great majority of literature reviews on the impact of inclusion have focused on
outcomes for pupils with SEN rather than on their non-disabled peers, although some
of these reviews devote a section on the impact of inclusion on pupils without SEN
(Harrington, 1997; Harrower, 1999). Harrington (1997) concluded that the effects
were at best neutral, while Harrower (1999) reported positive outcomes in terms of
attitudes, acceptance, knowledge of disabilities and friendships although one study
concluded that placing a student with severe disabilities in regular education was not
enough to reduce the negative stigma of SEN.
There are also a small number of non-systematic reviews of the literature that have
addressed the issue of the impact of inclusion on non-disabled students. In general the
findings from these reviews suggest that there is little or no negative impact on
children without SEN. Peltier (1997), for example, reviewed five studies where the
outcomes suggested that inclusion leads to a reduced fear of human diversity and the
development of warm and caring friendships. In addition, none of the three studies
reviewed by Moore et al. (1998) reported a negative impact of including pupils with
SEN on students without disabilities in terms of academic achievement. In a series of
papers that focus on social outcomes for pupils without SEN, Staub and Peck (1994)
and Staub (1996, 1999) conclude that inclusion not only ‘does not harm non-disabled
children’, but that there are potential benefits in terms of reduced fear of human
differences, growth in social cognition, improvements in self-concept, development of
personal principles, and warm and caring friendships. Salend and Duhaney (1999)
reviewed four studies on the academic outcomes of inclusion on pupils without SEN.
The findings indicated that pupils with SEN who attended an inclusive classroom did
not interfere with the students’ academic performance in terms of scores in various
subjects and in terms of allocated and engaged instructional time. Furthermore, they
found overall positive reported attitudes of students without disabilities towards
inclusive classrooms, increased tolerance to individual differences, greater awareness
and sensitivity to human diversity and the needs of others. In contrast to these positive
findings, Petch-Hogan and Haggard (1999), in a review of seven studies, found some
negative attitudes among pupils without SEN towards their disabled peers.
 368 A. Kalambouka et al.

Manset and Semmel (1997) attempted a rather more systematic review of the
literature on inclusive programmes for students with mild disabilities, primarily
learning difficulties. The review also included effects for students who are at risk, as
well as results for general education students. Findings from eight programmes
referred to in 11 studies suggest, overall, that organizational and instructional changes
incorporated in the inclusive programmes lead to positive outcomes on the
achievements of non-disabled students.
All the reviews referred to above are relatively small scale, and in all but one case
(Manset & Semmel, 1997), they are not systematic. Although the findings tend to
point in the same direction, taken together, they only make a modest contribution to
knowledge in this complex area. The only large-scale UK study that has addressed
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this general area was commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills
(DfES) and focused on the relationship between inclusion and pupil achievement in
English schools. This involved a detailed statistical analysis of individual pupil data
from the 2002 national pupil database and sought to explore the relationship between
school and LEA inclusivity and pupil achievement across all four key stages (Dyson,
et al., 2004, 2007; Farrell et al., 2007). In summary, the study found that, for all
practical purposes, there was no relationship between the placement of pupils with
SEN in mainstream schools and the achievements of all pupils.

Methodology
Review question
The following question provided the starting-point for the review: what evidence is
there that the inclusiveness of schools has impacts on outcomes for the students
without special needs in those schools?
Having agreed on the question, the methodology for the review followed the guidelines
laid down by the EPPI-Centre for carrying out systematic reviews. The full details of the
method used to select studies for this review are provided in the main report (Kalambouka
et al., 2005). Here we provide an overview of the key steps that were undertaken.

Inclusion criteria
In order to select the studies to be included in the systematic review, we developed
clear inclusion and exclusion criteria that would enable us to interrogate studies before
deciding whether they could be included. These criteria incorporated studies that:

. reported on the results of empirical research rather than being purely theoretical
or exhortatory;
. reported evidence of the impact of the intervention: through a longitudinal study
of one school; or by comparison with a similar but less inclusive school (with a
lower level of population inclusivity); or by comparison between different
conditions within the same school (such as more and less inclusive classes);
. were concerned with the phases of compulsory schooling (ages 5–16).
 Inclusion and mainstream pupils’ achievement 369

Outcome measures
We defined the term ‘student outcome’ quite narrowly as a change in the capabilities
of students. These capabilities could be academic—normally assessed through tests
and/or school and pupil reports (e.g. increased/reduced knowledge and skills in a
curriculum area), or social and personal—normally assessed through personality
tests, observations, school and pupils reports (e.g. increased/reduced self-esteem or
ability to sustain friendships).

Coding studies
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The studies’ outcomes were coded as positive, negative or neutral. Outcomes were
coded as positive if the findings indicated that the achievements of pupils without SEN
increased following the placement of pupils with SEN. Alternatively, they were
classed as negative if the achievements of non-SEN pupils fell. Many studies reported
found no discernable difference in the achievements of pupils without SEN following
the introduction of pupils with special needs. These studies were coded as having
neutral outcomes.

‘Category’ of pupils with SEN who were included

Research on outcomes associated with the inclusion of pupils with different types of
SEN was also included in the review as other research (e.g. Dyson et al., 2004) has
suggested that the impact of including pupils with particular types of SEN—e.g.
those with behavioural, social and emotional difficulties—may be more negative
than it is for other groups of pupils. We therefore used the four main categories from
the Code of Practice (DfES, 2001) to describe the included students, ‘Cognition
and learning’, ‘Behavioural, emotional and social difficulties (BESD)’, ‘Sensory and/
or physical needs’ and ‘Communication and interaction’. As these categories are
specific to England and Wales, for studies based in other countries we made a
judgement, based on the description of the pupils’ needs in each paper, as to which
category of special need the children fitted. There were inevitably several studies
where children with more than one type of SEN were included and studies where
children were described as having multiple problems, for example, problems in
cognition and learning as well as BESD. In such studies, we considered the impact
on outcomes for pupils without SEN of pupils with each of these ‘categories’ of
special need.

Identification of studies for in-depth review

Initially 7137 papers were identified through searches of electronic databases. After
having screened all their titles and/or abstracts and marked out possible papers to be
included in the review, we eventually obtained 119 paper copies all of which were
read by members of the review team. This led to a further reduction to 26 studies
that were subjected to keywording and the EPPI data extraction process.
 370 A. Kalambouka et al.

The following are the key characteristics of the 26 studies that were selected for in-
depth review:

. All were evaluation studies, 15 of which were naturally occurring, in that the
pupils with SEN were placed in a mainstream school as a result of local policy
decisions and not as part of a research project. The researchers used the
opportunity presented by these schools to carry out their study. The remaining 11
studies were ‘researcher manipulated’ involving some form of experimental design
where specified groups of pupils were deliberately placed in one setting as part of
planned study.
. Usually outcome measures for one group, where the pupils had worked alongside
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children with SEN, were compared to similar groups within the same school or to
a similar school, where no pupils with SEN had been included.
. Typically the 26 studies referred to the inclusion of pupils with a variety of SEN
types. However, pupils who experienced difficulties in the area of cognition and
learning were referred to in all but two of them. Pupils with difficulties in other
SEN areas featured less prominently; 12 mentioned pupils with BESD, 11
sensory and physical needs and nine difficulties in communication and
interaction.
. The majority of the studies (21) focused on academic outcomes and these were
measured in a wide variety of ways, including class tests, national examinations
and teacher ratings.
. Some 24 of the studies reported statistically significant differences in one or more
outcomes. Two were detailed qualitative studies.
. Of the 26 studies, 16 also looked at the impact of inclusion on the achievements of
pupils with SEN and, for some of these, this was the primary focus of the study.
. Virtually all the studies (21) focused on the outcomes of inclusion for primary-
aged pupils.
. The nature of the inclusion experienced by the pupils with SEN was described in
different ways. In some studies (16) this was described as the proportion of pupils
with SEN in a mainstream class, whereas in others (11) it was described as the
number of hours per week (or day) that a child with SEN spent in a mainstream
class. Some studies described inclusion in both ways.
. The studies ranged over a period of 23 years; five were published before 1990, 15
between 1990 and 1999 and five from 2000 onwards.
. The great majority of these studies were American (21), although there were two
studies from Australia, one from Canada and one from Ireland.

Findings from the systematic review

Overview
It is important to remember that each of the 26 studies yielded a number of key
findings or outcomes, all of which were relevant to this review. To illustrate this point
the study by Lundeen and Lundeen (1993) considered the impact of including pupils
 Inclusion and mainstream pupils’ achievement 371

with three types of SEN, cognition and learning, BESD, and sensory and physical
difficulties on the academic achievements of pupils without SEN in both primary and
secondary schools. Hence this one study produced six different findings, three in
primary and three in secondary, all of which were relevant to this review. All the other
studies yielded at least one finding and, taken together, there were a total of 78
different findings from the 26 studies.
Tables 1 and 2 provide a summary of the 71 findings across different categories of
SEN and in primary and secondary schools. The names in each of the boxes are the
authors of the studies and the shading indicates whether the findings were classed as
‘positive’, ‘neutral’ or ‘negative’. Given the number of studies and associated
findings, it is not possible, in this paper, to refer in detail to the specific studies that we
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reviewed. Readers are referred to the full EPPI report (Kalambouka et al., 2005) for a
discussion of each of the 26 studies and associated findings. Here we highlight some
of the more significant findings from the studies that support the overall conclusions
in respect to pupils in primary and secondary schools.

Cognition and learning

Almost all studies involved samples of students who had difficulties in cognition and
learning as the main type of SEN. Overall, the inclusion of pupils with these
difficulties had a neutral effect on their peers without difficulties. However, this varied
across the type of outcomes (academic and social) and the school type (primary and
secondary).
In terms of academic outcomes in primary schools (Table 1), there were 12 studies
that reported neutral outcomes when students with difficulties in cognition and
learning were included in such schools, three studies reported positive outcomes and
none reported negative outcomes. Among the studies that yielded neutral findings,
Huber et al. (2001) found no relationship between academic outcomes on
standardized measure of mathematics in and the placement of pupils with learning
difficulties. In another study, Beuter (1984) assessed the relationship between the
inclusion of 25 pupils with learning difficulties in a physical education setting where
approximately one in four pupils had SEN and found that the performance of the
non-SEN students was not affected. Using a quasi-experimental design with a control
and experimental sample comprising over 500 non-SEN students, McDonnell et al.
(2003) also found that there were no differences in the basic literacy and mathematics
skills of pupils enrolled in two types of classes, those containing pupils with SEN and
those without such pupils. This neutral outcome was also illustrated in studies where
the included pupils were referred to as having severe to profound disabilities (Sharpe
et al., 1994; Rankin et al., 1999).
Four studies reported positive academic outcomes for primary school students in
either science, literacy or mathematics when students with cognitive and learning
difficulties were included (Stevens & Slavin, 1995; Shinn et al., 1997; Mastropieri
et al., 1998; Saint-Lauren et al., 1998).
The picture for social outcomes, when pupils with cognitive and learning
difficulties are included in primary schools, is slightly more positive when compared
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Table 1. Impact of inclusion across type of SEN: primary schools

Cognition and learning BESD Sensory/physical Communication

Academic Social Academic Social Academic Social Academic Social

Affleck et al. Bear et al. Affleck et al. Sharpe et al. Huber et al. Tapasak & McDonnell Tapasak &
(1988) (1991) (1988) (1994) (2001) Walther- et al. (2003) Walther-
Beuter (1984) Sharpe et al. Huber et al. Tapasak & Obrusnikova Thomas Hunt et al. Thomas
372 A. Kalambouka et al.

Hillen et al. (1994) (2001) Walther- et al. (2003) (1999) (1994) (1999)
(1992) Tapasak & Lundeen & Thomas McDonnell Obrusnikova Tapasak & Sasso &
Huber et al. Walther- Lundeen (1999) et al. (2003) Walther-
et al. (2003) Rude
(2001) Thomas (1993) Hepler (1998) Hunt et al. Thomas
(1988)
Hunt et al. (1999) Sharpe et al. (1994) (1999)
Sasso & Rude
Hillen et al. (1994) Tapasak & Rankin et al.
(1994) (1988)
Lundeen & (1992) Tapasak & Walther- (1999)
Brown (1982)
Lundeen Sasso & Rude Walther- Thomas Willrodt &
Primary (1993) (1988) Thomas (1999) Claybrook
Shevlin & (1999) Rankin et al. (1995)
McDonnell
et al. (2003) O’Moore Willrodt & (1999) Saint-Laurent
Rankin et al. (2000) Claybrook Willrodt & et al. (1998)
(1999) Stevens & (1995) Claybrook Shinn et al.
Rarick & Slavin Saint-Laurent (1995) (1997)
Beuter (1995) et al. (1998) Lundeen &
(1985) Mastropieri Lundeen
Beuter (1984)
Sharpe et al. et al. (1998) (1993)
Daniel & King
(1994) Brown (1982) Saint-Laurent
(1997)
et al. (1998)
(continued)
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Table 1. (Continued)

Cognition and learning BESD Sensory/physical Communication

Academic Social Academic Social Academic Social Academic Social

Tapasak & Mastropieri

Walther- et al. (1998)
Thomas Shinn et al.
(1999) (1997)
Willrodt &
Claybrook
(1995)
Mastropieri
et al. (1998)
Saint-Laurent
et al. (1998)
Shinn et al.
(1997)
Stevens &
Slavin
(1995)

Key: : positive; : neutral; : negative.

Inclusion and mainstream pupils’ achievement 373
 Downloaded by [The University of Manchester Library] at 01:50 03 August 2015

374 A. Kalambouka et al.

Table 2. Impact of inclusion across type of SEN: secondary schools

Cognition and learning BESD Sensory/physical Communication

Academic Social Academic Social Academic Social Academic Social

Block & Zeman (1996) Block & Zeman (1996) Lundeen & Lundeen Lundeen &
Lundeen & Lundeen Helmstetter et al. (1994) (1993) Lundeen
Secondary (1993) Shevlin & O’Moore Cawley et al. (2002) (1993)
Cawley et al. (2002) (2000)
Block & Zeman (1996)

Key: : positive; : neutral; : negative.

 Inclusion and mainstream pupils’ achievement 375

to academic outcomes which were mainly neutral. There were four studies reporting
positive outcomes and three reporting neutral overall findings. Two of these referred
to the inclusion of pupils with severe to profound learning difficulties: Sasso and
Rude (1988) and Sharpe et al. (1994).
There were few studies that investigated the effects of inclusion at secondary school
level (Table 2). Block and Zeman (1996) reported neutral academic outcomes for the
rest of the class when three students with moderate to severe learning and cognitive
difficulties were included, while the same study also reported some negative
outcomes for some other academic skills, as did Cawley et al. (2002). This later
study, though, involved samples of students who collectively had a mixture of
learning difficulties and BESD.
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Behavioural, emotional and social difficulties

Of the studies that reported either positive or neutral academic and social outcomes
when primary-aged pupils with BESD were included, some involved pupils with
BESD as a sub-sample of the total sample of pupils with SEN or they were students
with other difficulties (mainly learning) that had additional emotional/behavioural
problems. Once again, the findings are mainly neutral or positive, at least in primary
schools. Sasso and Rude (1988), for example, showed that, on sociometric measures,
pupils without SEN made significant gains following the inclusion of pupils with
SEN, many of whom had BESD. Alternatively, Willrodt and Claybrook (1995) found
that scores on a standardized test of achievement were no different for pupils without
SEN who had been working alongside pupils with SEN among whom were pupils
with severe behaviour problems.
There were only two studies in which the included students had BESD as the main
difficulty. The first study, by Hepler (1998), reported that primary school students
benefited socially from their interactions with included students with emotional/
behavioural difficulties. The second study, by Brown (1982), reported negative
outcomes, both academic and social, for primary school pupils when their peers with
BESD were included. He found that the greater the number of students with
behavioural problems in the classroom, the more it influenced the classroom climate
and learning environment in a negative way in terms of all students’ cognitive abilities
and social behaviour.
At the secondary school level, there were only two studies that reported the
outcomes of the inclusion of pupils with BESD on the school population (Lundeen &
Lundeen, 1993; Cawley, 2002), although in both studies pupils with BESD formed a
part of the SEN group who were included. The findings are neutral or positive and,
taken together with Brown’s (1982) research, they suggest that the impact of inclusion
of students with BESD on outcomes for other children remains at best uncertain.

Sensory and/or physical needs and communication and interaction

Some of the studies that reported positive or neutral academic outcomes for primary
school pupils involved sub-samples of pupils with hearing impairments, health
 376 A. Kalambouka et al.

impairments, speech and language disorders and multiple disabilities as the main type
of SEN (Shinn et al., 1997; Mastropieri et al., 1998; Rankin et al., 1999; Tapasak &
Walther-Thomas, 1999). Rankin et al. (1999) studied the academic outcomes for
small groups of three or four non-disabled pupils of including a child with learning
and sensory difficulties and found that the non-SEN pupils performed equally well in
both groups. In a much larger study involving 183 students without SEN, Tapasak
and Walther-Thomas (1999) found no differences on pre- and post-test scores on a
range of academic and social measures.
Apart from Lundeen and Lundeen (1993), whose findings were classed as neutral,
there were no studies in secondary schools that considered the outcomes of the
inclusion of pupils with sensory and/or physical needs or with communication/
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interaction difficulties.
Finally, it is interesting to note that there was no study that reported negative
outcomes of the inclusion of students with sensory and/or physical needs and/or
communication/interaction difficulties. A minor exception is the study by Huber et al.
(2001) whose sample included some pupils with health impairments, but they were
also reported to have major additional learning or behavioural/emotional needs that
were more likely to have had an impact on the success of the inclusive placements.

Synthesis of findings
Table 3 is a synopsis of the findings in Tables 1 and 2 and shows the number and
percentages of findings that were positive, negative and neutral when other factors
were combined—academic and social outcomes, primary and secondary school and
the SEN of the included pupils.
Overall, the findings suggest that there are no adverse effects on pupils without
SEN of including pupils with special needs in mainstream schools, with 81% of the
outcomes reporting positive or neutral effects (58% þ 23%). Hence they suggest that
placing children with SEN in mainstream schools is unlikely to have a negative impact
on academic and social outcomes for pupils without SEN. These findings confirm the
conclusions from other non-systematic reviews of the literature referred to earlier. A
closer look at the findings reveals a number of further points:

. Tables 1 and 2 indicate that most of the outcomes related to primary-aged pupils
(61 out of 71) and the main focus of the majority was on the impact of placing
pupils in mainstream schools with difficulties in the area of cognition and
learning. In the primary phase there were slightly more studies that focus on the

Table 3. Summary of key findings: 71 findings from 26 studies (adapted from Tables 1 and 2)

Positive findings 19 23%

Neutral findings 45 58%
Negative findings 7 9%
Total 71
 Inclusion and mainstream pupils’ achievement 377

impact of placing pupils with BESD in mainstream schools than those with
sensory and physical impairments. In general, there were few studies on the
impact of placing pupils with difficulties in communication and interaction,
particularly at the secondary level.
. There was slightly more emphasis on academic rather than social outcomes (50
out of 71 findings) and the majority of outcomes on the academic side were
neutral.
. Some of the findings (e.g. Saint-Laurent et al., 1998) suggested that the inclusion
of pupils with SEN in primary schools can have a positive impact on the
achievement of their mainstream peers particularly if the support offered to the
pupil with SEN is well managed. This confirms some of the key findings from
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the EPPI-Centre review on the impact of paid adult support (Howes et al., 2003).
. A higher proportion of outcomes in the secondary phase refer to the negative
impact of placing pupils with SEN in mainstream schools—three out of ten out-
comes as opposed to four out of 61 at the primary phase. This suggests that there
may be more problems in managing inclusion successfully in secondary schools.
. Tables 1 and 2 indicate that negative outcomes are not related to one SEN type.
However, there is one study (Brown, 1982), which focused exclusively on the
impact on mainstream pupils of placing children with BESD in a school. His
findings stressed the negative outcomes for pupils of such placements and confirm
the views expressed in other studies that are not part of this review (e.g. Dyson
et al., 2004, Farrell et al., 2007) that, compared to other pupils with SEN, pupils
with BESD are more difficult to include successfully.
. In general, there was no association between the sample size used in the studies
and the statistical significance of the findings. For example, the samples in Stevens
and Slavin’s (1995) and Saint-Laurent et al.’s (1998) studies were 1012 and 606
respectively and these yielded positive findings, as did Shinn’s (1997) study where
the sample was only 66. The study with the third largest sample, Huber et al.
(2001), with n ¼ 477, had neutral or positive results. However, studies with
similar-sized samples had positive, negative or neutral results; for example,
Brown’s (1982) study, with n ¼ 153, had negative results, while both the studies
by Helmstetter et al. (1994), with n ¼ 166, and Tapasak and Walther-Thomas
(1999), with n ¼ 183, had neutral results.

Conclusions and implications

There are a number of limitations that should be considered when judging the overall
importance of the review’s findings and in considering the implications for policy and
practice. First, there were several studies where the main focus of the research was on
the impact of inclusion for pupils with SEN and the element that addressed the
impact on non-SEN peers was a minor part of the study. Although this is not, strictly
speaking, a limitation, it might reflect the fact that the impact of inclusion on non-
disabled pupils has tended to be viewed as being of secondary importance.
Second, and of more fundamental concern perhaps, is the slightly loose or
uncertain way in which the term ‘inclusion’ was defined by the authors of the studies
 378 A. Kalambouka et al.

that were reviewed. It was not always clear whether the inclusion arrangements
involved full-time placements in mainstream class, whether and to what extent such
placements were supported and whether pupils were withdrawn to other special
classes for certain lessons, and for how long. All of this means that it is not possible to
judge from the review whether or not certain types of inclusion arrangements were
associated with particular academic or social outcomes. For example, it seems
reasonable to hypothesize that the full-time placement in a mainstream class of pupils
with BESD is more likely to have an impact on the achievements of their mainstream
colleagues than placing such pupils in an ‘on-site’ unit where contact with
mainstream peers is more limited. Unfortunately, it was not possible to explore this
hypothesis from the studies reviewed here.
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Third, in organizing the studies we used the categories from the Code of Practice as
a way of grouping SEN types. These categories are specific to England and Wales and
not used in other countries, in particular, the USA. Therefore we had to make a
judgement as to which Code of Practice category the pupils in a study seemed to fit.
Inevitably this process involved the review group in making a judgement, based on the
description of the pupils’ needs in each paper and it is possible that the classifications
we arrived at did not reflect these needs accurately. In addition, given the fact that in
many studies pupils with more than one type of SEN were included, it is difficult to
determine which of these pupils had the most impact, positive, negative or neutral, on
the achievements of their peers without SEN.
Fourth, the discussion sections in all the studies refer to the problem of attributing
changes in pupil achievement solely to the placement of pupils with SEN in their
schools. They acknowledge the possibility that these changes might have been due to
other factors. These cause and effect problems are evident in a great deal of
educational research and indicate the need to be cautious in interpreting findings.
Fifth, the overall balance of the studies was uneven. For example, almost all the
research had been carried out in the USA, and given the different contexts—
assessment arrangements, special needs support services, range of provision, etc.—it is
important to be cautious in generalizing the findings of the review to the UK. In
addition, there was a scarcity of studies that considered the impact of placing pupils
with SEN on the academic and social outcomes for secondary-aged pupils.
Furthermore, all but one of the studies was quantitative involving ‘measures’ of one
kind or another. There appears to be a dearth of qualitative studies that have addressed
our research question and which met the criteria for inclusion in this review.
Taken as a whole, the above limitations indicate that it is important to be cautious
when coming to an overall conclusion about the findings of the review. In particular,
the dearth of UK research in this area, the difficulty in determining the extent and
range of special needs that the pupils experienced, the limited number of studies in
secondary schools and the fact that the type of inclusive arrangement were not always
clearly defined, are all relevant caveats that should be borne in mind when planning
future policy and practice in this area.
Despite the limitations referred to above, this is the first systematic review of the
literature that has focused on the relationship between the inclusion of pupils with
SEN and the achievement of their peers without SEN. Other reviews, mostly from the
 Inclusion and mainstream pupils’ achievement 379

USA, have not been strictly systematic, nor have they been comprehensive and
covered all types of SEN, academic and social outcomes and the full age range of
pupils in mainstream schools. Furthermore, the overall conclusions from this review
are in line with the findings from other literature referred to earlier and with the
outcomes of the DfES-funded study on the relationship between inclusion and pupil
achievement in English schools (Dyson et al., 2004; Farrell et al., 2007). Hence this
review, and the findings from other research, point to the overall conclusion that, by
and large, placing children with SEN in mainstream schools is unlikely to have a
significant impact on overall levels of achievement among pupils without special
needs.
From a policy perspective, therefore, the outcomes of this review and related
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research suggest that, in relation to the impact on the achievements of non-SEN

pupils, the government, local authorities and schools should have no major concerns
about pursuing the inclusion agenda.
This is not to say, of course, that policy-makers should ignore problems faced by
schools in trying to become more inclusive and, at the same time, raise standards.
There is evidence from other literature (Fox et al., 2004) that some schools are
concerned about inclusion, particularly for pupils with emotional and behavioural
difficulties. In addition, other reviews of the literature (Harrower, 1999; Farrell,
2000) and findings from the case studies that were carried out as part of the DfES
study (Dyson et al., 2004) indicate that successful inclusion does not occur in a
vacuum. Parents, teachers and pupils need to be fully committed to the idea;
programmes of work have to be carefully planned and reviewed regularly; and support
staff need to work flexibly as a team and receive appropriate support and training. If
these general conditions are met, schools should feel able to include pupils with SEN
without fearing that it will damage the achievements of the remaining pupils.

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