The Dutch policy of integration put to the test: differences in academic and psychosocial development of pupils in special and mainstream education

Examines a study which attempted to answer the question whether pupils with problems are better off in special education where there are more resources and they can get more attention than in mainstream schools. The authors used a database containing longitudinal data on 40,000 pupils in Dutch primary schools. It was expected that the pupils in special education would do better due to the specialist care and individual attention. However, with a few exceptions, few differences were found when comparable at-risk pupils in regular schools were compared with their counterparts in both types of special schools. There was a conspicuously large measure of variability in both regular and special education. All school types had both at-risk pupils who were doing well from an academic and/or psychosocial perspective and pupils whose progress left much to be desired. There is little evidence to support the idea that at-risk pupils make less progress, in either their academic or psychosocial development, in regular schools compared with pupils in special schools. The general assumption that at-risk pupils will do better in special education does not seem to account for its attractiveness. Special education policy in The Netherlands is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved