Psychosocial Functioning and School Achievement of Children With Mild Intellectual Disability in Polish Special, Integrative, and Mainstream Schools

The authors sought to assess the effectiveness of integrative and inclusive education in Poland as well as to determine the relations between the psychosocial functioning and school achievement of pupils with mild intellectual disability attending special, integrative, and mainstream schools. Nearly 900 (n = 859) grade four pupils rated their social and emotional integration within their school and took a school achievement test. Pupils from integrative and mainstream schools achieved significantly higher scores in the school achievement test than pupils from special schools, whereas students from special schools were significantly better integrated emotionally and socially than integrative and mainstream school students. Additionally, emotional integration was a positive predictor for school achievement of pupils attending special schools. Among pupils attending integrative and mainstream schools, the relationship between emotional and social integration and school achievement was more complex and curvilinear: The highest results were achieved by the best and the worst integrated pupils. These findings are discussed in the context of inclusive education theory.