Is the Proportion of Children With Disabilities in Inclusive Preschool Programs Associated With Children’s Achievement?

Abstract

This study applied multilevel modeling to examine the relationship between the percentage of children with mild/moderate disabilities in classrooms and children’s language and literacy achievement over an academic year. The sample included 516 preschool children (mean age = 52.3 months, SD = 6.3) in 75 classrooms; 42% of the children had disabilities. The proportion of children with disabilities in a given classroom ranged from 7% to 92%. We found that the percentage of children with disabilities was not related to children’s spring achievement for three outcomes: language, print-concept knowledge, and alphabet knowledge. These findings and further research directions are discussed.