INSIDE Data

About the INSIDE Study

The INSIDE study, conducted over two project phases, focuses on factors that are relevant to the success of school inclusion of children in lower secondary education and the subsequent transitions. Between spring 2019 and fall 2024, five survey waves were administered nationwide to explore the framework conditions, processes, experiences, and outcomes of inclusive education for pupils with and without special educational needs in general schools in Germany. In addition to repeated surveys and competency testing among the target participants, the longitudinal data collection also included parents as well as relevant context persons such as school administrators, teachers, and support staff.

INSIDE provides a unique database for empirical analyses on the inclusion of children in schools from the 6th grade onward and their development into adolescence. The data cover a wide range of topics that allow researchers to examine different concepts of inclusion and explore various aspects of the implementation and the outcomes of inclusive education in Germany.

Data Access

The edited survey data from the INSIDE study are available free of charge for research purposes in the form of a Scientific Use File (SUF). Access to the data requires the conclusion of a Data Use Agreement. The completed and signed agreement form must be submitted to the LIfBi Research Data Center (fdz@lifbi.de). Each person involved in the agreement will then receive an individual user ID and a password by e-mail to download the data. Since some information is not included in the download version of the SUF due to sensitivity, access to the protected data environments can be requested via the Remote or On-Site Supplement to the agreement. Amendments to an existing contract with regard to the extension of the term and/or the expansion of the group of involved persons are possible at any time via the Change Form.

Application Download [en]

Data Use Agreement (PDF)

Application Remote [en]

Supplemental Agreement (PDF)

Application On-Site [en]

Supplemental Agreement (PDF)

Extension/Expansion [en]

Change Agreement (PDF)

Completing the Forms [en]

Instructions (PDF)

Scientific Use File

The SUF contains the edited data from the longitudinal INSIDE study with its five survey waves, as well as the data from the preceding online school survey – all available in Stata and SPSS format with German and English language labels.

The download is possible for registered data users after logging in to this website with the personal user ID and the password. Registration requires a valid INSIDE Data Use Agreement.

Download SUF | INSIDE 1.0.0 | 2026/05/17

Unsplash / ThisisEngineering

Data Citation

Researchers are obliged to indicate the use of INSIDE data in their publications together with the respective SUF version (DOI) by including the following citation in the bibliography:

INSIDE-Konsortium (2026). INSIDE – Inclusion in and after lower secondary education in Germany. Scientific Use File, 1.0.0. Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi), Bamberg. https://doi.org/10.5157/INSIDE:1.0.0

In addition, the INSIDE study is to be acknowledged at an appropriate place in the publication, and the reference article to be added to the bibliography:

This paper uses data from the study “INSIDE – Inclusion in and after lower secondary education in Germany” (vgl. Gresch et al., 2025). The study was conducted through a collaboration between the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories in Bamberg (LIfBi), the Humboldt University of Berlin (HU), the University of Wuppertal (BUW), and the University of Potsdam (UP).

Gresch, C., Schmitt, M., Grosche, M., Böhme, K., Labsch, A., Külker, L., Nusser, L., Stanat, P., & Roßbach, H.‐G. (2025). Inklusion in und nach der Sekundarstufe I in Deutschland – Erkenntnisinteresse, Forschungsdesign und Datengrundlage der INSIDE‐Längsschnittstudie. In C. Gresch, M. Schmitt, M. Grosche, K. Böhme, A. Labsch & L. Külker (Eds.), Edition‐ZfE: Bd. 19. Inklusion in der Sekundarstufe I in Deutschland (S. 1–33). Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-48603-7_1

In accordance with the Data Use Agreement, the LIfBi Research Data Center has to be informed immediately and unsolicited by e-mail (fdz@lifbi.de) about any kind of publication resulting from the work with INSIDE data.

Data Documentation

The centerpiece of the INSIDE data documentation is the Data Manual, which contains all essential information for working with the Scientific Use File. This manual is supplemented by the Release Notes, providing current information on bug fixes and updates; the Codebook, featuring univariate frequency statistics for all variables; and the so-called Data Structure File, serving as a freely accessible counterpart to the Scientific Use File without any survey data. In addition, for each survey wave (including the preceding online school survey), the Methods Reports from the survey institutes with details on the implementation of the surveys, as well as the original Field Instruments and the SUF Instruments enriched with metadata are available for download as ZIP archives. The SUF instruments and the Codebook are offered in both German and English. The Interviewer Manuals used in the first, fourth, and fifth survey wave are also accessible.