School Careers of Pupils of Ethnic Minority Background After the Transition to Secondary Education: Is the Ethnic Factor Always Negative?

This article describes the school careers of Dutch pupils of ethnic minority background in the first 5 years following the transition to secondary education. The database used is VOCL89 of the Dutch Central Statistics Office (CBS). In line with previous findings,in the case of equal achievements pupils of ethnic minority background are advised to select higher types of secondary education than Dutch pupils. Furthermore, pupils of ethnic minority background more often select a school higher than advised than Dutch pupils. With control for social background, pupils of ethnic minority background are also found to display a more favourable career after the 1st year of secondary education. Path model construction results in consistently positive effects of ethnic minority origin at every transition. Further analysis demonstrates that even the most vulnerable subgroups of pupils of ethnic minority background, the Turkish and Moroccan pupils born in their motherland, show both absolutely and compared with the advice a career on a higher level than Dutch pupils with a similar social background. A point of discussion concerns the extent to which social background, defined as the parental educational level, refers to the same concept for Dutch people and people belonging to ethnic minority groups.     

School Effects on Performances of Minority Pupils 1

The impact of determinants from the individual, school and school environment level with regard to educational performance of pupils from various ethnic origins in the Netherlands is examined in this article. From rational choice and empowerment theory crucial variables were deduced. By means of multilevel modelling school effects in secondary education on performances in mathematics and linguistics were established. Results indicate the importance of a school policy orientated towards improving achievements of minority subgroups. A more general approach, based on the notion of shared circumstances of pupils from ethnic minority and low socio‐economic background families, did not generate positive results.

     

Reviews

In this paper, patterns of group‐specific reasons for school choice and their implications for segregation within the Dutch educational system are examined. The data from more than 10,000 parents are considered in analyses of variance. Parental reasons for school choice are found to relate to religion, social milieu and ethnicity, on the one hand, and the school’s denomination, social milieu and ethnic composition, on the other hand. The results show general quality of education to be a leading reason for school choice while group‐specific reasons for school choice also exist with Muslim migrant parents, in particular, showing a strong preference for an Islamic education for their children. The results thus suggest a risk of self‐segregation among Muslim migrant parents.     

Parental Involvement and Educational Achievement

Parental involvement is seen as an important strategy for the advancement of the quality of education. The ultimate objective of this is to expand the social and cognitive capacities of pupils. In addition, special attention is paid to the children of low‐educated and ethnic minority parents. Various forms of both parental and school‐initiated involvement are examined. On the one hand, the connections between a number of characteristics of parents and schools such as the social and ethnic background of the parents and the composition of the school population will be examined. On the other hand, the connections between a number of outcome measures such as the language and mathematics skills of the pupils will be examined. Data will be drawn from the large‐scale Dutch PRIMA (primary education) cohort study, which contains information on more than 500 schools and 12,000 pupils in the last year of primary school and their parents. An important finding is that predominantly schools with numerous minority pupils appear to provide a considerable amount of extra effort with respect to parental involvement, but that a direct effect of such involvement cannot be demonstrated.     

Cross‐level Relationships within Effective Schools

In this paper the focus is placed on cross‐level relationships within effective schools in secondary education in the Netherlands. Three hypotheses have been formulated. The outcomes related to the contingency hypothesis make clear that the managerial capacities of schools in secondary education are of great importance with respect to the effectiveness of schools, especially when a school's position gets under pressure at the local (student) market.

Results show the affirmation of a congruency hypothesis with respect to the extent of production orientation of management and teaching staff, and the overall congruence of school and classroom policy. Results of contextual hypothesis suggest that the average intelligence of the school population exerts no effect on school careers in general or on careers of low/high intelligent pupils in particular. However, a school environment with a relatively low average socio‐economic status is positively associated with the school careers of pupils from families with low socio‐economic status. No positive effects are found regarding school careers in general, or ethnic minority careers in particular, when the number of ethnic minority pupils was increasing.     

The role of ethnic school segregation for adolescents’ religious salience

Public concerns over the possible effects of school segregation on immigrant and ethnic majority religiosity have been on the rise over the last few years. In this paper we focus on (1) the association between ethnic school composition and religious salience, (2) intergenerational differences in religious salience and (3) the role of ethnic school composition for intergenerational differences in religious salience. We perform analyses on religious salience, one five-point Likert scale item measuring religious salience among 3,612 16-year-old pupils in Belgian secondary schools. National origin was used as a proxy for ethnicity. Ethnic minority pupils in schools with a higher share of ethnic minorities tend to be more religious. This relation holds for Muslim as well as other religious and ethnic minorities. Ethnic school composition also moderates the relationship between migrant generation and religious salience: second generation migrants tend to be more religious in ethnic minority dominated schools. For ethnic Belgians the association is moderated by their religious affiliation: Catholics tend to be more religious, while non-affiliated ethnic Belgians are less religious in schools with a higher share of ethnic minority pupils.     

Numerical Minority Status in Middle School and Racial/Ethnic Segregation in Academic Classes

This study examined the effects of racial/ethnic segregation (i.e., overrepresentation) in academic classes on belonging, fairness, intergroup attitudes, and achievement across middle school (n = 4,361; M_ageT1 = 11.33 years), and whether effects depended on numerical minority status in school and race/ethnicity. Latent growth curve models revealed that experiencing more segregation than usual predicted less belonging and fairness than usual for all youth in the numerical minority, and greater in-group preference for numerical minority Whites. Academic classroom segregation throughout middle school predicted less steep declines in in-group preference for adolescents in the numerical minority, and declines in achievement for African American numerical minority youth. Results highlight the need to treat the racial/ethnic context as a structural and dynamic construct.     

Catholic and Protestant Schools,a Better Choice in the Netherlands?

Abstract

This paper focuses on the influence of the sector of education (Catholic, Protestant and public) on the success of their pupils in tertiary education and on the labour market in the Netherlands. In the United States Coleman and Hoffer (1987) could hardly find any differences between the job prospects of pupils of private and public schools, but they did find effects of Catholic secondary education on success in tertiary education. In this study, which is based on longitudinal data of a nationally representative cohort of Dutch primary school leavers in 1965, an analogous comparison is made between the success in tertiary education and the job careers of the pupils who attended Dutch Catholic, Protestant or public secondary education. Differences are found between success in tertiary education and on the labour market of those who attended Catholic, Protestant or public Dutch schools. Pupils of public schools enter the university more often than pupils of private schools and pupils of Catholic schools enter the lower valued tertiary vocational education more often than pupils of Protestant or public schools. Significant effects of school sector were only found for those job characteristics which indicate the kind of job (sector of the job, nature of the job) but not for job characteristics which indicate the level of job. Especially pupils of Protestant schools less often have jobs in the administrative‐financial sector and the medical‐social sector than pupils of non‐Protestant schools. They also less often have jobs which have an exact or social nature. These differences in success in tertiary education and on the labour market are not systematically in favour of the private Catholic and Protestant schools.     

Educational outcomes and functioning of bi-ethnic Dutch children in school

Background: Changing demographics in societies through international migration have led to an increasing number of bi-ethnic individuals. The focus of this study is on bi-ethnic students with one parent with an ethnic majority background and one parent with an ethnic minority background. Most studies worldwide have grouped these bi-ethnic students with ethnic minority students or have grouped them according to the ethnic background of their mothers with the majority or minority group. However, empirical arguments for these groupings are lacking.

Purpose: The present study examined the educational outcomes and functioning of bi-ethnic students compared with mono-ethnic majority and mono-ethnic minority students in the Netherlands.

Sample: Data on in total 12,841 sixth-grade students (age 11–12) in primary education from two consecutive measurements of the national Dutch cohort study (COOL^5–18) were used in this study.

Method: Educational outcomes were measured with test scores on reading comprehension and mathematics. Educational functioning in school was measured with teacher and student questionnaires. Student questionnaires included instruments for well-being of the pupil in relationship with fellow students and citizenship competences. Teachers reported on problem behaviour of the pupils. To analyse the differences in educational outcomes and functioning among bi-ethnic, mono-ethnic minority and mono-ethnic majority students, multivariate, multilevel analyses were performed.

Results: The research findings indicate that bi-ethnic students do not differ from mono-ethnic majority students while they do differ from mono-ethnic minority students in their cognitive achievement, social-emotional functioning and citizenship knowledge. Bi-ethnic students scored higher on cognitive outcomes, social-emotional functioning and citizenship knowledge than mono-ethnic minority students did. For citizenship orientation alone, it was found that bi-ethnic students score in between mono-ethnic majority and mono-ethnic minority students.

Conclusion: This study indicates that researchers should not assume that bi-ethnic students will be similar to mono-ethnic ones.     

School choice in England: evidence from national administrative data

We study school choice in England using a new dataset containing the choices of all parents seeking a school place in state secondary schools. We provide new empirical evidence to inform how the school choice market functions, including the number of choices made, whether the nearest school is the first choice and the probability of an offer from the first choice school. These indicators show that school choice is actively used by many households in England. We use the rich data available to describe how choices vary by pupil, school and neighbourhood characteristics and how school choice is used differently by different groups and in different parts of the country. For the first time, we are able to present national data on how the school choices made by parents vary according to pupils’ ethnic group and across urban and rural areas. We show, contrary to some existing literature that has relied on smaller and less representative samples of parents and pupils, that school choices do not vary significantly by social background. We show that parents pro-actively use the choice system and present new evidence on the extent to which the current school admissions criteria that prioritise distance penalise poorer families.     

‘Modernising the comprehensive principle’: selection,setting and the institutionalisation of educational failure

This paper examines issues of selection, merging an analysis of policy with data from a qualitative case study. It focuses on the ‘modernisation of the comprehensive principle’ proposed by New Labour, in which selection within schools (through setting ‘by ability’) is increasingly encouraged. Data collected at an inner‐city, multi‐ethnic comprehensive school are used to illustrate how discourses on selection are being reworked locally. The school was largely supportive of setting, despite some teachers acknowledging that the practice prioritised high‐achieving pupils with perceived ‘good attitudes’. In the form under study, setting involved disadvantaged pupils from ethnic‐minority backgrounds, particularly those who received support in English as an Additional Language. It is concluded that setting did not contribute to an inclusive agenda for education, in spite of government claims of increased ‘standards for all’.     

Causal structures and counter‐intuitive experiments in electricity

This study focuses on the similarities and differences in structure and meaning between pupils’ conceptions about steady state tasks and evolutionary tasks, in which the system under study undergoes changes over time. A nine‐item written questionnaire was given to 197 Greek secondary school pupils. Results showed that the majority of pupils employ causal structures for their predictions. Two models were identified: a ‘give’ model, applied by pupils in steady‐state tasks; and a ‘take’ model, applied in evolutionary tasks. Structural similarities and semantic differences were identified between these models. In the light of these results, the study also examined the types of experiments in introductory electricity that would or would not obtain a counter‐intuitive reaction in pupils.     

The Effects of the Occupations of Working Mothers on the Educational Inequality

ABSTRACT

Working mothers with children of school age are a recent phenomenon in the Netherlands, but are more common in other European societies. The social and scientific significance of this work for life chances in general and for educational inequality in particular is still not clear and subject of heated debate. In this article the effects of paid work outside the home by the mother and of the level of her work on her child's educational attainment at the end of primary school are estimated with ANOVA and LISREL for the most recent nationally representative cohort of Dutch primary school‐leavers in the late 1980s (the VOCL‐'89 cohort), controlling for other characteristics of the mother, her household, husband and children. The study is a follow‐up of a comparable analysis of an older cohort of Dutch primary school‐leavers in the late 1970s. The results of this most recent analysis show that the dilemma between working outside the home and working as a housewife is a false one. The central question for the educational chances of a child is not whether its mother works or not, but the level of her work. Working in labouring jobs has a negative effect on children's educational attainment compared to working as a housewife; this in contrast to the positive effects of working as a shopkeeper, farmer or employee. This also holds after controlling for all other relevant characteristics. These effects are substantial and cannot be explained by other characteristics. However, the effects are not similar to the effects of the level of her husband's job on the educational attainment of their children. This means that the conventional as well as the radical view must be replaced by a more moderate one. This also means that in order to get an accurate estimation, the mother's job has to be included in any measurement of parental class of pupils. The effects of the level of the mother's job on the educational attainment of her children do not differ between boys and girls. These results neither confirm suggestions of the model‐function of working mothers for their daughters, nor suggestions of the need of boys to be controlled by a mother at home. The effects of the level of the mother's job also do not differ between ethnic groups. The last two results are contrary to some results from the USA. In this article the effects of the mother's job on her children's educational attainment in a nationally representative cohort of the late ‘70s (the SMVO cohort) are compared to those of this recent VOCL‐'89 cohort. Despite the growth in the percentage of working mothers during the ‘70s and ‘80s in the Netherlands (mostly part‐time jobs) the effect of the level of the mother's job did not change. A possible consequence of these results is that a general change of the tax and wages system from one based on households with one wage‐earner to one based on individuals might be detrimental to families of parents with a low educational level, who are limited to less qualified jobs.     

Preparing to transition to secondary education: perceptions of Dutch pupils with migrant backgrounds

Background: The transition from primary school to secondary school is a crucial period of time for children and this may be especially the case for pupils with migrant backgrounds. While there has been considerable research on the transition from primary to secondary school, more needs to be known specifically about the experiences of this group of pupils during their final year of primary school, as they prepare for their transition to secondary school.

Purpose: The study investigated how Dutch children with migrant backgrounds in their final year of primary school perceive the preparatory process for the transition to secondary school. In particular, we were interested in who the children felt were the important ‘actors’ (e.g. pupils, parents, teachers and others) in the preparatory process.

Sample: We collected data from 76 primary school pupils from three schools in an urban city in the Netherlands. The sample included pupils who, according to the Dutch system, were preparing to follow an academic pathway (i.e. the tracks known in this system as ‘HAVO’ or ‘VWO’) and those who were preparing to follow a vocational pathway (i.e. the track known as ‘VMBO’) in secondary education.

Design and methods: We used photo elicitation (N = 76) and also conducted semi-structured interviews with a subsample of the pupils (N = 25) to examine the roles of the important actors in the preparatory process. Data were analysed qualitatively; responses were coded and underwent pattern analysis in order to identify and describe repeating structures in the data. Data were grouped according to whether the pupils received school recommendations for an academic track or a vocational track.

Results: Findings suggested that the pupils perceived the most important actors to be the pupil, the classroom teacher and the parents. Both teachers and parents were considered valuable resources for pupils in the preparatory process. Patterns representing the participants’ perceptions of the roles of three actors – namely, (1) the child, (2) the classroom teacher and (3) the parents, were identified. Six patterns were identified with respect to the child, four with respect to the classroom teacher and two with respect to the parents. For some patterns, it was apparent that the responses of children in the vocational group and the academic group had different emphases.

Conclusions: The study highlights the importance for teachers and parents of children in their final year of primary school to be aware of the pupils’ perceptions of and feelings about their preparation for secondary school, so as to be in the best position to support them collaboratively.     

‘Reading drop‐outs’: Can they be predicted?

Abstract

In the Netherlands many pupils in grade one have difficulties in beginning reading. Approximately 7.5% of all children do not succeed in learning to read well enough to be able to proceed to the following school‐year together with the other pupils. These children either have to repeat a year or have to go back to kindergarten; alternatively, they are referred to special education. These children are called ‘reading drop‐outs’.     

Meritocracy,deficit thinking and the invisibility of the system: Discourses on educational success and failure

Socio‐ethnic stratification and segregation processes present in Flemish society are reflected in the everyday school environment. Pupils with a different socio‐ethnic background than the dominant majority and middle class seem to be confronted with a lot of difficulties in this school system. The dominant meritocratic discourse frequently applies a deficit thinking perspective to frame educational success and failure, focusing on deficiencies originating outside of the school. In this paper we analyse newly collected survey data (N = 11,015 pupils) and a large amount of qualitative data (from pupils, parents, teachers, principals) to answer our two main research questions: (i) how is educational success/failure defined, and (ii) how is educational success/failure explained? The factor analyses as well as the qualitative analyses illustrate how the idea of meritocracy relates to individualistic features such as effort, merit and competence. However, the findings also reveal that this individualistic approach goes hand‐in‐hand with a focus on the family environment and ‘culture’ which seems to limit individual agency to a large extent. In these discourses, pupils, parents and even teachers are presented as being largely determined by their direct social environment with almost no regard for social inequalities within the educational system. The paper ends with a discussion on how processes of victimization and the denial of systemic bias, influence educational trajectories and proposes a different approach to multiculturalism and the appreciation of cultural background and specific family resources as positive elements in these trajectories.     

Bullying: teachers’ views and school effects

Fifty‐one teachers completed a questionnaire and 20 teachers were interviewed about bullying. The teachers taught at two Outer London schools with high proportions of ethnic minority pupils where pupils had previously reported significantly different incidences of bullying. Analyses of the teachers’ responses indicated that at the school where pupils had reported a higher incidence of bullying, teachers were significantly more likely to perceive behaviour as bullying, observe bullying and have pupils report bullying to them. The majority of teachers interviewed endorsed gender differences in type of bullying. Only a minority of teachers believed that there were clear‐cut bully typologies but most believed that there were typical victim personalities. These results are discussed within a phenomenological approach to bullying.