Secondary school recommendations, social class and teacher agency in the Netherlands

1. Secondary school recommendations, social class and teacher agency in the Netherlands Leanne Broekman Oberon, research institute for education Daniela Grunow University of Amsterdam

2. Introduction Study focuses on: • Inequalities at the transition from primary to secondary school in the Netherlands • Particular contribution of teachers to the creation of this inequality

3. Outline • Primary and secondary disparities • Applicability to the Dutch educational system • Introduction of a teacher-centered model • Hypotheses • Data & Method • Results • Conclusion and discussion

4. Educational inequality: Boudon (1974) distinguishes two types of effects: • Primary effects: - as reflected in demonstrated cognitive ability • Secondary effects: - educational transition points (for instance primary to secondary school, high school to college)

5. Explaining secondary effects: • In general, secondary effects are explained by margin of choices for parents and students. (Boudon, 1974; Breen & Goldthorpe, 1996; Jackson et.al.2007). • Underlying Assumption: Parents and students make choices relatively independently • However, in the Dutch transition from primary to secondary school we find: - Professional interference of the primary school teacher - Secondary school recommendation as an important means of selection, in addition to test scores.

6. Transitions in the Dutch educational system Vmbo: two sublevels -Vmbo-b/k: Lower vocational -Vmbo-t: Intermediate vocational Havo= pre-professional Vwo= pre-university Selection criteria: -Test scores (standardized test, Cito) -Teacher recommendations Source:http://www.openeducation.net/2008/05/12/dutch-secondary-school-options-a-model-for-the-us

7. Teacher recommendations and secondary effects • Teacher recommendations reflect a bias towards social class. (Mulder et. al 2007; Luyten & Bosker, 2004, Driessen & Doesborgh, 2005; CBS, 2008). • Consequences for studying secondary disparities  Twofold effect • Theoretical void regarding the role of teachers in the creation of secondary class effects.

8. Teachers and the creation of secondary disparities: a model 4 key propositions: • Teachers have a margin of choice regarding the secondary school recommendationsthey give. (Jackson et. 2007) • Recommendations reflect the teacher’s estimation of future educational success. • Teachers include both cognitive and non-cognitive characteristics (such as dispositional factors) as resources that promote educational success. (Driessen, 2005). • The cognitive ability being equal, teachers assess students from low SES backgrounds lower on dispositional factors.(Maier Jæger, 2008; Dumais, 2006; Jungbluth, 1985; Lareau, 1987). -> Differentials in recommendations can be explained by the lower ratings on dispositional factors.

9. Hypotheses • When performing equally on cognitive ability tests, students from low socio-economic backgrounds receive lower recommendations than peer students from high socio-economic backgrounds. • The discrepancy between cognitive ability and teacher recommendations can be explained by the less favorable teacher evaluations of lower class students. • Teacher recommendations to a large extent determine students’ educational position in the first year of secondary school.

10. Data Data set: Sample of 6349 Dutch 8th grade students who were about to make the transition to secondary school. Cool 5-18 (2009) Includes: • Students’ cognitive ability (Cito test scores, additional language & math test scores) • Students’ secondary school recommendation • Students’ social class position (parental educational level, parental ethnicity) • Teacher assessment of • Parental educational involvement and family stability • Students’ personality characteristics (Five Factor Personality Inventory, Hendriks, 1997), • Student behavior and performance (Jungbluth, Roeleveld & Roede, 2001) • Teacher-studentrelationship (Koomen, Verschueren & Pianta, 2007). • Students’ self-evaluation of motivation: ( Inventory of School Motivation (ISM) by Ali & McInerny (2004) Patterns of Adaptive Learning Survey (PALS) (Midgley et al 2000) (Seegers, Van Putten & De Brabander (2002)

11. Method Multinomial logistic regression: Prediction of the probability to be recommended to: • a lower vocational track (Vmbo-b/k), • an intermediate vocational track (vmbo-t), • a preperatory professional track (havo) or • or a pre-university track (vwo)

12. Results (1) Recommendations and social class VWO (pre-university track)= reference category 1High-educated Dutch parental background= reference category *= p<.05, **=p<.01, ***=p<.001. N= 6349

13. Results (2): Secondary effects on recommendations VWO (pre-university track)= reference category . 1High-educated Dutch parental background= reference category. *= p<.05, **=p<.01, ***=p<.001. N= 4800

14. Results (3): secondary effects, including teacher assessments of students VWO (pre-university track)= reference category. 1High educated Dutch parental background= reference category. †= p<.1 *= p<.05, **=p<.01, ***=p<.001. N= 4127

15. Conclusion • Student cognitive ability cannot fully explain the educational differentials in teacher recommendations. • Teachers’ assessments of students’ dispositional characteristics exert an independent influence on recommendations of students. ->However, these assessments only partially explain for the disparities in recommendations

16. Discussion • Implication of findings • Twofold effect of social class on secondary school attendance • Future research: - Estimate teacher effect and parental choice effect on educational position in year 1. - Conduct interaction analyses to study compensating effects.