Ethnicity counts in school advice in Limburg
The same score on the final test, but different school advice. Research by Maastricht University in various Limburg regions shows that descent counts in the recommendations. “We see that advice is higher when parents are highly educated,” says researcher Ron Diris.
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For his research, Diris looked at the school recommendations and final test scores of eighth-graders from all over Limburg. He examined the data of about 90 percent of the students as of 2015. That was the year that the school's advice from the teachers became the guiding principle for determining the level of continuation in secondary school.
Higher opinions
“We have divided the province of Limburg into five parts,” says Diris. "North Limburg, Central Limburg and the south divided into Parkstad, Maastricht-Heuvelland and Sittard-Geleen, because most people live here." After an analysis of the figures, it appears that eighth-graders in Maastricht-Heuvelland receive higher school advice.
“If you look at the final score of 545/546, which is the edge of VWO advice, you see that 56 percent of students in Maastricht-Heuvelland receive a VWO advice. Pupils in Parkstad or North Limburg receive this advice less often: in 45 percent of the cases. Also in Central Limburg, more VWO advice is given than you would expect based on the test scores, ”says Diris. "Apparently there are partly implicit prejudices and teachers are concerned whether students are receiving sufficient guidance from their parents."
Apparently there are partly implicit prejudices and teachers are concerned about whether students receive sufficient guidance from their parents
The same difference can be seen in HAVO advice: half of the students in Parkstad receive a HAVO recommendation if their score is on the edge, while 64 percent of the students in Maastricht-Heuvelland are allowed to go to HAVO.
Ethnicity
Ethnicity is one of the causes of the differences, Diris concludes. “If we correct the figures for the parents' education, the difference almost disappears completely. Pupils with highly educated parents in Parkstad are not advised differently than pupils with highly educated parents in Maastricht-Heuvelland, ”says the researcher.
The difference within the regions therefore arises because more highly educated parents live in Maastricht-Heuvelland than in Parkstad. Nevertheless, higher advice is also given in Central Limburg and the background of the parents does not explain the difference. "It is difficult to pinpoint this, but it may be a conscious choice by school groups to give higher advice to students when in doubt so that they can try."
Diris believes that there is an inequality of opportunity. “Pupils who achieve the same performance are given different advice. We know from national studies that this occurs, but there were no concrete figures for Limburg. There are now. " Earlier, the Education Inspectorate alerted in the State of Education even for an increasing inequality of opportunities, where students with the same performance ended up at different levels.
Test immediately after advice
Last weekend, Minister of Education Slob announced that he a bill in which eighth-graders will from now on take the final test immediately after the school advice. The advice of the teacher remains decisive and the order remains the same, only Slob wants to prevent students from being put on test training if the school advice is disappointing. Now students only take the final test in April or May and the teacher gives advice before 1 March.
