The evaluation of Islamic schools in the Netherlands

Dr Geert Driessen ITS – Institute for Applied Social

Sciences University of Nijmegen

The Netherlands

No possibilities to fast and pray No clothing regulations Boys and girls mixed Dissatisfaction with the quality of schools No parental participation No attention for sense of identity No emancipation

Motives for founding Islamic schools

Goals of Islamic schools

Cultural and religious personality development in the spirit if Islam

Improving the quality of education, i.e. the pupils’ achievement levels

Arguments against Islamic schools

They will lead to isolation and segregation No real justice to Western norms and values Purely nationality schools Result in an exodus from existing schools More an ideological and political affair than a

religious one For traditional and fundamentalistic groups

Design of the study

Study of the literature: the Netherlands and Western Europe

Quantitative analyses PRIMA cohort study In-depth interviews headteachers Islamic

schools

Research samples

schools pupils

Islamic 16 1670

comparable 16 1834

reference 432 39450

Research instruments

General questionnaire: background features Pupil profile: cognitive, non-cognitive features Parent questionnaire: family situation Intelligence tests: non-verbal Performance tests: language, arithmetic Questionnaire on pupils leaving primary school School well-being questionnaire Teacher questionnaire: teaching approach Headteacher questionnaire: school features

Language achievement scores

900

950

1000

1050

1100

1150

1200

grade 2 grade 4 grade 6 grade 8

Islamiccomparablereference

Arithmetic achievement scores

700

800

900

1000

1100

1200

1300

grade 2 grade 4 grade 6 grade 8

Islamiccomparablereference

Language development scores

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

grade 2 > 4 grade 4 > 6 grade 6 > 8

Islamiccomparablereference

Arithmetic development scores

50

75

100

125

150

175

200

225

grade 2 > 4 grade 4 > 6 grade 6 > 8

Islamiccomparablereference