hetty dekkers & geert driessen (1997) see an evaluation of the educational priority policy in...

Pergamon Studies in E d , cational Evaluation, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 209-230, 1997

© 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain. All rights rcserved

0191-491X/97 $17.00 + 0.00 S0191-491X(97)00014-X

AN EVALUATION OF THE EDUCATIONAL PRIORITY POLICY IN RELATION TO EARLY SCHOOL LEAVING

Hetty Dekkers and Geert Driessen

University of Nijmegen, Institute for Applied Social Sciences Nijmegen, the Netherlands

Introduction

In the Netherlands, just like in other EU countries and in the United States, early school leaving is considered to be a major problem. Early school leaving has traditionally largely been approached from the point of view of social inequality and social integration. It has been known for some time that it is largely working-class children and immigrant children that tend to drop out of school early. Since the early eighties there has been somewhat of a shift in policy with regard to early school leavers, away from the problem of social inequality towards the problem of labour market and qualification needs. This has resulted in an entirely new definition of early school leaving, based on the concept of basic qualification: the minimum qualification level which all students (and all people looking for work and in work) should attain. These two perspectives have been incorporated in all of the studies into early school leaving that were carried out within the framework of the evaluation of the Dutch Educational Priority Policy (EPP). In this article we will describe the results of the studies into early school leaving within the first five years of secondary education.

Within the framework of the Educational Priority Policy research is regularly carried out among more than 5000 students in secondary education; these students are part of the cohort that was also monitored in primary education. Since 1993, attention has also been paid to drop-outs within these secondary education studies and these drop-outs are now also being monitored. A ftrst study focused on drop-outs during the first four years of secondary education. It was noted that the problem was less serious than initially assumed, in terms of both scale and the kind of situation the drop-outs tend to end up in (de Wit & Dekkers, 1994). A follow-up study was recently carried out into the drop-out rates within

209

210 Hetty Dekkers and Geert Driessen

the first five years of secondary education. Data on the scale of early school leaving, broken down among other things according to ethnicity and gender, were combined with data on the causes and background of early school leaving and situation after leaving school. We will discuss a number of the most important results and conclusions. We will subsequently present a definition of early school leaving, the theoretical background, the research questions, the research set-up and analysis, some results and concluding remarks.

Definition of Early School Leaving

Many authors have pointed out that it is hard to define an early school leaver or drop-out (Gaustad, 1991). In the United States a National Drop-out Statistics Review Task Force was set up in 1993 to develop a plausible definition (Edirisooriya & Lawrence, 1995). Two main perspectives were distinguished: social inequality and educational qualification. It is also possible however to define early school leaving in terms of what employers see as acceptable minimal levels of education and training for young people entering the labour market for the first time (Hannan, H6vels, van den Berg, & White, 1995). Drop-out rates vary greatly depending on how you look at them. Rumberger (1987) states that noone knows what the high school drop-out rate in the United States really is. There is no consensus definition of a high school drop-out. There is also no standard method for working out the drop-out rate. Important methods are age-cohorts and attrition data (e.g., starting high school and graduating after four years).

In the Netherlands, too, various definitions are currently being used for the concept of early school leaving. The more traditional definition of an early school-leaver is: a student who leaves the first stage of secondary education without qualifications. The most important criterion here is therefore obtaining a qualification, i.e., a certificate.

A fairly recent definition links early school leaving with qualification levels. The govemment requires that every individual is obliged (to make an effort) to get educated up to the level of a basic vocational qualification. In this case, early school-leavers would be young people leaving school without this basic qualification. A basic qualification is equal to at least a vocational training course at exit level elementary apprenticeship training or a short senior secondary vocational course, i.e., completing two years of senior secondary vocational education, or obtaining a senior general secondary education or pre- university education certificate. This definition of early school leaving therefore does not cover students transferring to another form of further education without first having obtained a general secondary education certificate. A student with such a certificate who does not obtain any further qualifications would however be considered to be an early school leaver.

This article includes figures on the various definitions, but priority has been given to the current government definition. This means that the group of early school-leavers is made up of young people who have left school without a qualification and of young people who have left school after first obtaining a certificate of general secondary education. It is therefore possible to speak in terms of early school-leavers with a qualification and early-school leavers without a qualification. We could therefore also use

Early School Learning

the term drop-outs instead of early school-leavers.

211

Theoretical Background: Factors Associated with Early School Leaving

Early school leaving is a multi-faceted phenomenon. There are a lot of factors that are correlated or in interaction correlated with early school leaving. It is not always easy to distinguish causes and consequences. Furthermore there are as yet no fully adequate models for predicting drop-out rates.

Several authors distinguish different categories of factors that are associated with early school leaving. These categories usually include demographic factors, individual factors, family background, peers, school-related factors and sometimes more macro-level factors such as labour market (Coley, 1995; Gaustad, 1991; Rumberger, 1987; de Vries, 1993). Attempts to design comprehensive models to describe the factors and/or the processes that are responsible for early school leaving have up until now not been totally satisfactory. In this section we will discuss the factors that were embodied in this research.

Individual Factors

Personal Factors Rumberger (1987) in his review talks about high school drop-out rates, within the

same frame of reference as the one we presented above, i.e., that personal factors associated with early school leaving are related to: a lower level of self-esteem, students having less sense of control over their lives, poor attitudes towards school, low educational and occupational aspirations and the wish to get married. Referring to the analysis of NELS 1988 (National Educational Longitudinal Study) data with regard to attitudes and expectations, Coley (1995) concludes that drop-outs tended to believe that they did not have control over their lives, that chance and luck are important, and that something always seemed to stop them from getting ahead. But, despite leaving school, 85 percent of the drop-outs were optimistic about attaining at least a high school education.

Dutch research shows that early school leaving is also related to student ability. The average scores of early school leavers on intelligence and performance tests tended to be lower than those of the students who completed the course of training (Bosker & Hofman, 1994; de Vries, 1993). The motivation of these students and these students' experiences of school also appear to play a major role: future school leavers attach less importance to school than those students who stay on at school, and they tend to have lower aspirations when it comes to the educational and occupational level they can achieve. This is expressed in their making less of an effort during the lessons and spending a minimum amount of time on homework (Hofman, 1993; de Vries, 1993). Demographic individual factors associated with early school leaving include ethnic and gender factors: students from ethnic minorities and boys are more likely to drop out of school. Age is another factor that can be of importance for early school leaving. A last crucial personal factor is related to absence rates. Frequent absenteeism is often not only accompanied by

212 Hetty Dekkers and Gee rt Driessen

early school leaving but also by poor achievement levels (Hofman 1993; de Vries, 1993).

Family Background In the research literature the family (and also the social background more generally)

is considered to be the most important factor in explaining truancy and early school leaving. The home situation of early school-leavers is characterised by large famifies, one- parent families, unemployed fathers and material limitations. Gaustad (1991) sees socio- economic status as the most important factor in this respect: Parents of drop-outs on average have a lower level of education, have lower aspirations and future expectations in relation to their child and are less involved in education than the parents of those students who stay on. In the case of drop-outs there is in addition more often a discrepancy between communication, upbringing and discipline in the home situation and the norms and values of the school (de Vries, 1993).

Virtually all of the possible explanations mentioned above tend to apply, but even more strongly, to immigrant families. In particular the discrepancy between home culture and school culture can affect students' well-being at school. In addition language problems, the degree of orientation on integration and, in particular for girls, traditional career prospects, also tend to play a role (Dekkers, 1993; de Vries, 1993).

Peer Group Friends of drop-outs are absent from school far more frequently than friends of

those who stay on at school (Rumberger, 1987). Early school-leavers associate more frequently with friends from outside their own school (Hofman, 1993). There are signs that playing truant with a fellow-student from the same school is more likely to bond students to the school and that it is in particular playing truant in networks of friends from outside the school that precedes early school leaving (Hrvels & Bock, 1991). Hofman (1993) among others, notes that there is a connection between early school leaving and the peer group's multi-ethnic composition and using a language other than Dutch. These peer group characteristics can however be directly traced back to the high percentage of drop- outs among immigrant students.

School-related Factors School-related factors are important to expose because many of them can be

manipulated through practice and policy. Several authors have pointed out that poor academic achievement and behavioral problems in school, including absenteeism, truancy and the kind of discipline problems mentioned earlier under personal factors, play a role in early school leaving. Little attention has however been paid to the role played by the actual schools themselves: how they are organised, their leadership and teachers. Appa- rently there are major differences between schools in these respects, even after correction for the socio-economic status of their students. Wu (1992) reports that early school leaving has tended to have been considered more as an individual problem instead of in terms of distribution: the concentration of students leaving schools reflects the impact of contextual and organizational factors. When exploring NELS 88 data he found that the size of a particular school's drop-out rate appeared to be indicative of the quality of the

Early School Learning 213

school's academic programme and operation. Note that this is associational rather than causal evidence.

It is not clear exactly which specific factors contribute to this phenomenon. We know that there are fewer drop-outs at schools where students are given additional counselling (which may or may not take place on an individual basis and inside or outside the regular timetable). In addition, the school climate tends to play an important role: students are less likely to drop out of schools with a "warm" school climate, at which fewer sanctions are applied as a result of the misconduct of students, at which there are fewer conflicts (which may or may not be fuelled by ethnic differences) and at which educational achievements are positively rewarded (de Vries, 1993). Finally there are signs that increased teacher-student interaction, which includes asking questions and giving feedback, leads to fewer drop-outs (Hofman, 1993).

Combined Factors

Push-pull Several authors define a combination of the above factors as push-and-pull factors

responsible for early school leaving. Jordan, Lara, and McPartland (1994) see dropping out of school as a cumulative process arising out of a series of events and experiences which impact on youth into their transition into adolescence. Jordan et al. mention push factors as factors located within the school itself (internal) and pull factors as compelling external factors like family, neighbourhood, peer groups, community organisation, job, etc. Other authors define the push and pull mechanism slightly differently, more in relation to the student. In the case of push factors de Vries (1993) distinguishes three sub-groups of students: students who leave school as a result of a lack of ability, disappointing achievement levels and a failed school career; students who reject school out of boredom and irritation; and (immigrant) students who leave school as a result of cultural or social isolation and/or discrimination. Pull factors may include non-school related factors like the labour market which may particularly affect lower and unschooled segments (H6vels & Bock, 1991). Starting a family or parental economic support can also be regarded as pull factors.

The NELS data contain a list of 21 reasons for leaving school. School-related reasons for quitting school (push) were cited more frequently by early drop-outs than any other category, including family-related, job-related, safety, friendship influences, mobility and suspension/expulsion. The school-related items were: not liking school, not liking teachers, feelings of not belonging in school and failing at school. Male drop-outs more frequently cited job-related reasons for leaving school than females. On the other hand, female drop-outs more frequently cited family-related reasons such as pregnancy, parenthood, or caring for a family member than male drop-outs (Jordan et al., 1994).

Models Almost a decade ago Rumberger (1987) pointed out that a more comprehensive,

causal model was needed, which "should successfully identify the full range of proximal and distal influences, the inter-relationships among them, and their long-term, cumulative


effect" (1987, p. 111). According to him the following points should be given attention in this: underlying processes (among other things, school process: dropping out as a process of disengagement from school, perhaps for either social or academic reasons), inter- relatedness among the various factors (to separate actual causes from correlates), long- term, cumulative effects of the various influences (family background, early school achievement), different types of drop-outs (there is no "typical" drop-out).

Finn (1989) provides two models for understanding early school leaving as a developmental process. According to the classical frustration-self-esteem model, poor school performance leads to impaired self-esteem which, in turn, leads to problem behaviour. The participation-identification model focuses on students' "involvement in school". Participation in school activities is seen as essential for positive outcomes, including the students' sense of belonging and valuing school-related goals.

This theoretical work has not really been elaborated experimentally. We must conclude that no valid, comprehensive explanatory model exists as yet for describing and analyzing early school leaving. Only very general pictures have been presented up to now, representing the different categories of related factors as mentioned above.

Further Career

Little is known about the further careers of early school-leavers. What did the student do after leaving school, how does he or she feel about having left school and how does he or she see his/her future? Different authors wonder whether early school leaving is not regarded too negatively and whether the importance of qualifications is not being over-estimated. Jordan et al. (1994) analyzed the future educational plans of early school leavers. The overwhelming majority of drop-outs still planned to obtain a high school qualification at some point in the future, but they had simply selected a different route to meet this objective, and the routes differed depending on race/ethnicity and gender. Chuang (1997) concluded that a number of students re-enroll in any sort of education, especially the younger ones with higher test results in secondary school. Hansen, Fisherkeller, and Johnson (1995) remark that "... we tend to see failure in causal terms ('because of statements), and success in terms of individual agency ('in order to' statements)" (p. 83). They argue in favour of considering individual intentionality and concerned engagement among drop-outs. They also warn against some between-group comparisons while claiming that within-group comparisons could lead to greater understanding.

Other authors emphasize the negative effects of early school leaving. Rumberger (1987) claims that drop-outs often suffer because they experience difficulty finding steady, well-paying jobs not just when they first leave school but throughout their entire lives. Coley (1995), summarized by Schwartz (1995), says roughly the same thing: With respect to lifetime wages, the gap between drop-outs and more educated adults is widening steadily as opportunities expand for higher skilled workers and disappear for the less skilled.

In relation to the further career of early school leavers, the help and counselling provided to the drop-outs during and immediately after leaving school is of special


relevance. Who supports them in this? Who gives them advice on possible schooling and work? The literature provides few leads in relation to this aspect.

Research Questions

The theoretical framework, combined with the data already available from the research project which was set up to evaluate the Educational Priority Policy in primary and secondary education, makes it necessary to divide the research questions up into quantitative and qualitative ones.

There are a lot of indicators available on the students and the early-school leavers involved in our study, that represent the variables discussed above. As we have already pointed out, the students belong to a cohort from the national evaluation of the Educational Priority Policy: students who are being monitored in secondary education every year and have been monitored since the highest grade of primary education in the school year 1988/1989. Within the framework of the Educational Priority Policy the target groups were awarded weighting factors (EPP-weighting factors), which meant that schools were granted additional financial support for the fact that they had a socio- ethnically disadvantaged student population. The most important target groups are Dutch working class children, who were awarded a weighting factor of 1.25 and immigrant working class children who were awarded a weighting factor of 1.90. Students who do not fit into the target groups count as 1.00 (cf. Driessen & Dekkers, 1997). The relevant database contains personal background information as well as school career characteristics. In addition to being able to accurately establish the drop-out rate within a year group with the aid of this national sample of 5,000 students, it is therefore also possible to relate this to (a combination of) factors of background information.

This leads to the first quantitative research question:

Question 1: How often do students drop-out within the first five years of secondary education? And what are the drop-out percentages broken down according to a number of student, family and school(career) characteristics (gender, country of origin, EPP- weighting factor, educational level of the parents, school type, drop-out year, recommendation for secondary education at the end of primary education)?

After establishing the drop-out percentages for various categories of students, it is also possible to take early school-leavers as a point of departure and to describe the composition of this group, both in relation to a number of personal and family characteristics and in relation to a number of specific school career characteristics.

Question 2: What does the group of drop-outs look like? What kind of students are involved and what kind of school careers have they had? And how does this group differ from the group of students who did not drop out of school?

The statistical analysis within the quantitative part of the study still only yields a


fairly superficial picture of the backgrounds and (a number of) causes of early school leaving. In the second, qualitative, part of the study, we took a closer look at these backgrounds and causes. Over the past ten years a great deal has been published on this topic. There is, however, a striking lack of research into how early school-leavers perceive things themselves, and into the actual situation the drop-outs end up in after leaving school. In the literature the early school-leaver is generally described as someone who completely failed in his/her education and left school because of all kinds of negative circumstances. Early school leaving is seen as a negative, passive and undesirable option, though the early school leavers themselves are hardly heard on the matter. Early school leaving could also be seen as an active move on the part of the student to improve his or her own situation which he or she considers to be a negative one. Trying to attend a different kind of (part-time) education or going in search of a job are in themselves no reason to consider the student in question a failure.

In the qualitative part of the study the drop-out him/herself gets a chance to talk about the immediate causes for leaving school and about the aspects that played a role in this. This qualitative part of the research provides greater insight into the (complexity of the) processes that underlie school leaving. It furthermore suggests possible differences in the background of various categories of students. In view of the small numbers we cannot assume that these data are fully representative. Roughly speaking the qualitative study is based on the following research questions:

Question 3: What do the early school-leavers themselves see as the main reasons for having left school?

Question 4: What kind of specific backgrounds in their personal, family and school situation are of significance in explaining their early school leaving?

Question 5: What does the further career of the early school-leavers look like?

Question 6: What kind of future plans and expectations do they have? And what kind of wishes do they have with respect to work and schooling?

An additional question (Question 7) allowed us to compare the results for students who dropped out within the first four years of secondary education with those for students who dropped out one year later.

Research Set-up, Analysis and Representativeness

Overall Design

The first measurement of the longitudinal studies in primary education within the framework of the national EPP-evaluation took place during the 1988-89 school year. In these cohort studies the total sample is made up of two parts: a reference sample and a supplementary sample. The reference sample comprises a random selection of 3.5% of all


Dutch primary schools. This sample however contains too few schools that are of significance for the EPP-evaluation. It contains hardly any schools with a lot of immigrant children and/or Dutch working class children, the two most important target groups of the EPP. It is for this reason that the reference sample was supplemented with schools with an over-representation of those students. Of all the students that were tested in grade 8 (age 12) in 1988-89 about half were selected for the school careers study in secondary education. The total number of selected students amounted to more than 5,000, which included more than 1,500 immigrant children (cf. Mulder, 1991). In this school careers study a careful record was kept of whether students stayed at the same school, moved to a new school or left school either voluntarily or out of necessity (e.g., as a result of sickness or emigration). The secondary education schools were asked to provide information about the educational position of the students every year. Reports for the first five years in secondary education have so far been completed (Suhre, de Wit, & Mulder, 1995).

The school-leavers study came about as a result of the EPP-school careers study. The school-leavers study specifically looks at the group of school-leavers from the cohort. The first school-leavers study was carded out at the end of the fourth year of secondary education (de Wit & Dekkers, 1994). In the following year a follow-up study was carried out into the new school-leavers. The total group comprises all of the students from the original EPP-cohort who left secondary education between the first school year (1989-90) and April of the fifth school year. For the benefit of the school-leavers study we contacted every student by telephone to establish whether or not s/he was in fact an early school- leaver. The set-up of the two school-leaver studies is virtually the same. The studies are made up of a quantitative and a qualitative part each. We will take a brief look at both parts of the studies.

Methods, Techniques and Analyses

We opted for a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods. In our choice of these methods we were primarily guided by the research questions. The advantage of this methodological triangulation is the increased reliability and validity of the research results (cf. Teunissen, 1988; Weeda, 1986).

Quantitative Part of the Study In the quantitative part of the study we tried to establish the size of the group of

early school-leavers. Questionnaires were sent to the schools in order to collect data on the educational situation of the students in the cohort. This was done as a part of the school careers study. If students no longer appeared to be attending school, the information was obtained by contacting the students at home. In order to establish the scale of early school leaving simple statistical analyses were carried out on the databases of the school career and school-leavers study. With the aid of similar descriptive techniques (frequencies, cross tabulations and analyses of variance) emerges a picture of the composition of the group of early school-leavers on the basis of the characteristics available from the longitudinal database and of how this differs from the one of the students who stayed on at school.

218 Hetty Dekkers and Geert Dries sen

Qualitative Part of the Study In the qualitative part of the study we took a closer look at the backgrounds and

causes of early school leaving (research questions 3 to 6). This information was collected in two different ways: by means of a postal and telephone survey and also by means of in- depth interviews.

Postal and telephone survey All of the early school-leavers were contacted at home and were invited to

complete a questionnaire. In this questionnaire the respondents were asked about their reasons for dropping out, their current situation and their plans for the future. The structured questionnaire contained largely closed but also open-ended questions. The surveys were carried out in November and December 1994. Because a relatively large number of students could not be contacted by telephone (not listed, disconnected, wrong number, or not on the telephone), they were sent a written version of the questionnaire. When compiling this written version, the telephone questionnaire was transferred as accurately as possible, where possible the same items were used. Pilot interviews were carried out with both questionnaires prior to the study. The results of the interviews are presented through largely descriptive analysis techniques.

In-depth interviews In-depth interviews were carried out among the young people that were willing to

cooperate. They were, among other things, asked further questions on the topics that were raised in the telephone/postal survey. The interviews were carried out at the student's home and took about an hour. In a number of cases one or both of the parents of the school-leaver were present. This might have been disadvantageous in a number of cases, in particular when topics were being discussed such as behaviour at school, family problems or involvement in criminal activities. In our opinion this did not have too much of a negative influence, however; after a brief period of acclimatization the (former) students generally spoke freely on all of the topics of conversation. Furthermore the fact that the parents were there also had a number of advantages; it allowed the researcher to get a better insight into the domestic situation and into family relationships and to obtain more information on certain topics. The respondent was furthermore occasionally given some emotional support by the parent when topics of a sensitive nature were raised. We used standardised interviews, which were based on a list of topics. This meant that although the researcher had to cover these topics, s/he was free to decide as to how s/he would present the questions and in which order. The topics had been generated from a literature search into topical, relevant publications on early school-leaving.

Response and Representativeness

The EPP-school careers study shows an annual increase in the number of students that do not respond. Thanks to very intensive data collection this non-response rate has nevertheless been kept to a minimum. In the fifth year of secondary education the non-


response rate compared with the first measurement amounted to 13%. In addition to permanent non-respondents there are also temporary non-respondents, i.e., students that were initially lost, but were later tracked down at another school. There is an over- representation of immigrant students in the non-response group. Non-response analyses show that this does not have any major consequences for the representativeness of the sample (Suhre, et al., 1995).

In the first school-leavers study (de Wit & Dekkers, 1994) 298 students appeared to have left regular education during the first four years, or appeared to be "lost without a trace" after an initial search. After further information had been collected as part of the school-leavers study, about 200 of these could be regarded as real drop-outs (the others had emigrated, re-entered education, and so on). In the fifth year another group of students left education or transferred to further or vocational education without a qualification. The school-leavers study tried to track down as many as possible of these 371 students and approach them personally in order to establish their current educational or labour market situation.

The school-leavers study comprises three elements (quantitative analyses, telephone and postal survey, in-depth interviews), the latter involving a sub-group of 120 students from the total group (571). Every part of the study involved a group of participants and a group of non-participants, or non-respondents. In order to establish whether or not the non-response rate gave rise to biased results, we carried out a non-response analysis in which we looked at whether the non-response rate was selective and to what extent the response group could be considered to be representative. We will briefly discuss the response data and the outcomes of the non-response analyses for each part of the study.

The non-response in the quantitative analysis of the study is slightly selective. We were unable to obtain enough information on several of the 1.90-students, in particular some of the Moroccan students, to establish whether or not they had really left every possible form of education. Even though this group was small, we will nevertheless take this into consideration.

The above findings also apply to the response to and representativeness of the telephone and postal survey. There appeared to be no significant differences in the responses to the oral interviews. We would like to make a few comments here, however. We only compared the response group with the non-response group on a limited number of superficial characteristics. It is possible and even probable that the response group is nevertheless a rather specific group when it comes to other relevant characteristics. Students living under more extreme conditions (in prison, in an institution, homeless, Child Welfare Council) are, for example, not represented in the response group to quite the same extent. We therefore have to be rather cautious as regards the representativeness of the results of the surveys and interviews.

Results

The Scale of Early School Leaving

Approximately 4.7% of the total student population appears to have left school within the first 5 years of secondary education. Of this 4.7%, 2.9% left school without a qualification


and 1.8% left school with a qualification. When comparing these data with the data on the previous year a considerable increase in the percentages (roughly doubled) is revealed.

SEX boys girls

EPP-WEIGHT 1.00 1.25 1.90

EDUCATION PARENTS primary education

junior sec. voc. ed. sec. ed. lower phase

senior sec. voc. ed. sec. ed. higher phase

higher professional ed university

ETHNIC BACKGROUND The Netherlands

Surinam Turkey

Morocco Remaining

Dutch boys Dutch girls

Immigrant boys Immigrant girls

Surin, boys Surin. gids

Turkish boys Turkish girls Moroc. boys Moroc. girls

Remaining boys Remaining girls

DROP-OUT YEAR 1 st

2rid 3rd 4th 51h

SCHOOLTYPE ind.junior gen.sec.ed.

pro-vocational ed. junior gem sec. ed. senior gem sec. ed.

pre-universJty ed

5,3

'19'2 12

T 8.3

3,7 I ~ 2.t: [ ] 1 ,3 BIB 1,91

0,5 .

.,2 6.6' r:z

i 5 .9 '

8 ,6

• 1 8 , 8

0.1 .

931

B R i l l , 9.6

0 6 1 ~,~. .

0 5 10

25

16.1'

15 20 25 30

BIIdrop-out without i d r o p - o u t with certificate certificate

Figure 1: Early School Leaving Within the First 5 Years of Secondary Education, Broken Down According to Background and School Career Characteristics (percentages)


This is partly due to the fact that compulsory education has at this point come to an end for many of the students. Figure 1 shows the scale of early school leaving, broken down according to a number of background and school characteristics. The figure shows the overall percentage and makes a distinction between those leaving school with a qualification and those leaving school without one. The drop-out percentage for boys is slightly higher than the drop-out percentage for girls. It is in particular the drop-out rate for those leaving school without a qualification that is slightly higher among boys, the drop-out rate for those leaving school with a qualification is the same for girls and boys. When the data are broken down according to EPP-weighting it emerges that the 1.90 and 1.25 students more frequently dropped out of school than the 1.00 students. Furthermore it shows that most of the 1.90 early school-leavers left school without a qualification. The drop-out rate for the 1.25 students also comprises a relatively large number of students with a qualification. From the break-down according to level of education of the parents a strong social background inequality becomes evident. The drop-out rate is much higher among those with the lowest level of education. In particular in the lowest educational category - parents with at the very most primary education - the drop-out rate is particularly high (12%). From the break-down according to country-of-origin the relatively poor position of immigrant students once again becomes apparent. In all four of the country of origin groups the drop-out rate is considerably higher than it is among the Dutch students. The most negative results are obtained for the Moroccan students: more than 16 percent has left secondary education. From the further break-down according to gender it appears that the drop-out rate among immigrant boys is slightly higher than it is among girls. Only among the Surinam students the drop-out rate for the girls is slightly higher than it is for the boys (although we have to be very careful as to how we interpret this in view of the small numbers). The drop-out rate for immigrant boys in addition far more frequently includes students who left school without a qualification then the drop- out rates for immigrant girls. Among the Turkish, Moroccan and Surinam boys (virtually) the entire drop-out rate is made up of students who left school without a qualification. Among the girls from these groups there are also some students with a qualification who dropped out of further education. The categories with the highest drop-out rate are the Moroccan boys (19%) and girls (13%). Though various studies have suggested a higher drop-out rate particularly among Turkish and Moroccan girls during the first stage of secondary education, our results modify this picture: far more immigrant boys dropped out of secondary education. It does appear however that the migration figures and the drop- out rate at the transfer from primary to secondary education is higher among the Turkish and Moroccan girls than it is among the Turkish and Moroccan boys.

From the break-down according to drop-out year it appears that the drop-out percentage increases every year. In the sixth year an even bigger increase can be expected. We may conclude that there is a very unequal distribution of early school- leavers in the lowest school types. The lower the school type the higher the drop-out percentages. Individualised pre-vocational education does worst here, with a drop-out percentage of 25%. One should take into account that this includes school-leavers with a qualification as well as school-leavers without a qualification and that in contrast to students in other school types, students in individualised pre-vocational education have


no possibility to move down to another school type. Pre-vocational education, too, has a much higher drop-out percentage than the higher school types.

In addition to calculating the percentage of early school-leavers we also calculated the overall percentage of unqualified secondary school leavers, and in this case we also included those who went on to further education. The differences according to gender, EPP-weighting factor, social background and ethnicity appeared to be considerably greater in this case than they were in the case of the percentages of early school-leavers. Six percent of the boys, as opposed to 3% of the girls, left secondary education without a qualification. Broken-down according to EPP-weighting factor this involves 2% of the 1.00-students, as opposed to 6% of the 1.25-students and no less than 13% of the 1.90- students. This percentage is once again highest among the Moroccan students: 23%, as opposed to 4 percent of the Dutch, 6% of the "other origin" students, and 10% of the Surinam and Turkish students. In all ethnic groups the percentages for the boys are considerably higher than those for the girls, generally approximately twice as high. The percentages of school-leavers without a qualification are highest in individualised pre- vocational education (19%) and pre-vocational education (8%).

Composition of the Group of Early School Leavers

So far we looked at the percentage of school-leavers per student category (drop- out rate according to characteristic), but the composition per characteristic of the group of school-leavers, and in particular the composition in comparison with the non-school leavers group are also informative.

Within the first five years of secondary education, 4.7% of the students left school. Of this group some 61% left without any qualifications and 39% left with a qualification. At the time they left school about half of these drop-outs were aged 17 or younger and therefore still fully or partly of statutory school age. In Figure 2 we present an overview of the composition of the group of drop-outs on a number of background and school career characteristics. The composition of the group of students who stayed on at school has been added for comparison.

We selected a number of relevant differences. More than 75% of the drop-outs belong to the EPP-target groups (18% 1.90 students and 59% 1.25 students). Not included in Figure 2 is the finding that there is a strong under-representation of 1.00 and 1.90 students (24 and 4%) compared with 1.25-students (72%) among the school-leavers with a qualification. On the other hand there is also an under-representation of 1.00- students (23%), but a strong over-representation of 1.90 students (28%) among the school-leavers without a qualification. From the distribution according to the educational level of the parents it appears that the low educational levels are strongly over-represented in the group of early school-leavers. Two-thirds of the drop-outs for example come from families in which the parents at the very most completed junior secondary vocational education. For the group of students who stayed on at school this proportion amounts to some 30%. The group of school-leavers without a qualification is made up of more young people from families with the lowest educational level and from families with the higher educational levels. The group of drop-outs is made up of a relatively large number of

E a r l y School L e a r n i n g 2 2 3

immigrant students. Almost a quarter of the drop-outs comes from an immigrant background, and almost half of them is of Turkish or Moroccan origin. Moroccan students in particular are strongly over-represented.

SEX boys girls

EDUCATION PARENTS primary education

junior sec. voc. ed. SeC. eO. bower phase senior sec. voc, ed.

sec. ed. higher phase higher professional ed

university

ETHNIC BACKGROUND The Netherlands

Surinam Turkey

Morocco Remaining

Dutch boys Dutch girls Surin, boys Surin. girls

Turkish boys Turkish girls Moroc, boys Moroc. girls

Remaining boys Remaining girls

SCHOOLTYPE 1st YEAR ind,lunior gan.sec.ed,

pre-vocafional ed. junior gen. sec. ed.

senior gan. sec. ad. pre-university ed.

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D r o p - o u t s

so 40

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20 40 60 80 100

Figure 2: Composition of the Group of Early School-Leavers and the Group of Students who Stayed on at School According to Background and School Career Characteristics (Percentages)


Thirteen percent of the group of drop-outs is made up of immigrant boys, 11% of immigrant girls. Turkish and Moroccan girls, whose drop-out rate has a very negative reputation, only form a relatively small part of this group of early school-leavers: some 5%. Immigrant boys are strongly over-represented within the group of school-leavers leaving school without a qualification (22 versus 11%), whereas they are under-represented within the group of school-leavers leaving school with a qualification (4 versus 8%).

Some 88% of the drop-outs started secondary school at individualised pre- vocational education, continued primary education or junior general secondary education level. The individualised pre-vocational education level is particularly strongly over- represented here. Twelve percent of the drop-outs started in the first year of senior general secondary education or pre-university education. Many transferred to lower school types; in the end some 7% of the students dropped out during the final year of senior general secondary education or pre-university education.

The Process of Leaving School

In the surveys and in-depth interviews the drop-outs were asked to talk about the immediate cause for leaving school and about aspects that played a role in this. These aspects are related to their personal cognitive and social qualities, their family background, their circle of friends and the school they attended.

Early school leaving is the result of a complex of motives, aspirations and histories. As far as the motives are concerned two categories of factors are often distinguished, as we saw earlier: push and pull-factors. Push-factors are experiences in education that make students leave school, such as disappointing results, poor relationships with teachers and boredom. Pull-factors are non-school related factors, for example the labour market or family obligations.

From the surveys and in-depth interviews it appears that early school-leavers have a wide variety of reasons for leaving school. Furthermore, most students have several reasons for leaving school. What is the most frequent reason given by early school-leavers for leaving school? We observe an important distinction between the young people of statutory school age who drop out during the first four years of secondary education, the so-called very early school leavers, the school-leavers leaving school without a qualification in the fifth year of secondary education (still partly or fully of statutory school age), and the school-leavers leaving school with a qualification (still partly or fully of statutory school age).

The very early school-leavers largely mention push-factors as the most important reasons for leaving school; these include problems with the teachers and no longer being motivated to learn. Very early school-leavers also often report behavioral problems at school. The fifth year school-leavers without a qualification also most frequently mention push-factors (54% push-factors, 12% push and pull, 34% pull-factors) as reasons for leaving school. But they considerably less frequently refer to behavioral problems as a reason. Those leaving school without a qualification often find it hard to explain their most important reason for dropping out. They generally tend to mention a number of push-


factors, which largely influence each other. Having to repeat a year or getting a negative examination result is often the immediate reason for leaving school. This is on the whole caused by several things: de-motivation, lack of effort, poor performance, behavioral problems, lack of ability, etc.

In contrast to those leaving school without a qualification those leaving school with a qualification tend to refer to pull-factors as the most important reason for not going on to further education (55% pull, 11% push and pull, 34% push). The desire to start work in particular tends to be at the root of this. This desire is often nevertheless linked with having enough of learning and school, or not having been able to choose a suitable follow-up course. They have after all got some kind of qualification (of secondary education); for many the step to work appears to be a fairly logical one as a result.

Girls and boys mention push and pull factors as reasons for leaving school just about as frequently. Having enough of school/education is however more frequently given as a reason by girls. Those who gave lack of motivation as the main reason often said that they greatly disliked studying or school.

Immigrant early school-leavers differ from indigenous early school-leavers in the sense that they more often give push-factors as the most important reasons for leaving school. This however appears to be largely related to the fact that immigrant early school- leavers more often leave school without any qualifications. After correction for this only a few differences remain between immigrant and indigenous early school-leavers. Among the immigrant drop-outs special attention has been paid to the effect of the push-factor "cultural/social isolation and/or discrimination". According to these drop-outs this factor is of limited significance. Discrimination was said to be involved in only one case.

Only part of the early school-leavers sees lack of ability as a reason for dropping out of school; an even smaller part acknowledges it as the most important cause. This contradicts the findings in the quantitative analyses which show that drop-outs have had more problematic school careers than non drop-outs.

Many drop-outs make a distinction in their opinion on education between certain training courses or subjects. They consider training courses and subjects of a theoretical nature to be of little use, in contrast to practical training courses. The parents of most of the early school-leavers have a low level of education and drop-outs, also according to themselves, appear more often to find themselves in a difficult home situation. Friends generally only play a secondary role in school leaving (8%). It is striking that among immigrant students, friends considerably more often appear to affect their decision to leave school (26%).

The Situation After Having Left School

The large majority (some 90%) of those who dropped out during the first five years of secondary education has been in paid employment since leaving school and/or attended a different form of schooling. This applies for those who left school with a qualification as well as for those who left school without a qualification. Most of them were not inactive over a period of time longer than the customary holidays. The large majority of the young people feels happy with the situation and does not regret leaving school. The fact that


they are happy presumably has something to do with the relief they feel after the difficult period of early school leaving (which in particular applies for those who left without a qualification). A small minority finds themselves in extremely difficult circumstances, they are, for example, in prison, homeless or receiving psychiatric treatment (less than 10% of the drop-outs during the first four years of secondary education).

Generally, therefore, the picture is of a motivated group that wants to start work and, to a lesser degree, also wants to continue to receive some kind of education. In the somewhat longer term a slightly larger number of drop-outs appears to end up in a situation that is a little less favourable. The number of these drop-outs that are in work or receiving some form of education then appears to drop somewhat and the number of youngsters in extremely difficult circumstances appears to rise slightly. Furthermore it appears from the research that the jobs found by the drop-outs largely tend to be of a temporary nature, with little prospect of a permanent job. There is therefore cause for concern for the long-term work perspectives.

Discussion

"Basic qualifications for all" was the motto first introduced in Dutch educational policy in 1990. However, after five years of secondary education some 4.7% of the students appear to have dropped out of school without a basic qualification (the drop-out rate for primary education and immediately after primary education should in fact be added to this). It is expected that this percentage will show a sharp increase in the two subsequent years. Part of the drop-outs would still be able to obtain the educational qualification pursued by the policy in the future. A considerable part of the young people is in fact still interested in education in the future. About one-third of the drop-outs appears really no longer to be prepared to attend education and is exclusively focused on the labour market. Many drop-outs will therefore not obtain a basic qualification within the education system in the future. This underlines the need for a discussion about the extent to which qualifications (can be) obtained via practical work experience, and to what extent such qualifications need to be linked to the idea of the basic qualification. Up until now solutions have largely related to the range and the feasibility of the basic qualification definition in adjustments within the education system; one example is the (plans relating to the) introduction of an assistant level in the apprenticeship system and the employment oriented programme in continued primary education. The present study indicates however that part of the drop-outs is no longer able, or no longer wants, to participate in the education system; getting qualifications by means of work experience therefore appears to be the only remaining alternative for this last group.

From the research results it becomes clear that there is not one single type of early school-leaver. This is also expressed in our research reports in the form of a "typology" of drop-outs. The large majority of the early school-leavers - in particular those who left without a qualification - left school largely as a result of factors related to the school (push-factors), such as behavioral, motivational and, to a lesser extent, ability problems. The others - largely the qualified ones - left school mainly because they wanted to start


work or start earning money (pull-factor). From this it appears that school factors and student characteristics are significant for early school leaving. Many drop-outs make a distinction in their opinion on education between certain training courses or subjects. Training courses and subjects of a theoretical nature are considered to be of little value, compared with practical training courses.

There is a great deal of social class inequality involved in early school leaving. Young people from families in which the parents have a low to very low educational level are very much over-represented. This does not however mean that there are no school- leavers from the higher social classes; for 8% of the drop-outs for example one of the parents has completed higher professional education or university education.

There is also a strong ethnic inequality factor: the drop-out rate for immigrant students is almost twice as high as that for indigenous students. Moroccan youths stand out negatively. If we look at the percentage of students leaving continued primary education/general secondary education without a qualification than this is almost three times as high for immigrant students than it is for indigenous students. Immigrant school- leavers are strongly over-represented among the drop-outs that left school without a qualification, whereas they are under-represented among the drop-outs that left school with a qualification.

We furthermore noted unfavourable labour participation among the immigrant school-leavers and a higher degree of dissatisfaction about leaving school. AU of these are reasons for paying more attention to this group, in particular for making efforts to help them obtain a qualification and/or get a job.

Boys tend to drop out of school slightly more frequently than girls, in particular during the first four years. This appears to be related to personality types. Among boys behavioral problems play an important role in school leaving. Among girls problems are largely motivational. Male school-leavers in general appear to be very outwardly focused, not obedient enough, too impatient, perhaps also too playful to be able to adjust to the regime of a regular education. This at a later stage expresses itself in a dislike for the school system itself and in an orientation which is far more focused on social themes than on education. Girls' attitudes, on the other hand, appear to equip them better for meeting the conditions necessary to attend school. When they drop out it is often because of a low aspirational level. It was striking to notice in the research that parents considerably more frequently agree to girls leaving school than to boys leaving school. This in particular applies in the case of school leaving with a qualification. In the drop-out rates for boys leaving school without a qualification, behavioral problems tend to play a major role as well as difficulties with theoretical subjects. They still want to receive education, but only in a different form. For girls this largely involves general motivational problems; they are not so keen on school any more. Educational measures such as the employment-oriented programme and training courses at assistant level will - starting out from an unchanged statutory school age - therefore mainly attract boys and could lead to increased gender inequality.

Referring to the earlier described theoretical background we can summarize the results of this study as follows: personal factors do play a role, especially those of motivation and lack of ability. For the very young drop-outs behavioral problems were also a reason for


leaving school early. Those with a qualification opted to start work rather than take part in further (vocational) education. They were positively motivated not to continue their school education. Parental background does indeed appear to be a very important factor. Children who drop out of school before being adequately qualified often have parents with a low level of education and often belong to ethnic minority groups. Gender makes a difference, too, in a quantitative sense, when it comes to reasons for leaving school.

The peer group appears to be only of secondary importance but tends to be more important among immigrant children. As far as school factors influencing early school leaving are concerned, this research shows that the kind of courses offered should be appropriate for students who belong to at-risk groups (i.e., they should be more practically oriented).

In most cases early school leaving is due to a combination of factors. We clearly found push and pull combinations. As far as "model thinking" is concerned, this research only provides an initial step by looking at different factors within one research design. The fact that the data were partly quantitative and partly qualitative makes it impossible to test a model that includes all of the apparently important factors. The findings of this research will nevertheless make it possible to conduct future research in which such a model can be tested.

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The Authors

I-IEITY DEKKERS is a coordinator of educational research and associated with the Institute of Applied Social Sciences and the Department of Educational Research of the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Major research subjects are school careers of different (societal) groups, e.g., by ethnicity, social-economic status and gender, as well as educational policy in relation to these issues.

GEERT DRIESSEN is an educational researcher at the Institute for Applied Social Sciences (ITS) of the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. His major research interests are the position of immigrant children in education, inequality in education, educational careers, first and second language acquisition and minority language and culture teaching.