Choice as a duty? The abolition of primary school catchment areas in North Rhine-Westphalia/Germany and its impact on parent choice strategies

Abstract

In 2008, primary school catchment areas were abolished in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)/Germany. Written several years later, this article’s main aim is to provide insights into the impact of the policy reform on parent choice practices and subsequently on educational segregation. Based on a mixed-methods approach, it seeks to understand how being raised in and accustomed to a catchment area system affects parents’ understanding of the policy reform and impacts their choice strategies. We demonstrate that the (socially selective) choice of a school outside the former catchment area increased significantly after 2008, leading to a higher level of school segregation, though affecting schools to very different extents. The study clearly reveals that the differences in choice strategies are shaped by the dissimilar conclusions parents from different educational backgrounds draw from the policy reform. While less-educated parents attribute less significance to this early stage of schooling, many well-educated ones interpret the introduction of free choice as an instigation to choose – a perception triggered and intensified by the policy reform. For them, choice is no longer only perceived as an opportunity; through its formalisation it rather seems to become a duty. Thus, by one-sidedly favouring well-educated parents’ interests and benefiting their abilities to play the game, the reform seems to perpetuate existing inequalities in choice rather than to alleviate them.

‘Notorious Schools’ in ‘Notorious Places’? Exploring the Connectedness of Urban and Educational Segregation

“…On the one hand, this connection demonstrates how and why even an egalitarian, high-quality educational system is not automatically protected against vicious circles of educational segregation in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. As reputation is one of the central drivers of school choices, negative perceptions of schools and neighbourhoods likely affect their rejection as middleclass parents are especially sensitive to fears of choosing the 'wrong' kind of school for their children (Boterman, 2013;Ramos Lobato, Bernelius, & Kosunen, 2018;Ramos Lobato & Groos, 2019;Vowden, 2012). In this process, even institutionally well-functioning schools also appear to be vulnerable to the self-perpetuating growth of school segregation if they are located in a stigmatised neighbourhood.…”

“…However, while high levels of residential segregation are usually accompanied by segregated schools, low levels of residential segregation do not necessarily result in mixed schools. In contrast, school segregation is usually higher than residential segregation, which is mainly due to parents' socially selective ways of choosing schools (Boterman et al, 2019;Ramos Lobato & Groos, 2019;Wilson & Bridge, 2019).…”

“…Especially middle-class parents, equipped with the social and cultural capital needed to take full advantage of the educational market, actively navigate the system to find the 'right' schools (Boterman et al, 2019;Kosunen, 2014). Concerned about their children's exposure to lower standards of education, to children with inadequate language skills or the 'wrong' types of socialisation, many parents tend to define the 'right' school based on its social, racial or ethnic composition-which feeds into growing school polarisation (Boterman, 2013;Ramos Lobato & Groos, 2019;Vowden, 2012;Wilson & Bridge, 2019).…”

School choice and school segregation in the context of gentrifying Amsterdam

“…This has led to the conclusion that non-whites and working class kids are playing a middle class game (which they cannot win) (Ball, 2003). Also, a score of studies about school choice strategies (Ball, 2003;Boterman, 2013;Ramos Lobato & Groos, 2019) finds that sending children to schools outside their own residential area is a strategy that is often associated with 'choosing' and 'strategizing' middle class parents. So in addition to the more structural factors favouring middle class habitus in the educational system as a whole, school choice exacerbates this inequality of opportunity because middle class parents actively choose the best school, while other parents are supposedly less invested in schooling and just settle for the local state school.…”

Bildungsanalysen mit kommunalen Mikrodaten. Ein kooperativer Ansatz wissenschaftlich-kommunaler Praxisforschung

“…(Groos, Trappmann & Jehles, 2018). Die Auswertung von Elterninterviews zum Schulwahlverhalten konnte bestätigen, dass der Ruf einer Schule und die zu erwartende soziale und ethnische Zusammensetzung eine wesentliche Entscheidungsgrundlage für Eltern bilden und damit die soziale Ungleichheit zusätzlich verstärkt wird (Ramos Lobato & Groos, 2019).…”