Track recommendation bias: Gender, migration background and SES bias over a 20‐year period in the Dutch context

Abstract

Bias in track recommendations is an important mechanism, which causes education inequity in a tracked educational system (streaming). If teacher biases in track recommendations change over time, inequity in society and in the education system may also change. We investigated changes in track recommendation bias over time for gender, immigration status and socioeconomic status (SES), based on a longitudinal empirical study of nine cohorts of Dutch students in their final year (grade 6) of primary education in the period 1995–2014. An overview of educational and societal trends was provided, alongside the empirical analysis, to explain the findings in variation over time in track recommendation bias. Results indicate that the level of track recommendations provided to the students gradually increased over time. For a similar performance, a higher track recommendation was awarded in 2014 compared to 1995. This development coincided with an increase in parental education level, the valuing of education and the introduction of lower‐status pre‐vocational education tracks. Track recommendation bias favouring students with a migrant background and female students decreased, which coincided with growing cultural intolerance and attention to the ‘boy problem’. Bias in track recommendations related to SES appeared stable, with only small deviations from year to year. The results of this study indicate that track recommendation bias and teacher considerations are dependent on time and context.

Teacher knows best?

“…After that, di erent ethnic groups seemed to receive comparable educational recommendations given equal school performance (Driessen et al, 2008). In agreement with the conclusion by Timmermans et al (2018), according to the inspectorate of Education in the Netherlands (2019), ethnicity nowadays indeed plays a lesser role in track allocation. Other studies, however, still report a disadvantage for non-native pupils (see Baysu, Alanya & Van De Valk, 2018;Scheerens & Van Der Werf, 2018).…”

“…Focusing on research from the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Flanders 27 (the northern part of Belgium), multiple studies have indicated that a pupil's gender, socio-economic status (SES) and ethnicity might influence the judgment of the teacher (see, for instance, Timmermans, De Boer, Amsing & Van Der Werf, 2018). Especially SES is almost consistently found to influence track recommendations after performance on the EPST-test is taken into account (Geven et al, 2018).…”

“…According to the longitudinal study by Timmermans et al (2018), other than SES, the influence of ethnicity largely decreased between the 90s and 2014 28 . In the 1980s and 1990s, minority children (mostly Turkish and Moroccan) were typically over-recommended in the Netherlands, meaning that their teacher's track recommendations exceeded those of the EPST-test (Driessen et al, 2008;Driessen, 1991).…”

“…In the Netherlands, the sixth grade teacher became primarily responsible for pupils' track allocation after a policy change in 2015. Ever since the introduction of this new allocation policy, the discussion about possible teacher bias has gained renewed attention in the Netherlands (see Timmermans, De Boer, Amsing & Van Der Werf, 2018;Geven et al, 2018). Using the Dutch situation as a case study, the current article explores SES-, gender and ethnic biases in the context of the transition from primary to secondary education.…”

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“…6 Such a pattern might reflect institutionalised discrimination -inequities embedded in policies or procedures of organisations -as the school transition system allows room for bias in track recommendations. 7 Such bias is likely to be strengthened if a climate of nativism arises as propagated by PRR parties, whereby immigrants are framed as a collective threat to exacerbate collective insecurity. 8 In addition, although PRR parties generally seem to favour quality education, they also show tendencies towards strengthening national identity through education and emphasising free choice for parents for access to high-quality education.…”