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European Sociological Review Advance Access originally published online on March 6, 2008
European Sociological Review 2008 24(4):527-542; doi:10.1093/esr/jcn018
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

The Transition from Primary to Secondary Education: Meritocracy and Ethnicity

Geert Driessen

Peter Sleegers

Peter Sleegers, SCO-Kohnstamm Instituut, University of Amsterdam, 1090 GE Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Email: p.j.c.sleegers{at}uva.nl

Frederik Smit

Frederik Smit, ITS, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6500 KJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Email: f.smit{at}its.ru.nl; www.frederiksmit.com

Correspondence: Geert Driessen (to whom correspondence should be addressed), ITS, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9048, 6500 KJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Tel.: + 24-3653545; Email: g.driessen{at}its.ru.nl; WWW: http://www.geertdriessen.nl

The aim of this study was to better understand the influence of pupil background characteristics (e.g. gender, SES, ethnicity), various cognitive, and non-cognitive competencies (e.g. school performance, study attitude) and a number of class and school characteristics (e.g. socio-ethnic class composition, degree of urbanization) on the transition of children from primary to secondary education in the Netherlands. In the final grade of Dutch primary school, pupils are advised with regard to the type of secondary education considered most appropriate for them. Recent data from the national large-scale PRIMA cohort study, which includes more than 8,000 pupils and 500 classes, were used to examine differences in the levels of recommendation provided. The results showed the phenomenon of over-recommending or, in other words, groups of pupils receiving an educational recommendation, which is higher than justified by their school performance, to no longer exist. Pupil achievement appeared to be the most important factor for the explanation of the level of recommendation, which clearly provides support for the meritocratic principle.

Manuscript received: February 1, 2007.


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