Early school-leaving in the Netherlands

Abstract

The role of student-, family- and school factors for early school-leaving in lower secondary educationMost studies on early school-leaving address only partial causes of why some students leave school early. This study aims to develop a more elaborate model to explain early school-leaving in lower secondary education, taking into account individual, family and school factors at the same time. By using a longitudinal dataset we are able to attribute clear causal relations between the different factors. We distinguish four groups of school-leavers, separating ‘dropouts’ (those without any qualification) from those who left school after attaining a diploma in lower secondary education (‘low qualified’), those who pursued education as an apprentice (‘apprentices’) and the ones who continued education and received a full upper secondary qualification (‘full qualification). Discerning these four groups shows clear differences in the background of different types of early school-leavers and in the effects of school factors.labour market entry and occupational careers;