Seperated by Choice? The Effect of Residential Composition on School Composition in Rotterdam, the Netherlands

School segregation potentially harms social cohesion and increases inequality of educational attainment. In much of the literature, school segregation is considered to be a direct reflection of residential segregation. However, in the unique context of Dutch cities, scholars also look at the effects of school-choice mechanisms and discriminatory admission policies on school composition. This capstone project will examine how changes in residential patterns affect the composition of pupils in schools in Rotterdam, the second-largest city in the Netherlands. It will assess quantitatively the degree to which neighborhood composition predicts primary school composition, both in terms of ethnic background and parental educational attainment. Furthermore, it will measure changes in residential and school segregation in the period from 2010 until 2020. This contributes to the little knowledge we have about urban segregation trends during this timeframe in the Netherlands. Only focusing on...Show moreSchool segregation potentially harms social cohesion and increases inequality of educational attainment. In much of the literature, school segregation is considered to be a direct reflection of residential segregation. However, in the unique context of Dutch cities, scholars also look at the effects of school-choice mechanisms and discriminatory admission policies on school composition. This capstone project will examine how changes in residential patterns affect the composition of pupils in schools in Rotterdam, the second-largest city in the Netherlands. It will assess quantitatively the degree to which neighborhood composition predicts primary school composition, both in terms of ethnic background and parental educational attainment. Furthermore, it will measure changes in residential and school segregation in the period from 2010 until 2020. This contributes to the little knowledge we have about urban segregation trends during this timeframe in the Netherlands. Only focusing on the city Rotterdam allows for a more in-depth and local analysis of these trends. It finds that while residential composition does have a strong significant effect on school composition, the strength of this relationship has decreased over time, suggesting that parental school-choice mechanisms or discriminatory admission policies have gained importance. Furthermore, while residential segregation generally and ethnic school segregation specifically have gone down, segregation in terms of parental educational attainment has gone up. This could be a result of the increase in the average educational level in Rotterdam, but this cannot be confirmed.Show less

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Seperated by Choice? The Effect of Residential Composition on School Composition in Rotterdam, the Netherlands