Functionele gemeenschappen, godsdienstigheid en prestaties in het voortgezet onderwijs

Samenvatting

Using longitudinal data on 7,300 students at 150 schools in the Netherlands, we discuss the importance of being part of a functional community and the religiosity of students for their scholastic achievement in high school. According to Coleman and Hoffer (1987) a functional community strengthens the educational opportunities of students. We argue that the functional community effect is possibly confounded with the religious characteristics of these communities. Our main questions are: Does a functional community exert influence on the achievement of students, and to what extent does the religious background of students affect academic achievement? We expect that a functional community is beneficial for students who are religious and actively involved in the community. Furthermore, we hypothesize a relationship between the religious background and achievement. In order to answer our questions, we use descriptive and multilevel analyses. We conclude that the differences between schools are large. Only a small proportion of all schools is part of a functional community. For these functional community schools, no effect on achievement is found after controlling for religious background. For the students' religiosity positive as well as negative effects on scholastic achievement are reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]; Copyright of Mens en Maatschappij is the property of Amsterdam University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)