School funding and tracking in New York and Amsterdam
Senior researchers: Maurice Crul (University of Amsterdam) and Jennifer Holdaway (Graduate Center of the City University of New York)
Research Fellows: Norma Fuentes (Fordham University), Mayida Zaal (Graduate Center of the City University of New York), Helga de Valk (University of Amsterdam)
Introduction
This project will compare the children of Dominican immigrants in New York with those of Moroccans in Amsterdam. It will consider the ways in which their pathways through education are shaped by the structure of educational institutions (in particular formal and informal tracking mechanisms) and by the resources and strategies available to immigrant families in navigating the education system. We will focus on the transition point from elementary to secondary education, which is a crucial time for both groups.
We chose Dominicans and Moroccans because despite some differences (most notably in terms of religion) the two groups share a similar social situation. Both are the children of largely uneducated labor migrants, who were among the first wave of immigrants of that group. The second generation of both groups has low levels of attainment both in absolute terms and compared to other immigrant groups. There are also similar gendered patterns of achievement, with girls in both groups doing better in school than boys, who also experience greater discrimination and are associated with crime.
The two city contexts have some interesting differences. In terms of their approach to the incorporation of immigrants, the United States has traditionally been quite laissez faire while the Netherlands has had a more active integration policy. This is evident in the provision of extra funding for immigrant students in Amsterdam while, in New York, children of low-income immigrants are concentrated in schools with the fewest resources. At the same time, the two systems have different approaches to tracking, with a more formal selection process in the Netherlands and a much more informal one in New York. Using a variety of approaches and methods, the project will explore the effects of these different institutional structures and the ways in which families and communities navigate them.
Data
The study will draw on the quantitative and qualitative data on Dominicans collected as part of the Second Generation in Metropolitan New York (ISGMNY) study and on the quantitative data on Moroccans currently being collected as part of The Integration of the European Second Generation (TIES) project. Both quantitative data sets contain information on the family background, neighborhood and school experiences of 18-35 year-old respondents as well as detailed information on educational attainment. It is possible from this data to reconstruct quite effectively the school careers of the respondents and early outcomes in terms of labor market experience. Both data sets also contain information on other transitions to adulthood, including family formation. In order to understand the processes that lead to the outcomes captured in the quantitative data, the project incorporates a qualitative component. Through follow-up in depth interviews with respondents from the TIES study, the two fellows will collect data in Amsterdam that will make possible a comparison with the qualitative data from the ISGMNY study, which focuses on understanding the processes surrounding school choice and other educational decision making.
Role of team members
Maurice Crul and Jennifer Holdaway will continue their ongoing comparison of institutional differences in the education system of the two cities and the ways in which they shape educational pathways taken by immigrant groups. With Helga De Valk, they will also lay the overarching framework for the team's work by comparing the factors shaping educational attainment for the two groups and examining the ways in which the pathways taken by students with comparable backgrounds are shaped by the institutional arrangements in the two cities.
Norma Fuentes (post-doctoral fellow)
The focus of this part of the project will be on understanding the role mothers play in shaping the educational pathways of their daughters, both by influencing their aspirations and through their interaction with the school system. Although mothers are often the people who have most contact with the school, we know little about the ways in which immigrant mothers garner information and resources to support their children's education. Equally, while women in immigrant families are seen as the primary transmitters of the home country culture, we do not know much about how this affects the educational and employment aspirations of their daughters. Through in-depth interviews, Fuentes will explore how and when women form ideas about the educational options available to their daughters and how they act upon the information they have. She will investigate the ways in which the networks available to women provide access to different types of information and resources that can help immigrant families navigate the education system. At the same time, she will examine how mothers' ideas about education and employment, and their own experiences, help to shape the aspirations of the second generation. Fuentes will go to Amsterdam in September 2006. After a pilot phase of informal conversations and development of the interview schedule, she will conduct interviews with 25 second generation Moroccan women and their mothers. In order to make possible a comparison with the ISGMNY data on Dominican women in New York, the interview will incorporate key questions from that instrument.
Mayida Zaal (pre-doctoral fellow)
Mayida Zaal will focus on understanding the role of community organizations in helping immigrant families support their children's education: through the provision of information, through supplemental education programs, or through other activities that aim to develop aspirations and foster positive engagement in school. Her research will map the organizations that exist within the Moroccan community in Amsterdam, examining the resources they offer and the links they have with schools. Fieldwork will include interviews with leaders of community-based organizations and with respondents in the TIES study who have taken part in the programs they offer. If possible, Zaal will also interview a small number of 12-17 year-olds who are currently attending after-school programs and involve them in a participatory-action study documenting their involvement. The findings of this research will provide the basis for a comparison with what we know about the role of social capital in other immigrant communities, including both Dominicans in the United States and also the Arab and Muslim American communities that Zaal has studied in her prior work. Mayida Zaal will go to Amsterdam in January 2007 and remain through the end of August 2007.
Helga de Valk (post-doctoral fellow, Nuffield funded)
Helga de Valk will begin with comparative analysis of the quantitative data, working first with Maurice Crul in Amsterdam until February 2007 and then with Jennifer Holdaway in New York. She will use a number of statistical techniques including event history or survival analysis to examine the pathways Dominican and Moroccan second-generation youth take through the education system and the role of family and neighborhood characteristics in shaping school outcomes. Building on her previous work on transitions to adulthood, she will also consider the ways in which education interacts with other life transitions including family formation. On the basis of her analysis of the quantitative data, de Valk will also develop a small qualitative project involving fieldwork with second generation young adults, to be conducted during her time in New York.
The fellows will have completed their fieldwork by the end of the summer 2007 (somewhat earlier in the case of Norma Fuentes). Each is planning to write at least one article for publication on their independent piece of the project, but will also contribute to a joint paper on the New York-Amsterdam project that will appear in a project volume or special journal issue.
