Author:

Keywords:

Social Sciences, Education & Educational Research, Freinet education, school careers, propensity score analysis, longitudinal data, long-term educational outcomes, PROPENSITY SCORE, CHILDRENS ACHIEVEMENT, ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION, COVARIATE BALANCE, CHOICE, CLASSROOM, TRACK

Abstract:

In Flanders, there has been a steady increase in the amount of students attending a method school during primary education. This could have effects on the secondary school careers of these students. In this study we compare the secondary school careers of students educated in Freinet schools with students educated in traditional primary schools. More concretely, we investigated the chosen school tracks in the third and fifth year of secondary school, as well as possible educational delay. To study this, we made use of a large-scale longitudinal dataset, namely the ‘School Careers in Primary Education’ project (Dutch acronym ‘SiBO’). The data were analyzed using propensity score analysis, contingency tables, and multinomial regression. The results show that pupils who attended Freinet primary schools are significantly more likely to end up in artistic secondary education (KSO) by the fifth year of secondary school. For the other study tracks, we did not identify meaningful differences between the two groups.