Social class or ethnic background? Determinants of secondary school careers of ethnic minority pupils

This article focuses on the differences in the secondary school careers of various groups of ethnic minority pupils. Special attention is devoted to socio-economic and migration characteristics; 2,024 ethnic minority pupils from a national representative secondary school cohort were monitored during the period 1989-1992. The first part of this study describes the effects of family background factors (parents' educational and occupational level and ethnic origin) on educational careers. The analyses show that the educational level of parents exerted a positive effect on the educational careers of their children. The second part of the study analyzes a model in which the effects of family background factors are intermediated by the variables number of children, length of stay in the Netherlands and use of the Dutch language at home. It shows that these migration characteristics hardly have any impact. Family background factors are the most important predictors when it comes to the educational careers of ethnic minority pupils. This article finally concludes that some of the variables studied exerted different effects on the various ethnic groups