Can cities be held responsible for early school leaving? Evidence from the Netherlands

This paper examines if 'naming and shaming' is an effective tool to increase accountability in school dropout for cities with disadvantaged student populations. It argues that a comparison with other cities might be unfair if regional and population characteristics differ. It discusses the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Policy studies 2015-03, Vol.36 (2), p.217-239
Main Authors: De Witte, Kristof, Van Klaveren, Chris, Smets, Anton J.H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accountability
Cities
Comparative analysis
Disadvantaged
Disclosure
Dropping out
early school leaving
Households
Housing
Housing policy
Low income
matching analysis
Migration
Minority students
Naming
naming and shaming
New towns
Population
Population characteristics
Public policy
Regional differences
School dropouts
School leaving
selective migration
Studies
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Summary:This paper examines if 'naming and shaming' is an effective tool to increase accountability in school dropout for cities with disadvantaged student populations. It argues that a comparison with other cities might be unfair if regional and population characteristics differ. It discusses the example of two Dutch new towns. The new town policy deliberately attracted low- and medium-income households in the past, such that today the population of those cities differs from other cities. We use a matching analysis to account for observed differences in population and regional characteristics. The results point out that 'naming and shaming' may be a dangerous policy to increase accountability: early school leaving differences are driven, to a large extent, by observed differences in population and regional characteristics.
ISSN:0144-2872
1470-1006
DOI:10.1080/01442872.2014.1000847