Is There a Catholic School Effect for

Muslim Pupils?

Orhan Agirdag, Geert Driessen & Michael Merry

Agirdag, O., Driessen, G., & Merry, M. (2015). Is there a

catholic school effect for Muslim pupils? Paper 12th Conference of the European Sociological Association 2015,

Prague, Czech Republic, August 25–28, 2015.

Background

Sociology of Education in the US after ’80

Controversy about effects of Catholic schooling

Why so important?

Political: School choice and marketisation

Theoretical: social capital

Methodology: school-effects research/multilevel

Theory (1)

James Coleman (1982, 1987)

1. Catholic school advantage

Catholic schools outperform Public schools

2. Catholic common school effect

Less ethnic inequality in Catholic schools

Less social inequality in Catholic schools

Theory (2)

Theory of social capital

Catholic schools are more community imbedded

Intergenerational bonds

Pro school values and social control

Compensate lack of support by some parents

Social capital ‘rubs off’

Study Setting

In the US:

• Very few Catholic schools

• Privately funded

• Even when ethnic diversity, religious homogeneity

In Belgium:

More than 50% of schools are Catholic

Publicly funded

Ethnic and religious diversity

Research Questions

RQ1

Is there a Catholic school advantage

Is the achievement growth larger

RQ2

Is there a Catholic common school effect

for ethnoreligious and socioeconomic groups

Is the achievement growth gap smaller

Methods (1)

Data

Longitudinal SIBO-survey

± 6000 pupils within ± 500 primary schools

± 60% of the schools are Catholic

± 15 % of the pupils are Muslims

Design

Multigroup Multilevel Latent Growth Curve Analysis

Full information maximum likelihood method (FIML)

Methods (2)

Dependent variables

Math : Grade 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6

Reading : Grade 3, 4, 5 & 6

Independent variables

Ethnoreligious background

Native Belgian vs Muslims immigrant

SES

Composite: education, occupation, income

Control for gender

Public Catholic Difference

b p b p Δ p

Initial achievement 39.337 *** 41.083 *** -1.746 ***

Achievement growth 6.851 *** 6.812 *** 0.039 ns.

Unconditional model for reading comprehension

Public Catholic Difference

b p b p Δ p

Initial achievement 65.266 *** 66.969 *** -1.703 ***

Achievement growth 11.969 *** 12.169 *** -0.200 ns.

Unconditional model for math achievement

Math Achievement: Initial achievement

Public Catholic Difference

B p B p Δ p

Intercept 68.106 *** 70.199 *** -2.093 ***

Muslim -1.579 ** -3.543 *** 1.964 **

Girl -2.091 *** -1.659 *** -0.432 ns.

SES (student-level) 3.090 *** 3.198 *** -0.108 ns.

SES (school-level) 5.063 *** 4.359 * 0.704 ns.

Math Achievement: achievement growth

Public Catholic Difference

B p B p Δ p

Mean growth 12.141 *** 12.455 *** -0.314 ns.

Muslim 0.167 ns. 0.155 ns. 0.012 ns.

Girl -0.334 * -0.378 *** 0.044 ns.

SES (student-level) 0.367 ** 0.261 *** 0.106 ns.

SES (school-level) -0.022 ns. 0.257 ns. -0.279 ns.

Conclusion and Implications

• Contrary to popular belief:

– No Catholic school advantage

• Contrary to US studies

– No Catholic common school effect

• Larger ethnoreligious gap in Catholic schools

– Due to intake, but still important