There are concerns that ability tracking at a young age increases unequal opportunities for children of different socioeconomic background to develop their potential. To disentangle family influence and potential ability, we applied moderation models to twin data on secondary educational track level from the Netherlands Twin Register (N = 8847).…

This article examines how different civic learning opportunities relate to students' political knowledge in different school tracks. Existing studies have found that citizenship teaching can not only enhance overall levels of civic outcomes but also mitigate inequalities. However, educational achievement studies emphasize the risk of a tracked…

This paper addresses the question of whether the political debate concerning comprehensive schooling in the Netherlands between 1965 and 1979 was obscured by incompatible meanings of the concept of "equal opportunity". On the basis of an analysis of ministerial plans and parliamentary debates the conclusion is drawn that Dutch…

Since the academic year 2017-2018, the Tilburg University Language Center has been offering an academic pre-Bachelor's programme for refugee students. This year-long educational programme prepares high-potential refugees for a Dutch- or English-taught Bachelor's programme at a university. In addition, students prepare for the Dutch Civic…

This article examines cross-country variations in adult skills inequality and asks why skills in Anglophone countries are so unequal. Drawing on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's recent Survey of Adult Skills and other surveys, it investigates the differences across countries and country groups in inequality in both…

"Should I stay or should I leave my home region?" is one of the key life course questions that many young people must address as they grow to maturity. Social mobility increasingly presupposes geographical mobility, especially in rural areas. The consequences of the selective out-migration of socially mobile young people ("brain…

The more mathematics and science subjects are included in the curriculum in upper secondary education, the higher the number of accessible follow-up studies provided. The meritocratic caliber of secondary education is threatened when groups of students distinguished according to sex, social, and ethnic background but with otherwise equal…