Vroegtijdig schoolverlaten en schoolmobiliteit: een vicieuze cirkel?

Students leaving secondary education prior to completion has been an issue of major concern in Western countries for decades. In the city of Ghent, where the data for our research was collected, up to 14% of all students previously enrolled in a Ghentian secondary school dropped out without acquiring any diploma or qualification. Beside these high dropout rates, the Flemish educational system is also characterized by extensive student flows between secondary schools. The objective of this article is to investigate the effects that dropout and mobility rates at the school level have on persistent students in terms of non-cognitive educational skills, such as engagement and sense of belonging in school. Theoretically, this paper draws on peer effect research in dropout and mobility literature and on studies regarding the importance of social integration of students in school. By including dropout and mobility rates at the school level, we want to investigate whether these processes go beyond immediate friendship relations and affect all students in a particular school. The data for this article is derived from thirty Ghentian schools, who took part in the International Study of City Youth-project (ISCY). Multilevel analysis will be carried out to determine the effects of schools’ student dropout and mobility rates on engagement and sense of belonging of the persistent student population. In this analysis a distinction will be made between in- and out-mobility. In conclusion, this paper will assess if schools potentially get caught up in a vicious circle, in which high dropout and mobility rates of a school bring about lower levels of engagement and sense of belonging of persistent students, making those students in turn more vulnerable for negative educational decisions as dropping out or changing schools.