Track Differences in Civic and Democratic Engagement During Secondary Education: A New Panel Study From the Netherlands

Abstract

Whether students educated in different ability tracks in secondary education develop different levels of civic and democratic engagement is yet unclear. To explore this issue, we focus on how schools bring students of different tracks and family backgrounds together, and whether such between-school differences are associated with varying growth rates in civic and democratic engagement during secondary education. Using newly collected 4-year panel data starting at the very beginning of the Dutch tracked educational system, the Dutch Adolescent Panel on Democratic Values (DAPDV), we study developments in institutional trust, societal interest, voting intention, and political knowledge. Growth curve models show that much of the variation between tracks and between schools is rather stable, although track differences in institutional trust became more pronounced. Although schools that are more compositionally diverse vary from homogeneous schools, track differences are largely present already at the start of secondary education. Within-individual transition models show that students moving up to more advanced tracks do gain in political knowledge.