The Influence of Ethnic Sorting on Educational Perfomance

This thesis investigates the link between the ethnic composition of classrooms in Dutch elementary schools and school results of non- Western minority children. Measures of ethnic classroom composition are set up to establish the concentration of non-Western minority children in general and the concentration of specific non-Western minority groups in classrooms. Using an individual fixed-effects approach, it is found that non-Western minority children perform better in classrooms with higher concentrations of children that do not have a Dutch ethnic background. Whether children are exposed to classrooms with a high share of children from their own ethnic background or not appears to be irrelevant.