Does extending the school week lead to higher track recommendations? A quasi-experimental study on the effectiveness of an extended school week in 30 primary schools

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of an extended school week in 30 schools on track recommendations for Dutch primary school students. The extended school week intervention is part of a major urban policy aimed at improving socioeconomic conditions in one of the most disadvantaged areas in the Netherlands. Register data on the school level were used to examine changes in track recommendations between 2010-2020. A set of control schools was identified by employing genetic matching. The findings of comparative short interrupted time series show that, on average, track recommendations in the intervention schools did not structurally increase compared to the control schools. We discuss how these results might be due to the top-down design of the program and various issues that emerged during implementation, including program quality, teacher shortages, and coordination.