Educational Leadership

this project. This voluntary approach is in strong contrast to early desegregation attempts in the United States, in which students were bused to schools outside their neighborhoods in an attempt to create more integrated schools. Such a policy has often proved fruitless and even detrimental to the achievement of ethnic-minority students (Armor, 1995). Parent and school support for such projects is much stronger when the parties involved have learned about the benefits of desegregation.

An important challenge for the School in Sight project relates to what happens after the desegregation process. Some studies have pointed out that immigrant students might experience decreased education aspirations and increased chances of peer victimization in desegregated schools (Agirdag, Demanet, Van Houtte, & Van Avermaet, 2010; Van Houtte & Stevens, 2010). Moreover, middle-class parents might also have more demanding expectations of teachers; they may, for example,

Parents do not choose a school
in a social vacuum, but consult
other parents and share experiences.

Collective action. The School in Sight project aims to bring a group of middle-class parents into contact with a concentration school and thus does not focus solely on individual parents. This collective approach not only decreases barriers, but also reflects a more natural enrollment process. Indeed, under normal circumstances parents do not choose a school in a social vacuum, but consult other parents and share experiences.

request more frequent feedback about the progress of their child. It’s wise to brief teachers on how to deal with a more heterogeneous student body and their parents. Such a briefing might touch on cultural differences across social class lines, plurilingual education, or religious diversity (Agirdag, 2009).

Possible Pitfalls and Solutions For the Bridge Person project to succeed, the bridge person needs to focus on the teacher- and student-focused activities that his or her job entails. One danger is that in the absence of available personnel, the school may wish to use the bridge person to handle day-to-day problems. For instance, the bridge person is not meant to accompany students on school trips, track student absences, correct tests, or monitor payments from parents. It’s important to communicate to the school that the bridge person has a tightly mapped job description and needs to work to some extent independently from the school team.

From Two Cities to the World Both the School in Sight and Bridge Person projects are good examples of how to bridge families and schools. However, they still operate as local projects—that is, they are not yet embedded in the regular national school policy, nor do they serve schools outside Ghent and Antwerp. With the support of policymakers, similar projects can be implemented elsewhere in the world where schools and families face similar challenges. EL

References

Agirdag, O. (2009). All languages welcomed here. Educational Leadership, 66( 7), 20–25.

Agirdag, O. (2010). Exploring bilingualism in a monolingual school system: Insights from Turkish and native students from Belgian schools. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 31( 3), 307–321.

Agirdag, O., Demanet, J., Van Houtte, M., & Van Avermaet, P. (2010). Ethnic school composition and peer victimization: A focus on the interethnic school climate. International Journal of Intercultural Relations.

Agirdag O., Van Houtte, M., & Van Avermaet, P. (in press). Why does the ethnic and socioeconomic composition of schools influence math achievement? The role of sense of futility and futility culture. European Sociological Review, doi: 10.1093/esr/JCQ070.

Albertijn, M., & Smeyers, M. (2009). School in zicht. Tien lessen uit drie jaar werken aan desegregatie in het onderwijs [School in Sight. Ten lessons from three years working on desegregation in education]. Antwerp: Tempera.

Armor, D. J. (1995). Forced justice: School desegregation and the law. New York: Oxford University Press.

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. (2006). Where immigrant students succeed: A comparative review of performance and engagement in PISA 2003. Paris: Author.

Ogbu, J. U. (1982). Cultural discontinuities and schooling. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 13( 4), 290–307.

Op den Kamp, H., Van Gyes, G., & Desmedt, E. (2007). Beroepsprofiel Brug-figuur in het Basisonderwijs [Professional profile of bridge-persons in primary education]. Leuven, Belgium: HIVA.

Ryabov, I., & Van Hook, J. (2007). School segregation and academic achievement among Hispanic children. Social Science Research, 36( 2), 767–788.

Sleeter, C. E. (2001). Preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools: Research and the overwhelming presence of whiteness. Journal of Teacher Education, 52( 2), 94–106.

Van Houtte, M., & Stevens, P. A. J. (2009). School ethnic composition and students’ integration outside and inside schools in Belgium. Sociology of Education, 82( 3), 217–239.

Van Houtte, M., & Stevens, P. A. J. (2010). School ethnic composition and aspirations of immigrant students in Belgium. British Educational Research Journal, 36( 2), 209–237.

Orhan Agirdag ( orhan.agirdag@ugent .be)isresearchofficerand Mieke Van Houtte ( mieke.vanhoutte@ugent.be)is lecturerintheDepartmentofSociology, ResearchGroupCuDOS,atGhentUni- versity,Belgium.