A Tale of Two
Bridging Families and
Two innovative
programs in Belgium
promote both
educational quality
and equity as they
reach out to ethnically
diverse families.
Orhan Agirdag and Mieke Van Houtte
Both the quality and equity of schools depend greatly on the quality of the relation- ships among teachers and students’ families and their
communities. However, few educators
or policymakers can clearly answer the
question, How can schools effectively
reach out to ethnically diverse parents?
In Belgium, as elsewhere in the
world, many interventions aim to bring
schools and parents closer to each
other. Two such projects are the
Brug-figurenproject (Bridge Person project)
GHENT
in the city of Ghent and the School in
Zicht (School in Sight project) in the
city of Antwerp. We focus on these
two projects not only because they are
relatively successful and thus may set
an example, but also because they target
different demographics. The Bridge
Person project aims to reach socially
disadvantaged (mostly immigrant)
families, whereas School in Sight primarily focuses on middle-class families.
The programs share the same objective:
to create more equal opportunities in
education.
From Two Major Challenges…
After World War II, Belgium rapidly
developed into a multicultural society,
with substantial numbers of immigrants
coming from southern Europe, Turkey,
and North Africa. However, today
these immigrants are mostly members
of socially disadvantaged groups in
Belgium. The country’s increased ethnic
diversity poses two major challenges.
The Immigrant Achievement Gap
The school-based achievement of immigrant students—even that of second-and third-generation students—remains
far behind the achievement of their
native Belgian peers. In fact, this
achievement gap in Belgium is one of
the highest among all developed coun-
