The Netherlands

In the Netherlands, parental involvement is part of the constitution, which states that parents have the right to found their own government-funded schools. Since the 1970s, parental involvement has been on the policy agenda to overcome educational disadvantages of children from lower socioeconomic and cultural-ethnic-minority families. More recently, as a result of neoliberal education policies and a research focus on evidence-based practices, effective forms of parental involvement have been identified and taken as aims for school improvement and teachers' professional development programmes. Negative side effects of a focus on those effective parental involvement practices are discussed, which may exacerbate educational inequalities. In particular, parents with higher levels of social, cultural and financial resources and their children profit from existing policies. For educational researchers it is important to monitor the effects of parental involvement policies on the educational opportunities of children with different backgrounds and to provide empirical evidence for the effects of programmes that focus on inclusionary parent involvement policies and practices of schools and teachers.