International evidence shows marked average performance differences at age 15 between immigrant students and native Dutch students. National evidence reveals that the greatest challenges are for students with non-Western immigrant background. The Netherlands emphasises universal policies to improve education for disadvantaged students, with few policies targeting immigrant students specifically. There is scope to raise the quality of under-performing schools and enhance immigrant families’ means to exercise school choice; strengthen the use of monitoring and evaluation practices within schools; support efforts to promote the enrolment of young children with non-Western immigrant background in high quality preschool and early childhood education; prioritise the recruitment of high quality teachers to schools in disadvantaged areas; prioritise educational and career support to students in vocational programmes; and enhance immigrant parent participation in official school/parent partnerships.
