EDUCATIONAL EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT IN THE NETHERLANDS

Country background report for the OECD study on Evaluation and Assessment Frameworks for Improving School Outcomes

Jaap Scheerens, Melanie Ehren, Peter Sleegers and Renske de Leeuw

University of Twente, the NetherlandsJ.Scheerens@utwente.nl

Features of the educational system in the Netherlands

• Freedom of education, with respect to founding of schools, and choice

• Two thirds of schools is government dependent private

• Intermediary layer of governance, made up of educational organizations and pressure groups

• High degree of school autonomy

Historic development of evaluation and assessment

• 70 ‘ies: Large scale program evaluations• 80 ‘ies: start of systemic evaluation, cohort

studies, national assessment , systematic school inspection

• Developments in 1990 ‘ies, early 2000: rise of school self evaluation, proportional inspection, School Quality Cards, CITO pupil monitoring system, participation in international assessments

Current situation system evaluation

• a number of stable data collection procedures:

• Periodic national assessment PPON

• Cohort studies

• Gradual development of system indicators (including examination results)

• Various data collections by Inspectorate

• Participation in international studies

Current situation school evaluation

• School self evaluation (internal)

• School inspection (external)

• “Windows for accountability” as a new hybrid external/internal evaluation, in which major powers that be: schools, central administration and intermediary organizations all have a piece of the cake

Current situation teacher evaluation

• In the Netherlands, the evaluation or appraisal of individual teachers belongs to the jurisdiction of the Competent Authority of the school, the school board, or the municipality

• No external teacher appraisal, although the inspectorate evaluates the teaching quality of the school and school personnel policies

Current situation student assessment

• Central examination at the end of secondary school

• Primary school leavers test

• CITO pupil monitoring system (LVS)

• Stimulation of performance feedback, formative assessment on the basis of LVS, as part of government policy to support achievement orientation

Some salient features of evaluation and assessment in the Netherlands• Strong resistance by schools against

external evaluation in the nineteen seventies; slow acceptation and persistent reservations

• The rise and fall of school self evaluation• Different interpretations of proportional

inspections• Educational evaluation as a power

struggle