Competent teacher also essential for summer school
The cabinet is investing an additional EUR 500 million to eliminate educational disadvantages. Summer schools are being expanded or established all over the Netherlands. "I hold my heart."
Picture: Type tank
Marijke Kaatee thought she had seen just about everything. She has been organizing the summer school in Amsterdam Nieuw-West for twelve years now. The way things are running now with registrations? No. That is completely new. Caused by the corona crisis.
“I feel stress with parents,” says Kaatee. “They email it again to ask if their registration form has arrived. Every year children benefit from our summer school, but I think the need is even greater this year. ”
Every year children benefit from summer school, but the need is greater this year
To expand
That is why Kaatee has decided to expand. In terms of space, she can accommodate four groups more than usual. "And that's it." Because it should be clear: teachers are also needed for all those children. "I know there are summer schools that work with unauthorized staff because they can't get it done, but I don't hire teachers without a diploma." Kaatee also calls experience a must. "As a summer school teacher you don't have a run-up, you have to be there on day one."
The cabinet is investing 500 million euros in education to deal with the consequences of the crisis. 200 million of this is reserved for students, 244 million is divided between primary and secondary schools and MBO institutions.
They make use of it. For example, the summer school in Terneuzen is expanding to 75 pupils and there will be a class for children who speak other languages. In Amstelveen, local politicians are calling for a summer school and in Enschede there will be four, this year for the first time. "It was already in the pen", says Rianne Buist, "but we now notice that there is an extra need for it." Buist is director of primary schools Glanerbrug South and North and is now setting up the summer schools. "We wanted that anyway, because we have a large number of neighborhoods with children for whom the summer vacation is really too long and children for whom the summer dip can play a role."
Competent
A total of five schools are joining forces - and their teachers. Because that is still a thing, Buist admits. Find qualified teachers. Who want to continue working during the summer holidays. “Fortunately, with all those schools, we have enough enthusiastic teachers who want this. For a brief moment I considered flying in students with tutoring experience, but we prefer that each class has a qualified teacher. Mainly because of the didactics.”
Not that it is mandatory. The Ministry of Education states that a catch-up and support program is a facility where pupils can follow education under the responsibility of their own school. Moreover, it is the school that applies for the subsidy for the students. 'This means that the school is accountable for the quality of the program', according to the website of the national government. Ministers Arie Slob and Ingrid van Engelshoven have made agreements with the Association of Universities and the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences about the deployment of students at summer schools.
Important condition
“And that is exactly what I hold my heart for,” says Karin Hoogeveen, education advisor and researcher at Sardes. "A competent and competent teacher for the group is an important prerequisite for results in students."
A qualified and competent teacher for the group is an important condition for student outcomes
Sardes founded the national network of summer schools in 2013 and made an inventory of how many and which summer schools there were in the Netherlands. At the end of 2017, Hoogeveen was commissioned by the ministry to study all forms of extension of teaching time that municipalities and schools use to combat educational disadvantage. The summer schools were created in 2011, via a national pilot, when money was made available for so-called extension of the apprenticeship.
Success factors
"The most decisive success factors are relatively small groups, a strong connection with the regular curriculum and competent, authorized teachers for the group," says Hoogeveen. Due to the school closure during the lockdown, the researcher sees a greater need for summer schools, but it is The question now is whether there are enough teachers available and willing to take on this task: "We hear from summer schools that it is becoming more difficult to find teachers." Hoogeveen thinks it is very good that a scheme has been set up so quickly. "But I think it is a great pity that no conditions are set. Now summer schools can also use unauthorized persons. Or parents of children. I do believe that everyone has good intentions has, but from the literature we simply know what works and what doesn't.”
Not a holy grail
And even then, says Sjerp van der Ploeg, we should not see summer school as the holy grail where all the backlog no time has been eliminated again. He is an education researcher and recently made a literature review on behalf of the National Directorate for Educational Research with all the research into the effectiveness and interpretation of summer schools.
“Summer school is often aimed at making a quick fix,” he says. This is very concrete in secondary education: the student suffers an X number of fail marks, improves and passes. Summer schools in primary education are, according to Van der Ploeg, not about transferring or stopping, but are for disadvantaged students and aimed at updating the basic subjects, often supplemented with themes. “More structural things are being worked on there. The variation is greater. ” The similarity that all summer schools have: classes take place in a relatively short period of time, from two to three weeks. “While we actually know that staggered learning over longer periods is more effective,” says Van der Ploeg. “It is therefore good that the ministry does not just say: Set up summer schools. It is one of the possibilities. ” Ideally, says Van der Ploeg, the lesson time extension will be continued throughout the rest of the year, for the students who need it. “Structured, for a longer period of time, for example every Wednesday afternoon or Saturday morning. That works better than stuffing everything in ten days. ”
We know that spreading learning over longer periods is more effective
Aha experience
Kaatee sees it differently. "In addition to expanding knowledge, you can really tackle that one part that a child has difficulty with." According to her, a different teacher, different setting, different explanation can provide the aha experience.
You don't learn spelling with baking cookies. With qualified teachers, yes
Van der Ploeg also emphasizes that summer school is certainly not useless. In fact, he calls it “a very good and important start”. Studies into American, English and Dutch summer schools in 2000, 2005, 2006, 2014 and 2017 respectively, show that summer schools are effective for catching up. Researchers speak of 'small positive effects', on the condition that the summer schools are aimed at learning (vocabulary, text comprehension, reading skills, math skills). “I always say: Baking cookies doesn't teach you spelling,” says Marijke Kaatee. "With authorized teachers, it is."
