Broad first year class offers more opportunities for students
Pupils at community secondary schools are less likely to remain in school and more often end up at a higher school level. Boys, late bloomers, children of low-educated parents and immigrants in particular are better off in a school that offers several levels of education, such as mavo, havo and vwo.
This is evident from thorough research of the University of Groningen in which transfer percentages were used and where the progress of pupils at broad and category schools was compared. Marie-Christine Opdenakker, lead researcher, says in response to her research that determining the level of education at the age of 11 or 12 is too early for many students.
Definitive choice
“31 percent of the students, a percentage that I think is quite high, end up at a different school level than was advised at primary school,” says Opdenakker. “19 percent of that is at a lower level. Apparently it is difficult to give school advice. We therefore argue in favor of postponing the final choice.”
What is the right age, however, remains to be seen. “It wouldn't be bad if teachers give combined school advice, so that students have more time to show that they can cope with an education level.”
Broad school
If you want to go to a higher school level, it is better to go to a community school. Opdenakker: “For example, if you look at students with a pre-vocational secondary education recommendation and who attend a secondary school that only offers pre-vocational secondary education, then there is no one in the fourth grade at havo or vwo.” At community schools, 24 percent of the students appear to be in a HAVO class in the fourth grade.
It is therefore interesting to go to a community school where transition classes are mixed and where the selection moment is later.
Retention is less common in community schools at all levels of education: three quarters of pupils at community schools who started in a mavo/havo class reach the fourth grade without delay. At a (categorical) pre-vocational secondary school this concerned 66 percent of the pupils who started in a mavo class. An explanation cannot be given immediately. “But, from experience I can imagine that students in community schools pull together,” says Opdenakker.
trend
The current trend is at odds with what the researchers are now arguing for. The number of homogeneous bridge classes increased again in 2015, the Education Inspectorate registered the Education Report early this year. Moreover, teachers give combined advice less often: in 2015, one in six students received a combined advice, compared to a quarter of the students four years ago, according to the Inspectorate.
The researchers also examined the transition from VMBO to MBO. Nearly fifty percent of MBO graduates stop their studies in the first two years. “We followed a large ROC in the Northern Netherlands for this. Here too, boys, immigrants and students of low-educated parents were much more likely to lose weight. So there is certainly a lot of room for improvement and we have to think about it carefully”, says Opdenakker.
