CPB: 'Take a final test for school advice'
Pupils in grade 8 should take the final test before the teacher gives the school advice. The CPB advises this today. In this way the teacher can include the final test in his school advice and the test helps to correct 'unconscious lower expectations'.
Picture: Type tank
Since 2014/2015, teachers have been giving the school advice around 1 March and pupils take the final test a few months later. If the score for the test is higher than the school advice, the teacher should reconsider the school advice.
Last February coalition parties CDA, VVD, D66 and ChristenUnie have already argued in favor of taking the test for school advice again. Exactly as the Central Planning Bureau (CPB) now also advises. CDA MP Michel Rog said at the time: "I want teachers to have all the information available and to take that into account when they give the school advice."
Swap
Lisette Swart, researcher at the CPB, contributed to the report. "The figures from our analyzes show that the final test can help to get the best placement of students."
Pupils whose teacher did not adjust the school advice, despite a higher score on the final test, are more often at a different school level in the third year of secondary school than their school advice. This concerns 32 percent of the students who changed school level. Of students whose school advice was revised, 22 percent were at a different school level in the third grade.
Low-educated parents
According to the CPB, there are 'systematic differences' in the final test scores and the school advice. Swart: “Pupils of low-educated parents with a low income, in particular, are more likely to receive lower school advice from their teacher than you would expect based on the test scores. Teachers also adjust the advice less often for this group. A greater role for the test can therefore promote equality of opportunity for these students. ” But the researcher also points out that parents are more likely to have their children receive test training as the test becomes more important. That is already happening now.
Pupils of low-educated parents with a low income in particular more often receive a lower school recommendation from their teacher
Compare
The final tests must become more comparable, according to the CPB. That is currently not possible because there are five different final tests. The CPB report shows that schools that switched from the Central Final Test of Cito to the IEP suddenly received more VWO advice and less VMBO advice in the following years.
There is also a difference in motivation among students. After all, those with a VWO recommendation from the teacher no longer need the test. While other students do their best to increase the advice with the test. The policy pursued to include the same set of questions in all final tests appears to be a suitable way of ensuring that results from different tests can be compared. Swart: “It must be thoroughly investigated whether this is actually the case. If that doesn't help, going back to one final test can be a solution. All children then lie along the same yardstick. It is up to politicians to make a choice. ”
To combine
Also researchers Kimberley Lek and Rens van de Schoot of Utrecht University published today their findings from the school advisory. They followed 119 thousand students for more than three years and advise - in line with the CPB - to combine the advice of the teacher and the test scores for 'optimal advice'. Not one of the two is superior to the other, according to the researchers in their article in magazine The psychologist. 'For example, students are not too dependent on a teacher's judgment and they are not judged on a single test result.'
Combine the final test and the teacher's advice. Not one of the two is superior to the other
Better view
In the latter Education magazine teachers spoke about the proposal to once again include the final test in their advice. Their answer is clear: they want no emphasis on the final test. For example, says Niels Pennings, group 8 teacher at De Boog in Eindhoven: 'As teachers, we have a much better picture of a child than the outcome of one test, don't we? We take everything into account, including attitude to work.'
As teachers, we have a much better picture of a child than the outcome of one test, don't we?
If the final test is combined with the school advice, the question is when schools should administer the final test. The political parties are still debating this. In the Education magazine, Walther Feddema, teacher at the obs Binnenstad in Maastricht, says that the test should definitely not be taken in February. Then the pressure is gone for students. 'I enjoy sitting around the table with the student after my advice. Is the advice disappointing? Do you have a VMBO recommendation and do you want to go to HAVO? Then you have two months to work hard to score better on the final test. That can be extremely motivating. '
Education Minister Arie Slob left previously to the Algemeen Dagblad know that he will make a decision about the final test and the school advice in May.
