Class size matters, when will it become public?
The formation table will show whether political parties are living up to their campaign promises about smaller classes. Class size matters, but how big are classes really? The fact that group sizes per primary school are not published appears to be a conscious choice.
Picture: Type tank
Catholic primary school De Zeven Gaven takes care of 169 pupils on Trumanlaan in the Kanaleneiland district of Utrecht. They are divided into three kindergarten groups and after that there is one group for each grade. A calculation shows that the average group size is around 19 students.
That is quite a bit lower than the national average of 23, director Karry Pomo agrees. “We are, as it is popularly called, a completely black school,” she says on the phone. “The student weight is among the highest in the country. We therefore receive a relatively large amount of money from the arrears. We use this to keep the groups as small as possible. We believe that you can get better results in smaller groups. Provided that the quality of the teachers is in order, I add. Because you can still have such small groups: without a good teacher, students won't get anywhere with that. ”
Dolphins
You can also turn it around: you can be such a good teacher, in a large class it is difficult to see all the students. Class size is a recurring topic of discussion, inside and outside the school. But how big are the classes per primary school exactly? You must be able to calculate this on the basis of the student administration and the basic education register (BRON). In the BRON Primary Education Manual The DUO executive service states that schools must not only register the grade, but also the specific group: 'The pupils with whom the pupil spends the most time at school during the school year form the group. For instance: '1a', 'Green' or 'Dolphins'.' But where do you find those actual group sizes of primary schools?
The BRON Primary Education Manual of the DUO executive service states that schools must not only register the school year, but also the specific group.
The most obvious place for an overview of group sizes is it digital data portal from DUO. That portal is a large card catalog with information about schools, staff and students. This does state the student-teacher ratio of all schools in primary and secondary education: the number of students divided by the number of full-time jobs (FTE) for teaching staff per school location, each with its own so-called 'source number'. Nationally, the student-teacher ratio in primary education fell slightly between 2016 and 2019, from 18,4 to 17,7. In 2020 the ratio was again at 17,7. The figures vary enormously between primary schools: from under ten students per teacher to the late thirties. But what does that number say about group size?
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“Nothing at all,” says Channah Nieuwenhuis, director of the Europe School in Amsterdam. To begin with, her school's source number is also used by the international school that once emerged from it. In the DUO figures, the student and personnel data of the two schools are added together. Moreover, the joint student-teacher ratio of 10,1 is far from the group size at her school, which, according to Nieuwenhuis, is between 25 and 30 students.
The explanation is quite simple. Not only the group teachers are included in this ratio, but all the teaching staff. This includes teachers who fulfill other roles, such as remedial teachers, internal counselors or language teachers. For example, the Europaschool invests a lot in foreign language education, says director Nieuwenhuis. “We have five extra language teachers. They do not have their own group, but of course they count in the formation as a teacher. This also applies to other itinerant roles that teachers fulfill. And a gym teacher is also a teacher. ”
In addition, the school generally offers space to four side entrants every year, something that is stimulated by the state and the municipality in the fight against the teacher shortage. "Lateral entrants spend an average of four days in the formation, of which at least one day is scheduled for study."
At De Zeven Gaven in Utrecht, the student-teacher ratio is 12,5, much lower than the average group size. This is thanks to the extra hands in the classroom that the school pays from the backlog, the workload resources and subsidies. Director Pomo: “The kindergarten groups always have an extra teaching assistant or class assistant. From group three onwards, we ensure that one or two days a week we have teachers double in a group for individual guidance or work in smaller groups. We look at what support needs there is per group and on the basis of this we deploy the extra teachers. We also have a remedial teacher for children with a great need for care. ”
Benefit
The student-teacher ratio says something about the size of the team, but little about class size. There is a national picture, on the basis of an annual sample by DUO. The average group size in primary education has fallen slightly in recent years to 22,6 in 2019, according to the most recent poll from June last year. But yes, that is a theoretical number: no class has 22,6 students. The most common class size in the sample is 23. At the same time, more than a quarter of the students are in a group of 26 or more. Obviously there are major differences between schools in the pedagogical-didactic organization. More and more schools are moving away from the classroom format with a permanent teacher and switching to cross-group education.
The size of the group matters. It also emerged last year from a study conducted by SEO Economic Research at the University of Amsterdam.
The size of the group matters. It pale last year again from a study that SEO Economic Research of the University of Amsterdam carried out on behalf of the AOb. Reducing classes in primary education and starters in secondary education significantly improves school performance, according to SEO. Although class size does not stand alone. Learning outcomes, for example, also benefit greatly from intensive guidance for novice teachers. That investment pays off in the long term. The AOb has been committed to smaller classes for many years. In the run-up to the parliamentary elections, the union beat the drum hard to put the subject on the agenda for a new coalition agreement.
The signal has been heard in political The Hague. During the election campaign promised various political parties to invest heavily in this. For example, D66 and sp want to structurally spend 600 million extra to maximize the class size in primary education at 23 pupils. GroenLinks is earmarking 900 million to reduce the class size to 21.
Playroom
This attention is justified, says director Henriëtte Tijssen of the Protestant Christian primary school De Watercolor in the Zwolle district of Aa -landen. “But I don't really understand how you can make a maximum connection to that. Suppose you say: classes cannot be larger than 25 students and you have 26 or 27 in a grade. What do you do with the other students? Making two groups of thirteen is not affordable. "
And then there is housing, Tijssen continues. Her school has grown in recent years with fifteen groups, while the building is suitable for nine. “There are two classes in the adjacent school building, three in an emergency building and one group in the playroom. If politicians say 'smaller classes', then please provide the necessary extra teachers and classrooms. ”
If politics says 'smaller classes', then please with the necessary extra teachers and classrooms.
At her school, the average group size is around 25 students, according to the director. But not every group is the same. “We have forty students in grade 8. We have made two groups of twenty, because they are quite tough groups. One of those smaller groups demands more from the teacher than our group 7 with thirty students. ”
At Schoolsopdekaart.nl, the website that administrative umbrella organizations PO council and secondary school council once launched as the information point, shows how many pupils there are in a school year. This information also comes directly from DUO, which in turn obtains it from BRON. But it is not always possible to deduce the group size from this. Grades 6 and 7 both count 41 students for the Watercolor, but it cannot be concluded that the school has made two year groups and a combination class out of it.
And so the question remains: where is the overview of group sizes per primary school? Surely they will know at the administration umbrella PO council? "We have no further information about this," the spokesperson responds and refers her to the Ministry of Education. A spokesperson for the ministry only sends the national figures and does not discuss the question further. Statistics Netherlands, which also manages a wealth of educational data, has a copy of the student data from BRON, including grade and group. But reliable class sizes are not included, a spokesperson mailed in the first instance. Later she downsized her answer and refers her to DUO. "We do not know what the reliability of the variable group is and do not process this variable further in our files or statistics."
Choice
At DUO, the monkey comes out of the sleeve: it appears to be a conscious choice not to publish group sizes per school. Where schools usually register the years accurately, this would leave something to be desired with regard to group designation. According to a spokesperson, this makes the supplied data unsuitable for putting them online one-on-one. That is why DUO still calls and corrects a lot during the annual random check. An external audit seems to endorse this. The DUO sample is validated by an independent agency, Centerdata. At 22 of the 57 schools in that audit, Centerdata saw that DUO had to improve data.
School director Karry Pomo of De Zeven Gaven was not familiar with that lecture. For her, the main thing is that the next cabinet has to get to work. “A lot of money has to be added and that has to go to the good things. Smaller classes contribute to better education. But education stands or falls with the quality of the teacher. We have to invest heavily in that. ”
This story appeared in the May issue of the Education Magazine, the education trade magazine published eleven times a year AObmembers falls on the bus. Read here you more about the benefits of it AOb-membership.
