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Objective: This study investigates the role of family composition on children's development during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, net of family socioeconomic status (SES).Background: At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first half of 2020, schools closed and children all around the world were sent home, providing a rare opportunity to study the association between family composition and children's educational performance.Method: This study uses an extraordinary large-scale dataset on learning growth in primary education combined with extensive family background information (Netherlands Cohort Study on Education [NCO]). Using a difference-in-differences design and school-fixed effects, the association between family composition and learning growth before and during the school closure was compared, while controlling for family SES.Results: We find that during the pandemic, the effect of family composition on learning growth increased. Children in single-parent families and children in large families suffered larger learning losses during the pandemic than children in two-parent families and small families. Firstborn children experienced slightly less learning loss during the pandemic.Conclusion: The results indicated that the effect of family composition increased during the first school closure, even after controlling for family SES.Implications: This study provides evidence of family composition effects net of family SES. This indicates that apart from family SES, family composition should be taken into account to identify students at risk of learning loss.

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effects of an active labor market program (ALMP) for higher educated workers in the Netherlands. The one-year program is characterized by six months of full-time IT retraining followed by a six-month internship. We estimate the effects of participating on earnings per month and working days per month. The results show significant lock-in effects during the program, lasting up to five months after program start. After this lock-in period, we find significant positive effects on earnings and working days. These positive effects remain significant until the end of the 36-month evaluation period. A conservative cost–benefit analysis based on the effects on earnings shows a return of 2.53% (95% CI 2.02–3.04%), which is low compared to the returns to education in the Netherlands of around 8%. We conclude that IT retraining has positive effects on the labor market outcomes of the participants yet relatively low returns.

Using a large dataset of around 500,000 students from about 1,900 schools, this paper shows the effect of two school closures and 1.5 years of the COVID-19 pandemic on standardized learning growth for mathematics, reading, and spelling in Dutch primary education. We find that the school closures have a negative effect on standardized learning growth, amounting to an annual average of 5.5 weeks of learning loss. When analyzing differential effects by socioeconomic status, parental education, household income, household structure, household size, and migration status, we find that the negative effect is larger for the more vulnerable students.

This study analyses the effects of group differentiation by students’ learning strategies of around 1200 students in 46 classes from eight secondary schools in the Netherlands. In an experimental setup with randomization at the class level, division of students over three groups per class (an instruction-independent group, an average group, and an instruction-dependent group) is based on learning strategies, measures using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). Each group is offered instruction fitting their own learning strategy. The results show that student performance is higher in classes where the differentiation was applied, and that these students score higher at some scales of the posttest of the questionnaire on motivation, metacognition and self-regulation. However, there are differences between classrooms from different teachers. Additional teacher questionnaires confirm the discrepancy in teacher attitudes towards the intervention.

We use a randomised experiment to study the effect of offering half of 556 freshman students a learning analytics dashboard and a weekly email with a link to their dashboard, on student behaviour in the online environment and final exam performance. The dashboard shows their online progress in the learning management systems, their predicted chance of passing, their predicted grade and their online intermediate performance compared with the total cohort. The email with dashboard access, as well as dashboard use, has positive effects on student behaviour in the online environment, but no effects are found on student performance in the final exam of the programming course. However, we do find differential effects by specialisation and student characteristics.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of an intervention of formative assessments with a clicker-based technology on anxiety and academic performance. We use a randomized experiment in physics education in one school in Dutch secondary education. For treated students the formative assessments are operationalized through quizzing at the end of each physics class, where clickers enable students to respond to questions. Control students do not receive these assessments and do not use clickers, but apart from that the classes they attend are similar. Findings from multilevel regressions indicate that the formative assessments significantly reduce anxiety in physics, and improve academic performance in physics in comparison with a traditional teaching. Furthermore, a mediation effect of anxiety in physics on academic performance is observed. In sum, this implies that an easily to implement technique of formative assessments can make students feel more at ease, which contributes to better educational performance. ispartof: RESEARCH IN SCIENCE EDUCATION vol:51 issue:SUPPL 1 pages:1-20 status: Published online

In het eerste jaar sinds de start van de COVID-19-crisis hebben scholen in het primair onderwijs tweemaal langdurig de deuren moeten sluiten: in de tweede helft van het schooljaar 2019/2020 en in de eerste helft van het schooljaar 2020/2021. In het tweede COVID-jaar werd de kerstvakantie in schooljaar 2021/2022 een week vervroegd. Daarnaast werden scholen geconfronteerd met lesuitval door afwezigheid van zowel leerlingen als leerkrachten.

In het eerste jaar sinds de start van de COVID-19 crisis hebben scholen in het primair onderwijs tweemaal langdurig de deuren moeten sluiten: in de tweede helft van het schooljaar 2019/2020 en in de eerste helft van het schooljaar 2020/2021. In het tweede COVID-jaar werd de kerstvakantie in schooljaar 2021/2022 een week vervroegd. Daarnaast werden scholen geconfronteerd met lesuitval door afwezigheid van zowel leerlingen als leerkrachten. Leerlingen hebben daarom ook in dit tweede COVID-jaar minder mogelijkheden gehad om fysiek les te krijgen en moesten navigeren in een onzekere situatie. Welke consequenties heeft dit voor de leergroei van leerlingen in het tweede COVID-jaar, en hoe verhoudt deze (vertraging in de) leergroei zich tot het eerste COVID-jaar?

In many countries, the quality of (large-scale quantitative) educational research is threatened by data challenges. In this article, we present an innovative data research project from the Netherlands in which many of the challenges that come forward in previous literature are addressed. The Netherlands Cohort Study on Education [in Dutch abbreviated as NCO (Nationaal Cohortonderzoek Onderwijs)] uses longitudinal register data on track placement of cohorts of pupils in primary and secondary education from Statistics Netherlands, which will be combined with school admin data on pupils’ performance and data from the major (inter)national surveys. NCO maps pupils’ pathways and performances through primary and secondary education and their trajectory into tertiary education. NCO so far covers more than 10 complete cohorts and is complemented with the newest data every year. These registers are made available at Statistics Netherlands. A major contribution of NCO is that data from school administrative systems and additional research projects are linked with administrative register data, thereby creating a unique data set that enriches not only research, but also policy and practice. This data brief elaborates on the possibilities of this database by exploring and following one of the cohorts over time.

In deze studie onderzoeken we of er tijdens de COVID-19-pandemie, en de hieruit voort-komende schoolsluitingen en onderwijs op afstand, een verandering heeft plaatsgevon-den in de niet-cognitieve vaardigheden van leerlingen in het voortgezet onderwijs en of dit verschilt tussen de aangeboden onderwijsty-pen in Nederland. Hiervoor maken we gebruik van data van de OnderwijsMonitor Limburg, en vergelijken we metingen in 2018 en maart 2020 (beide pre-COVID) met metingen direct na de eerste schoolsluiting (juni/juli 2020) en aan de start van het nieuwe schooljaar (sep-tember 2020). Met deze studie leveren we een bijdrage aan de schaarse literatuur over de relatie tussen de COVID-19-pandemie en niet-cognitieve vaardigheden van leerlingen. In de regressieanalyses met fixed-effects op schoolniveau, zien we voor vmbo-leerlingen (N=3025) weinig verschillen. De enige ver-schillen zijn een lagere gerapporteerde pres-tatiegerichtheid en vindingrijkheid en hoger doorzettingsvermogen tijdens de pandemie. Voor havo/vwo-leerlingen (N=4027) zien we di-rect na de eerste schoolsluiting, waarin men dacht dat het ergste achter de rug was, een opleving in de meeste niet-cognitieve vaardig-heden. Enkele maanden later, toen duidelijker werd dat het nog wel even zou duren, bleek het beeld beduidend negatiever. Havo/vwo-leerlingen rapporteren dan lager op school-motivatie, schoolhouding, schoolvertrouwen en sociale relaties met klasgenoten en leraren.

In this paper we study if feedback strategies during formative assessment with polling technology have an impact on learning gains. We conduct a randomized experiment in physics class in upper secondary education with the web-based polling system Socrative comparing three conditions. In the cooperative condition students receive a combination of peer discussion and teacher feedback, while in the individual condition they receive only teacher feedback. In the control condition students do not receive any feedback, from either teacher or peers. To measure what individuals learn from teacher feedback, whether or not combined with peer discussions, students in all three conditions individually answer paired isomorphic multiple-choice questions. Per question, we study the probability to answer the second isomorphic question correct and compare this between conditions The analyses show that teacher feedback, regardless of the peer discussions, positively affects learning gains in question pairs of the treatment conditions in comparison with the control condition. However, the cooperative condition shows that the largest learning gains occur when peer discussion is followed by teacher feedback. The findings provide insights into which feedback strategies affect learning gains in question pairs and are important for teachers when implementing feedback strategies during formative assessments.

After more than a year of COVID-19-crisis and the school closures that followed all around the world, the concerns about decreases in learning growth and exacerbated inequalities are larger than ever. The discussion in this policy paper is based on analyses with unique data that are used to show how one full year of COVID-19-crisis in Dutch primary education has affected learning growth and pre-existing inequalities. Underlying these analyses is a dataset that includes more than 30% of Dutch primary school students from about 1,900 schools, with standardized test scores for reading, spelling and mathematics, as well as rich (family) background information of the students. The data show a lower learning growth after one and a half year for reading and math, compared with similar periods before the COVID-19-crisis, and a small higher learning growth for spelling. Furthermore, the data show that the decreases in learning growth are (much) larger for students with low parental socioeconomic status or income, and for students from one-parent-households. Given that there already were pre-existing inequalities between these students, this implies that inequalities have increased since the COVID-19-crisis. Furthermore, although the difference in learning growth during the crisis compared with periods before the crisis has decreased for all three domains throughout the crisis, implying that schools and students have caught up, the inequalities between students due to the COVID-19-crisis have remained the same since the start of the crisis. These results are quite alarming and suggest that distance learning could not compensate for classroom teaching (although it probably prevented some damage that would have occurred if students had not enjoyed any education at all) and that it even increased inequalities between students. Several policy conclusions are derived from this.

This study is based on a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) which is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of two e-learning modalities for improving the school leaders’ leadership skills in Rwandan secondary schools. Rwandan secondary education experiences a wide range of educational challenges including large repetition rate and low transition rates from primary. Professional leadership training programmes intents to improve leadership skills of the existing and aspiring school leaders and play a pivotal role in improving school quality. In the RCT, we study a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) training programme for school leaders, delivered in an e-learning modality. Randomization into one of the two modalities took place at the sector level, in the first modality (the trainer-led group) trainees are guided by a trainer from the university of Rwanda - College of Education. In the other modality (the peer-led group) trainees were guided through different activities by their peers, with only occasional involvement of a trainer. The outcomes in the study measured before and after the training for school leaders include: (1) Barriers to e-learning (2) Job Satisfaction (3) Work tasks motivation (4) General self-efficacy (5) Motivation to learn (6) Instructional leadership (7) Transformational leadership (8) Leadership overall (9) Trust in school leaders (10) Distributed leadership. Additionally, teachers at these participating schools also received a questionnaire about their view on (6)-(10). Lastly, differences in performance in the examinations of the CPD program, differences in dropout and in participation in the e-learning modalities will be analysed as well. Baseline findings suggested that on average background characteristics and pre-intervention outcomes are very similar between the two intervention groups, both at the school leader level and at the teacher level. In the presentation preliminary results with respect to all outcome measures, which are collected mostly in October 2021, will be shown.

After more than a year of COVID-19 crisis and the school closures that followed all around the world, the concerns about lower learning growth and exacerbated inequalities are larger than ever. In this paper, we use unique data to analyse how one full year of COVID-19 crisis in Dutch primary education has affected learning growth and pre-existing inequalities. We draw on a dataset that includes around 330,000 Dutch primary school students from about 1,600 schools, with standardized test scores for reading, spelling and mathematics, as well as rich (family) background information of the students. The results show a lower learning growth over a full year for all three domains, varying from 0.06 standard deviations for spelling to 0.12 for maths and 0.17 standard deviations for reading. Furthermore, we find that the lower learning growth is (much) larger for vulnerable students with a low socioeconomic background. This implies that pre-existing inequalities between students from different backgrounds have increased. These results are quite alarming and suggest that distance learning could not compensate for classroom teaching, although it prevented some damage that would have occurred if students had not enjoyed any formal education at all.

In het afgelopen anderhalf jaar hebben scholen in het primair onderwijs twee keer de deuren moeten sluiten: in de tweede helft van het schooljaar 2019/2020 (half maart t/m half mei) en in de eerste helft van het schooljaar 2020/2021 (half december tot begin februari). Eerder heeft het NCO al gerapporteerd over de effecten van de eerste schoolsluiting voor reguliere basisscholen (zie Factsheet 1) en de effecten van de tweede schoolsluiting (zie Factsheet 5). Toen concludeerden we dat de gevolgen van een heel jaar waarin leerlingen minder mogelijkheden hadden om fysiek les te krijgen groot waren. De leergroei was bij alle drie de onderzochte domeinen vertraagd, vooral bij begrijpend lezen. Inmiddels zijn de resultaten bekend van de eindtoetsen (E-toetsen) die in mei/juni van het schooljaar 2020/2021 zijn afgenomen. Daarmee kunnen we de gevolgen in kaart brengen van anderhalf jaar waarin leerlingen minder mogelijkheden hebben gehad om fysiek les te krijgen. Heeft de vertraging die we na de eerste en tweede schoolsluiting hebben geconstateerd zich voortgezet of zijn scholen en leerlingen erin geslaagd om de vertraging (deels) in te halen?

Deze technische toelichting hoort bij de derde reeks factsheets die het NCO heeft uitgebracht in oktober 2021 over de leergroei in het primair onderwijs (PO) naar aanleiding van de COVID-19-crisis. In deze factsheets is gekeken naar de invloed van anderhalf jaar COVID-19-crisis (met twee perioden van schoolsluitingen naar aanleiding van de COVID-19-crisis) op de groei in vaardigheidsscores van leerlingen op drie domeinen: begrijpend lezen, spelling en rekenen-wiskunde.

In het afgelopen anderhalf jaar hebben scholen in het primair onderwijs twee keer de deuren moeten sluiten: in de tweede helft van het schooljaar 2019/2020 (half maart t/m half mei) en in de eerste helft van het schooljaar 2020/2021 (half december tot begin februari). Eerder heeft het NCO al gerapporteerd over de effecten van de eerste en de tweede schoolsluiting voor reguliere basisscholen op het moment van de middentoetsen (M-toets) van maart 2021 (zie Factsheets 3 en 7). Toen concludeerden we dat de gevolgen groot waren, maar ook dat scholen daarbij sterk verschillen. De vertraging in de leergroei was het sterkst bij scholen met relatief veel leerlingen uit lagere sociaaleconomische milieus, bij scholen die relatief klein zijn en bij scholen die eerder al een lagere leergroei lieten zien. Inmiddels zijn de resultaten bekend van de eindtoetsen (E-toets) die in mei/juni van het schooljaar 2020/2021 zijn afgenomen. Daarmee kunnen we de gevolgen in kaart brengen van anderhalf jaar waarin leerlingen minder mogelijkheden hebben gehad om fysiek les te krijgen. Zijn er nog steeds (grote) verschillen tussen scholen?

After more than one year of COVID-19-crisis and the school closures that followed, the concerns about decreased learning gain and inequality are larger than ever. In this paper we use unique data to analyse how one full year of COVID-19-crisis in Dutch primary education has affected learning gains and inequalities. We use a large dataset that includes around 450,000 Dutch primary students from about 1,600 schools, with standardized test scores for reading, spelling and mathematics, as well as rich (family) background information on the students. The results show a drop in learning gain over a full year for all three domains, varying from 0.08 standard deviations for spelling to 0.14 for math and 0.17 standard deviations for reading. Furthermore, we find that this drop in learning gain is (much) larger for children with low parental socioeconomic status and income, for children from one-parent-households, and for children with many siblings. This implies that the already existing inequalities between students from different backgrounds has increased. These results are quite alarming and suggest that although distance learning may have prevented even more damage, compared with no education at all, it could not compensate for classroom teaching.

This study investigates which subjects teachers talk about with parents in parent-teacher conferences and other contact moments, and how they communicate with regard to these subjects. Fifty-five in-depth interviews were carried out with teachers from special education schools, at-risk schools serving low socio-economic status children and mainstream primary education schools in the southern part of the Netherlands. The results illustrate that (1) two-way communication is used the most in at-risk schools, (2) teachers find it difficult to involve parents in the decision-making process concerning special care for the child, and (3) the teachers' attitude towards parents is best when it comes to difficult discussion topics. When situations are really difficult, teachers stand alongside the parents instead of addressing them from their expert role, asking them 'How can we solve this together?'. Teachers should be more aware of this quality, and not be afraid to address difficult subjects or conflicts.

The transition from primary to secondary school comes with changes in both the social- and the school context. This study focuses on assessing the concerns, expectations and experiences of 371 dutch children making the transition. Data have been collected during four years. Also the effect of information to the mentor at secondary school on the transition is assessed through a blinded experiment. Results show that some children are more vulnerable for a poor transition such as children at special education schools, anxious children, and to a lesser extent, girls. However the results do not show that children who informed their mentor made a better transition. The intervention only has a small effect on the social context.

In een recente brief aan het onderwijsveld stelt het Nationaal Programma Onderwijs (NPO) dat alle scholen in het basis- en voortgezet onderwijs een zomerprogramma moeten aanbieden aan hun leerlingen. Scholen kunnen dit zelfstandig of in onderlinge samenwerking verzorgen, maar er kunnen ook externe partners worden ingezet. In dit advies zetten we op een rij wat bekend is uit onderzoek naar de effectiviteit van zomerscholen en welke lessen hieruit getrokken kunnen worden. Dit advies is bedoeld voor schoolbesturen, schoolleiders en docenten die een zomerschool willen organiseren. Wat is tot nu toe bekend over de werking van zomerscholen?

Gedurende de tweede helft van het schooljaar 2019/20 is er een (gedeeltelijke) schoolsluiting geweest in het primair onderwijs vanwege de COVID-19-crisis. Wat is het gevolg geweest voor de leergroei bij leerlingen in het reguliere basisonderwijs? In dit factsheet belichten we enkele van de landelijke gevonden verschillen tussen scholen.

Gedurende de tweede helft van het schooljaar 2019/20 is er een (gedeeltelijke) schoolsluiting geweest in het primair onderwijs vanwege de COVID-19-crisis. Wat is hiervan het gevolg geweest voor de leergroei bij leerlingen in het reguliere basisonderwijs? In dit factsheet kijken we naar de landelijke gevolgen van de schoolsluiting voor verschillende groepen leerlingen.

Gedurende de tweede helft van het schooljaar 2019/20 is er een (gedeeltelijke) schoolsluiting geweest in het primair onderwijs vanwege de COVID-19-crisis. Dit heeft flinke gevolgen gehad voor de leergroei voor leerlingen in het reguliere basisonderwijs. Eerder1 lieten we zien dat de vertraging in leergroei bij leerlingen met een lage sociaaleconomische status (SES) ongeveer anderhalf keer zo hoog is als bij leerlingen met een hoge SES. Ook lieten we zien dat de vertraging in leergroei voor laagpresterende leerlingen ongeveer twee keer zo groot is als voor hoogpresterende leerlingen. In dit factsheet kijken we of de gevolgen van de schoolsluiting voor deze twee groepen leerlingen versterkt worden als ze ook op een school zitten met relatief veel lage-SES-leerlingen of relatief veel laagpresteerders. Voor de overzichtelijkheid kijken we daarbij uitsluitend naar de leergroei in de Cito-vaardigheidsscores bij rekenen-wiskunde

Hoe is de informatie in de factsheets opgebouwd? Hoe groot is de steekproef? Welke berekeningen en welke keuzes zijn gemaakt? Welke schattingsmethoden zijn gebruikt en welke robuustheidsanalyses zijn toegepast? En wanneer zijn bepaalde gegevens niet gebruikt? Dit vindt u allemaal uitgelegd in de technische toelichting

Empirical studies investigating the impact of private voucher schools on student outcomes have focused on a number of mechanisms, including productivity and competitive effects. Arguably, the possibility that these voucher schools may provide greater variety, in terms of education options or tracks remains an understudied area. This paper exploits the rapid expansion of private academic and vocational track schools in Sweden, to address this question. We uncover new evidence that the introduction of private voucher schools induced greater vocational education participation, and not simply a substitution of public for private vocational schools. In effect, private school penetration lead to a switch away from academic tracks, including both science and social science, in favour of vocational options. We then ask what impact inducing greater participation in vocational education had on short- and medium-term outcomes, including GPA, on-time graduation from high school, university participation and field of study at university. We discuss other possible mechanisms, including changes in peer and teacher quality.

This paper provides new evidence on the effect of computerized individualized practice and instruction on language skills, more specifically on spelling. An individually randomized experiment among 7th grade students in the Netherlands is developed to study the effect of an adaptive digital homework tool on spelling performance. Using an instrumental variable approach to control for actual use of the digital tool, we show that there are small positive effects of practicing with an adaptive digital tool for spelling for 7th grade students. Effects are largest for low-performing students.