Dutch school advice differs weirdly

Interesting. Just came along an article from April 15th about the advice primary school teachers give. It seems that the advice between pupils in primary education (on different schools) can pretty vary. With that, there's no difference in the pupil himself. Read the article here (only in Dutch).

So, when you're going to school X as a kid, it can happen that your secondary education starts way lower than when your parents decided to put you on school Y. Weird huh? The Inspection of the Education is at the moment researching why that is. Trouw (Dutch newspaper) says that in the four largest cities, the pupils most get a higher advice than is usual. 

Nu.nl (Dutch news website) reports that teachers are put under pressure by highly educated parents to give their kids higher advises.. Well. I've heard some things now, and I can say the news is actually based on the reality. I don't say it's a good case though! 

Finding more schools

Yup, it isn't over yet! The interviews are still going on! I dó have 3 schools already, but it is still 50% of my goal! I've trouble at the moment finding schools who will participate. I dó have schools that can participate: I only don't know yet if they're willing to help me out. That's first thing tomorrow! Really! I promise! Why is it so difficult to just call and ask...? Emailing is far easier than calling people, but with lack of response I cannot relate to that any longer. I have to call them! All interviews need to be held before the month of July. So, calling schools. Will it be a problem? I'm finding out tomorrow :)

Interviews part 2

The pressure I felt 2 weeks ago is slowly going away. Back then, I only had a couple of email addresses and school telephone numbers obtained from the schools' websites. Now, 2 weeks later, I'm 7 interviews later and have already planned 4 more. The interviews are going well; the more I do the better I'm aware of what I should now and ask the person, and where to intervene.

Although, working it out does cost a lot of time. That's why I didn't post yesterday. Normally I would prepare a post on the Sunday before, but this time I was working out the interviews of previous week. This week I've planned 6 interviews, and have to contact another school, for I've only interviews on 3 schools yet. I really would like to obtain 6 schools for my interview. Mainly because per school it seems impossible to speak to 6 different persons - I've had two cancellations (both women actually). They argued that when I spoke to person x, there would be no need to speak to her also.. And the other argument is that they are really busy with exams and stuff.

So, I will keep this post short, for I have to work out 2 interviews now and have another at 4pm today.

Interviews!

Sorry for the delay: I've been on a one day tour yesterday and it was fun!

Finally things are happening. The last week I've been busy mainly with mailing schools and persons who can be interviewed. One school told me they only took requests from former students, so I could cancel that one.  It got me a bit nervous.. the first school I approached said 'no'. Luckily, I found another school in the area that fulfilled all necessary preconditions. A school that indeed wanted to help out! I have had one interview yet, and planned 2. My goal is to speak to four or six employees per school location. 

Another school also want to help out, so I've planned 2 interviews there also. Besides that, it is really time consuming to wait for a reaction, when you don't have a telephone number. Or, when people misread their own appointments and have to change the schedule. 

There is a lot to do actually: I need to type out the interviews I had, and that is really time consuming. I think I can upgrade my notes a bit more than I do now, that will save me time... 

For the research proposal: no reactions yet. I send another mail to the teacher asking him if the mail was sent right. Within 10 minutes I got his reaction that he will look into it soon.. Well, my interview appointments are more fixed than this promise.. I shall see, until then I will be busy with performing my research!

Interview questions

And I'm moving on! Last week I've handed over the research proposal, so hopefully that will be the last thing  you hear about it :) Last week, I've worked very hard on the interview questions, which are ready by now! I'm sending them to my mentor today so he can take a look at it.

The questions for the interviews exist out of general information, student placement (accept students, differences between students and their possible consequences, the transfer from the primary to the secondary education) and student counseling (assistance in their learning process, student tracking, care guidance and education).

This week I will call the schools and plan interviews with empoyees there! The schools I've chosen are schools in the area, which are located in cities and exist of VMBO (the theoretical learning route) Havo, Atheneum and Gymnasium in one. There have been some problems with those locations: there are not many of them: only 6 schools have all those preconditions. So that's why I will visit 6 schools. I will speak to more than one person in a school though, when it is possible.

Variables come to life

In my previous post I told you about the variables that I'm going to use. The picture beneath actually looks like what I'm intending to find out with my research!

Although it is in Dutch, it is easy to follow: In the Netherlands, students are put in one of three levels at the age of 12. These differences in education give smart and less intelligent students the chance to work on their own level.  That's the VMBO (4 years), the Havo (5 years) and the VWO (6 years). After that, tertiary education can be followed. First, there can be (if the school chose to do so) 'doubled' classes, in which VMBO/Havo and Havo/VWO are mixed. In that way, students who were labelled VMBO have the chance to prove themselves and work up to Havo when they're able to.

What this picture want us to show, is that between the several streams like Havo and VMBO is in the higher years also a stream from left to right. That means that some pupils (6% of the VMBO students in this case) are good enough to follow education on the Havo (after their VMBO diploma).
The red arrow is a problematic one, all those percentages are students who drop out.
The dark blue shows the percentage of graduates.

The picture comes from a research of the education, culture and science ministry (find HERE in Dutch) that did research to the arrows shown above. My research will look into the 'why' beneath it: why are students held back? Or drop out? I'm hoping to find out in the interviews!

Final research proposal

It's kind of easy actually. I was way thinking too much and wanting too much. The elements I've chosen for my research are that big that only a group of researchers which spend years on it can accomplish it. Well, I'm not trying to do that, so I've cut in my research variables. It really clears the air, for I can see the path again :)

First, I've had to let go of some very interesting variables namely giftedness and under achieving. These elements will pass by, but only as a really small piece and not as a main variable.

And, finally my (I'm afraid to call it definitive, but it is actually definitive) main research question:

''In what way does the placement policy of secondary schools, in the field of determination and student counseling, affect the throughput of students?''
(In Dutch: ''Op welke wijze heeft het schoolbeleid op het gebied van determinatie en leerlingbegeleiding invloed op de doorstroom van leerlingen?'')

In which throughput stands for the numbers of: grade retention, demotion (and up-promotion to another higher school level) and drop out.

So, the dependable variables are: grade retention, demotion and drop out.
The independable variables are: placement policy and student counseling.

I expect to finish the final research proposal in a couple of days!