Student group differences in examination results and utilization for policy and school development

Abstract

At the end of secondary education in The Netherlands, students have to pass a final examination, consisting of an internal school-based assessment and an external national assessment. According to the Dutch inspectorate, to ensure the quality of final examinations, the discrepancy between both assessments must be less than 0.5 points (on a scale from 1 to 10). In the first part of this study, we demonstrate that these examination results are a rich source of data schools can use. We investigated the discrepancy between school and central examination grades for different groups of students and found that the discrepancies for some student groups are too high. The second part of this study focuses on the use of examination results as an important source of data in improvement planning. The results show that final examination results are underutilized and that schools rarely investigate discrepancies for certain student groups.

The effects of a technology-aided learning environment on the improvement of a primary special education school

“…These better and positive changes all might imply that the project ALİS facilitated and increased the students' learning and personal development. These findings, therefore, might imply that the project ALİS contributed to the improvement process of the school and are congruent with the relevant literature, as Schildkamp et al (2012) claim that student success should enhanced real school development.…”

Data-based decision making for teacher and student learning: a psychological perspective on the role of the teacher

“…The literature shows that if teachers do not believe that data use can lead to improvement and instead rely on their experiences and intuition, and do not believe that data can actually reflect on their teaching, this can hinder the implementation of data use in schools (Datnow, Park, & Kennedy-Lewis, 2012;Hubbard, Datnow, & Pruyn, 2014;Schildkamp & Kuiper, 2010;Schildkamp, Rekers-Mombarg, & Harms, 2012;Schildkamp & Visscher, 2010;Wayman, Cho, Jimerson, & Spikes, 2012). However, if teachers believe in the utility of data use and the resulting improvement in the quality of their practice, this may enhance data use (Jimerson, 2014;Kerr, Marsh, Ikemoto, Darilek, & Barney, 2006;Schildkamp et al, 2012Schildkamp et al, , 2014Schildkamp & Visscher, 2009van der Kleij & Eggen, 2013;Vanhoof, Verhaeghe, Van Petegem, & Valcke, 2012;Yan & Cheng, 2015).…”

“…Teachers need to view data use as related to their classroom activities and their instruction, instead of as a compliance activity independent of their classroom actions. On the other hand, studies found that social pressure by means of encouragement by the principal positively influenced data use (Schildkamp & Kuiper, 2010;Schildkamp & Teddlie, 2008;Schildkamp & Visscher, 2010;Schildkamp et al, 2012).…”

“…The degree to which teachers feel that they have autonomy to make decisions is related to actual data use. Therefore, teachers need to feel that they have enough autonomy to make changes in instruction and the curriculum based on data (Kerr et al, 2006;Schildkamp & Kuiper, 2010;Schildkamp & Teddlie, 2008;Schildkamp & Visscher, 2009;Schildkamp et al, 2012). Kerr et al (2006), for example, found that perceived pressure to stay on pace can hinder data use, because it had the consequence that teachers followed the curriculum instead of the data.…”

Informatiegebruik in verantwoordingsgerichte en schoolontwikkelingsgerichte onderwijssystemen: een Nederlands-Vlaams perspectief

“…Ook deze doelen kunnen voortvloeien vanuit een verantwoordingsperspectief, zoals het gebruik van informatie om leerkrachten ter verantwoording te stellen voor de onderwijskwaliteit op school of om de schoolkwaliteit te verantwoorden ten opzichte van de onderwijsinspectie (Coburn & Talbert, 2006;Schildkamp & Kuyper, 2010;Wayman & Stringfield, 2006), of vanuit een schoolontwikkelingsperspectief, zoals het gebruik van informatie om de schoolkwaliteit te monitoren, verbeteracties voorop te stellen of voor beleidsontwikkeling en -planning (Coburn & Talbert, 2006;Schildkamp & Kuyper, 2010;Schildkamp, Rekers-Mombarg, & Harms, 2012).…”