School students book ‘disappointing’ results in math and reading

“Results in reading and math tests are disappointing, as are other research.” This can be read in the press release from the Educational Association of Towns and Towns (OVSG), the umbrella organization for urban and municipal education.

Relates to the results of the OVSG test. This is the test that the 6th year urban and municipal primary school students take and GO! take every year.

The exam consists of two parts: Throughout the year there are all kinds of practical exams. At the end of the school year, there is a real test for five subjects: Dutch, Mathematics, Science and Technology, People and Society, and French. It is the latter that stands out in particular. On average, students score 63.2 percent in “reading” (72.9 percent for Dutch). For math, the total is 63.9 percent. The lowest score is for the ‘measurement’ component: the average student achieves 56.8 percent.

“We would like these numbers to be a little higher,” says Waltina Coles, general manager of OVSG. “If we are to lay the foundations in mathematics and the Dutch language, we hope to strengthen them in time. We must have the ambition to at least want to go to seven out of ten.”

The disappointing results are in line with previous studies, both internationally (PIRLS and TIMSS) and nationally (assessment tests that examine whether students are achieving achievement goals in subjects). “In recent years, all of these studies have already given rather low results for pupils in primary education,” says Rianne Janssen (KU Leuven), who co-directs the Center for Policy Research for Testing and Evaluation Development (STEP). So confirmed Mathematics survey tests This trend recently: In 6 of the 21 tests conducted for this purpose, half or less than half met the minimum goals. In general, the achieved result was lower than in 2016 and 2009.

Flemish keys

In order to do something about the results, OVSG has allowed schools to compare themselves to other schools with roughly the same number of students.

Two hundred schools wanting to dig into the numbers asked for a so-called “school feedback report.” Together with the educational guidance service of the university institution, they will have to work on this. “This is really custom work,” says Coles. “We look at the situation at school by school and for each particular area we look at what is going wrong and how we can help the teachers.”

In fact, this is in line with what Flemish Education Minister Ben Wittes (N-VA) wants to do Flemish keys: every student Four times in his school career Math and Dutch tests and pass the information on to schools so they can improve it.

OVSG is there but a cold lover† The omnibus organization now points out two things: that they are already doing it themselves through these tests, moreover, for more than just Dutch language and mathematics. They use these results to highlight this.

A total of 25,788 students participated in the test. Public schools can decide for themselves whether to participate. In urban and municipal education, 94 percent of schools did so. Also 91 percent of primary schools are on the GO! Share. going! He is still studying the results and cannot comment.