79949 Netherlands SABER Country Report SCHOOL AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY 2012 Policy Goals Status 1. School Autonomy in Budget Planning and Approval Government funding for primary schools flows through the School Boards and municipal governments. School Boards manage the budget. Secondary schools receive a block grant based on per-student expenditures and each school has autonomy over the use of the resources. 2. School Autonomy in Personnel Management School Boards can hire and fire teachers. In primary schools the School Board uses national guidelines for teacher salaries. In secondary schools the School Board negotiates salaries directly with prospective teachers and manages teacher contracts. 3. Participation of the School Council in School Governance Parents participate through Parent Councils and the Participation Council. The Participation Council has the right to give advice or consent and to submit proposals to the School Board. Direct parent participation on a broader level is through the Parent Council, which advises the parent representatives in the participation council and coordinates parent activities. 4. Assessment of School and Student Performance There is a system for assessing students with standardized tests, complemented with a complex system of individual assessments. All schools monitor student test results, report marks, progress reports and records of conversations with parents. An Education Inspectorate assesses the quality of classroom teaching and overall quality of instruction, reporting results to the Ministry of Education and to Parliament. 5. School Accountability School performance is evaluated by the School Board, which reports to the Board of Governors. Both the Board of Governors and the School Board receive inputs from parents to resolve pending issues. Responsibility for resolving the issues falls on the School Board and on the Board of Governors. The School Board must report to the Participation Council on all policy and financial decisions. THE WORLD BANK NETHERLANDS ǀ SCHOOL AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2012 Education in the Netherlands government. Every school—public or private—reports to its School Board, which can oversee one or more Education in the Netherlands is highly decentralized. schools depending on its mandate. While education policy is the sole responsibility of the Ministry of Education, School Boards are responsible for Education quality and equity are the main education delivery. The entire organization of the school system is policy goals. The Compulsory Education Amendment of based on checks and balances to ensure accountability. 2007, and the Good Education and Good Governance Bill of 2008, help ensure that every child must finish Budgetary autonomy is Established. The School Board secondary school and acquire a skill set, and that every controls the school budget, with input from parents. school must provide a good quality education to remain Personnel management is Established. Salaries are in operation. The Dutch constitution gives people the relatively fixed by civil service rules at the primary right to found schools based on religious, ideological or school level, but completely negotiable at the educational beliefs. Public schools provide education to secondary school level. The School Board controls the anyone and are subject to public law, while private hiring and firing of teachers and principals. Participation schools provide education to children that adhere to of parents in school governance is Established. There is their religious or ideological principles and are subject an accountability system comprised of different to private law. Both receive equal public funding. The supervisory institutions where parents are formally structure of the Dutch education system is displayed in represented. School and student assessment is Table 1. Advanced. Schools are inspected regularly and students are assessed yearly. The respective results of these Table 1: School system structure evaluations are easily available to the public and to parents. Standardized student assessments are complemented by a highly personalized system of Age Grade Level of Education individual evaluation. Schools use the evaluations to adjust their program to student needs on a regular 3-5 Pre-School Pre-Primary basis. School accountability is Established. There is a bureaucratic and orderly procedure for school 6-12 1-6 Primary accountability where parents are represented formally. Lower 13-15 7-9 Secondary The cornerstone of Dutch education is school choice. Vocational and The Constitution guarantees freedom of education, Upper technical which allows the formation of all kinds of schools of 16-18 10-12 Secondary secondary different political, pedagogical, and religious affiliations. education The only requirement is that any new school must meet Vocational and the basic curricular requirements and that they report 18-21 13-15 technical tertiary to a School Board, which is the legal manager or owner education of the school, not a public body. The School Board is the Undergraduate main stakeholder at the school level, with the 18-22 13-16 degree responsibility for school operations and school performance. All School Boards report to a Board of Graduate 22+ 17+ Governors, and in turn the Board of Governors report to studies Source: OECD the Government. In the last 30 years there has been a gradual move towards more parent-teacher interaction, The net enrollment rate for secondary school is 91 and parents have begun to participate in the Advisory percent and the transition rate from primary to Council to the School Board in every school. In similar secondary schools is 98.1 percent (Table 2). fashion there is a parent Advisory Council to the Board of Governors. About 70 percent of the schools in The Netherlands are private and subsidized by the 1 SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS NETHERLANDS ǀ SCHOOL AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2012 Table 2: Selected education indicators, 2010 partnerships with parents and the community. More local control helps create better conditions for Public expenditure on education: improving student learning in a sustainable way, since it As % of GDP (2008) 5.8 gives teachers and parents more opportunities for As % of central government expenditure 14.8 developing common goals, increases mutual (2008) commitment to student learning, and leads to a more Distribution of public expenditure per level (%) - efficient use of scarce school resources. By allowing 2009 more local control over school operations, school Pre-primary 7 autonomy and accountability fosters a new social Primary 24 contract between parents and teachers by improving Secondary 40 communication and increasing local cooperation and Tertiary 29 local accountability. To be effective, school autonomy Pupil/Teacher ratio in Primary 18 must function within a compatible set of incentives that Percentage of repeaters in Primary 2 take into account the education policies in the country, Primary to secondary transition rate, 2007 98.1 and the incentives for their implementation. Moreover, Source: Ministry of Education 2012 having the managerial responsibilities at the school level automatically implies that the school also has to The Case for School Autonomy and School be accountable to its local stakeholders and to national Accountability and local authorities. The empirical evidence from education systems where schools enjoy managerial School autonomy and accountability are key autonomy shows that it has been beneficial for components to ensure education quality. The transfer restoring the social contract between parents and the of core managerial responsibilities to schools promotes school and that it has been instrumental in setting in local accountability, helps reflect local priorities, values, motion policies aimed at improving student learning. and needs, and gives teachers the opportunity to establish a personal commitment to students and their The experience from high performing countries, as parents (Figure 1). Benchmarking and monitoring the measured by their performance in international tests indicators of school autonomy and accountability allows such as PISA, indicates that: The Netherlands for a rapid assessment of its education • Education systems where schools had more system, setting the stage for improving policy planning autonomy over teaching content and student and implementation. assessment tended to perform better on the PISA test; • Education systems where schools have more autonomy over resource allocation and that also publish test results performed better than schools with less autonomy; • Education systems in which many schools competed for students did not systematically get better PISA results; • Education systems with standardized student assessment tended to do better than those without standardized student assessment; and • PISA scores among schools with students from different social backgrounds differed less in Source: Arcia, et al. 2011 education systems that use standardized student assessments than in systems that did School autonomy is a form of education not. decentralization in which school personnel are in charge of making most managerial decisions, frequently in 2 SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS NETHERLANDS ǀ SCHOOL AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2012 As of now, the empirical evidence from countries that School autonomy in budget planning and have implemented school autonomy suggests that approval is Established there is a set of policies and practices that are more Schools are funded almost entirely by the central effective in fostering managerial autonomy, the government through the Board of Governors. At each assessment of results, and the use of the assessment to educational level all schools receive a grant per student, promote accountability. Benchmarking policy intent for which, if inadequate, has to be supplemented with these variables can be very useful to any country municipal funds. Equity for disadvantaged groups is interested in improving education system performance handled by compensatory financing to disadvantaged (Arcia, et al. 2011). families, and by additional funding directed to education priority zones. Budget supervision falls under Netherland’s Performance: A Summary of the jurisdiction of the School Board, and the school Results from the Benchmarking Exercise director is in charge of school operations. There are five indicators of school autonomy and accountability that can help benchmark an education Primary and secondary school is free of charge. For system’s policies that enable school autonomy and primary schools, funds flow indirectly from the Ministry accountability: of Education through the municipal governments. Additional sources of funding include parent 1. School autonomy in budget planning and contributions, additional municipal funding for special approval; projects and other activities. 2. School autonomy in personnel management; 3. The participation of the school council in Secondary schools receive a block grant based on per- school finance; student expenditures. However, schools decide how to 4. The assessment of school and student spend the block grant, including salaries for teachers performance; and and school staff. Although teacher salaries in primary 5. School accountability to stakeholders schools are guided by national standards, secondary schools can negotiate teacher salaries at the school Each of these indicators has a set of sub-indicators that level. Secondary schools, although free of charge, may make it possible to judge how far along an education collect additional funds for field trips, special projects, system’s policies are in enabling school autonomy and supplementary pedagogical materials, and accountability. Each indicator and sub-indicator is transportation to and from school. scored on the basis of its status and the results classified as Latent, Emerging, Established, or Advanced: Latent Emerging Established Advanced     Reflects Reflects Reflects good Reflects limited some good practice, with international engagement practice some best practice limitations A Latent score reflects a limited engagement in education policy; an Emerging score indicates that the policy in place reflects some good practice; an Established score indicates that the program or policy reflects good practice but there may be some limitations in its content or scope, and an Advanced score indicates that the program or policy reflects best practice and it can be considered on par with international standards. 3 SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS NETHERLANDS ǀ SCHOOL AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2012 Legal authority over management of the School autonomy in personnel management is operational budget is Established Established Indicator Score Justification Indicator Score Justification School funding is based School autonomy School Boards manage on a centrally in teacher the hiring and firing of controlled funding Advanced appointment and teachers.  formula. Any additional deployment School funding must be met decisions autonomy in locally, which may School Boards are the planning bring out problems of responsible for and Established financial equity in a personnel management. management  School Council’s highly decentralized Established Parents may participate of the school role in teacher system. Secondary  through the Participation budget tenure or transfer Schools have Council, but this degree operational autonomy of participation is not in the management of common. their block grants. School Boards are Legal authority The School Boards in responsible for the hiring over the secondary schools may and firing of principals. management negotiate teacher Autonomy in the Advanced Parents generally do not Established hiring and firing of non- salaries. Primary school  participate in the process  of principals teaching staff salaries are set by because it seems to work and teacher's national standards. well under the current salaries system. School Boards allow Legal authority parents to contribute to raise Emerging additional funds, but Participation of the School Council in school additional funds for the  parent participation on governance is Established the supervision of such school There are 1,200 School Boards overseeing the primary funds is limited. school level. About 600 School Boards oversee only one School autonomy in personnel management is school; this group covers 7 percent of the primary Established student population. Each of the other 600 School Boards oversee between 30 to 50 schools, with about Attracting good teachers has become a problem 2,000 students per school. School Board members because of an aging population. One of the big issues in usually include parents and representatives of the local education is the new demographic profile of the community. School Boards overseeing large numbers of Netherlands, in which the proportion of the elderly in schools are professional boards, with board members the population has increased, increasing the demand being paid for their services. The Board of Supervisors for social services. Another problem is that older hires professional board members; this board is a teachers are the majority, and those teachers cannot be private independent body with an advisory role to the replaced quickly because of the shortage of young Ministry of Education. Membership in the Board of teachers. Also, teacher evaluation was not customary, Supervisors is by invitation, following specific selection which precludes the firing of bad teachers since there rules. The Board of Supervisors, which is entirely are no records of bad performance. Finally, teaching is composed of private citizens, appoints a Board of not considered an attractive alternative to young Governors, which is composed of hired, professional, people. School Boards use national guidelines to paid staff accountable to the national government for manage teacher salaries at the primary level. For the performance of the education system. The Board of secondary schools the School Board manages teacher Governors is the overseeing body of all schools boards appointments and dismissals, as well as salaries. The in the country, using the education budget as a tool for School Board negotiates salaries directly with compliance and accountability. Participation in school prospective teachers and manages teacher contracts. 4 SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS NETHERLANDS ǀ SCHOOL AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2012 management by parents and pupils at primary, Measurement (CITO) developed the attainment tests secondary, adult and vocational education levels is for pupils in year 8, which schools can use to compare regulated by the Education Participation Act 1992, their results with other schools. Nearly 85 percent of which requires all schools to have a Participation primary schools use the Institute’s standardized test. Council with a minimum of six members. The The Institute has also developed a pupil monitoring Participation Council has the right to give advice or system that is used by nearly all schools to tailor their consent and to submit proposals to the School Board. teaching to individual student needs. All schools keep Direct parent participation on a broader level is through files on their pupils, which are used to store test results, the Parents’ Council, which advises the parent report marks, and record the results of special studies, representatives in the Participation Council and progress reports and records of conversations with coordinates parent activities (OECD 2009). parents. The files sometimes contain information about a pupils’ social and emotional development, their level Participation of the School Council in School Governance is of motivation and any special language approach used. Established Indicator Score Justification Primary school students are not generally held back The central government because of the test results, but in secondary schools uses a funding formula for students who fail the exam may repeat one year. The Participation of per-student allocations Education Inspectorate assesses teachers and schools. the School Emerging using a funding formula. Classroom visits and a review of compliance with Council in budget  The School Board prepares education policies at the school level are the two main preparation school-level budgets with feedback from school mechanisms for ensuring education quality. In addition, principals. the Inspectorate is in charge of reviewing the quality of The Participation Council the grade-leaving exams. Schools that show problems School Council's has to approve the school with education quality are inspected more often. On authority to Advanced budget. Each school’s average, about five percent of schools are in need of approve the  Parent Council voices their improvement. Over the years, the Netherlands has school budget opinion to the Participation implemented a series of cohort surveys that use Council. standardized tests to assess learning. Schools Manual for the The School Participation participating in the survey receive school level results participation of Act details the role of the and analysis of their performance. Advanced the School Participation Councils in  Councils in school finance. school finances Budgets are implemented Role of the without parent supervision School Council in Emerging or participation. The School budget  Board may include a parent implementation representative. Use of the The Participation Council budget prepared must certify the approved Advanced with the School school budget.  Council's participation Assessment of school and student performance is Advanced Schools began measuring teacher and student performance in 1990, reporting the results to their respective School Boards and to the Board of Governors. The National Institute for Educational 5 SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS NETHERLANDS ǀ SCHOOL AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2012 School and student assessment is Advanced discrepancies between the School Board and the Indicator Score Justification Participation Council. Existence and Standardized testing is frequency of Advanced done yearly and schools School accountability is Established school and student  have an elaborate system Indicator Score Justification assessments for evaluating students. Guidelines for All schools have Schools devise their own the use of school guidelines for using assessments and make and student student assessments. Advanced Use of school results easily accessible assessments by  assessments for Advanced to parents and the public. the School making school  Schools use the results to Council adjustments make pedagogical, There is a national personnel, and strategy for the use of operational adjustments. National or the assessment results. Sample-based regional systems Advanced The principles guiding standardized testing is of educational  school and student done every year. Student assessments Frequency of evaluation are readily assessments by all available online. standardized Advanced schools are done Schools can make their student  regularly, with the Comparisons of own comparisons with assessments frequency of the school and other schools and with assessment dependent Established student previous years. More on its complexity.  performance detailed comparisons The analyses of student reports are not regularly assessments are available. Use of student accessible to parents. School Councils are assessments for Advanced Schools regularly use the involved in budgetary pedagogical and  information to make issues through the personnel pedagogical, personnel, School Board adjustments and operational representative of the adjustments. School Council Participation Council. Both school and student authority to Established Publication of Parents have access to Advanced assessments are made perform financial  school and student detailed financial reports  public and are available audits assessments of their schools. online. Financial accountability is done within the municipal government’s School accountability to stakeholders is normal procedures. Established School performance is evaluated by the School Board, which reports to the Board of Governors. Both the Enhancing education quality: Lessons Board of Governors and the School Board receive inputs from the Netherlands from parents to resolve pending issues. Responsibility Netherlands has one of the most decentralized for resolving the issues fall on the School Board and on education systems in the world. School choice is the the Board of Governors. The School Board must give cornerstone of its educational strategy and its accounts to the Participation Council on all policy and outcomes have kept the Netherlands as one of the high financial decisions. The Board is also obligated to give performing countries in the world, as evidenced by their information at the request of the Participation Council. PISA scores in 2009. The main lesson to be drawn from Any important decision at the school level must have the Dutch education system is that high educational the approval of the Participation Council. This includes performance is possible in a highly diverse decisions on curriculum, operations, school planning or environment. Diversity in the religious affiliation of special projects. An external body must mediate any 6 SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS NETHERLANDS ǀ SCHOOL AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2012 schools, on the ethnicity of students, and on the reporting of results to the Ministry of Education, to interest of local communities is embraced by the Parliament, parents, and society in general. system, which relies on an efficient mechanism of school inspections, student assessments, and the Acknowledgements Gustavo Arcia, Consultant, and Harry Patrinos, Manager, Education, World Bank, wrote this report. References Arcia, Gustavo, Harry Anthony Patrinos, Emilio Porta, Eurydice European Unit (EURYDICE). 2007. School and Kevin Macdonald. 2011. “School Autonomy and Autonomy in Europe. Policies and Measures. Brussels: Accountability in Context: Application of Benchmarking European Commission. Indicators in Selected European Countries.” Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER). Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science. 2012. Key Washington DC: Human Development Network, World Figures 2007-2011 Education, Culture, and Science. The Bank, Washington D.C. Hague. Retrieved September 7, 2012 from http://www.government.nl/ministries/ocw/documents- Arcia, Gustavo, Kevin Macdonald, Harry Anthony and-publications/reports/2012/07/24/key-figures-2007- Patrinos, and Emilio Porta. 2011. “School Autonomy and 2011.html Accountability.” Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER). Washington DC: Human Development Organization for Economic Cooperation and Network, World Bank, Washington D.C. Development (OECD). 2008. Education at a Glance. OECD Indicators. Paris. de Vijlder, Frans. 2001. “Choice and Financing of Schools in The Netherlands.” Max Goote Expert Center, Ritzen, Josef M. M., Jan van Domelen, and Frans J. de University of Amsterdam. Vijlder. 1997. “School Finance and School Choice in The Netherlands.” Economics of Education Review 16(3): European Commission, Education Audiovisual & Culture 329-335. Executive Agency, EURYDICE. 2009. Organisation of the Education System in The Netherlands 2008-2009. Brussels, Belgium. 7 SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS NETHERLANDS ǀ SCHOOL AUTONOMY AND ACCOUNTABILITY SABER COUNTRY REPORT |2012 www.worldbank.org/education/saber The Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) initiative produces comparative data and knowledge on education policies and institutions, with the aim of helping countries systematically strengthen their education systems. SABER evaluates the quality of education policies against evidence-based global standards, using new diagnostic tools and detailed policy data. The SABER country reports give all parties with a stake in educational results—from administrators, teachers, and parents to policymakers and business people—an accessible, objective snapshot showing how well the policies of their country's education system are oriented toward ensuring that all children and youth learn. This report focuses specifically on policies in the area of School Autonomy and Accountability. This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank with external contributions. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. THE WORLD BANK 2 SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR BETTER EDUCATION RESULTS