Basisschoolleerkrachten Over Referentieniveaus

To improve student performance, standards have been introduced in educational policy in the Netherlands and abroad. Performance standards are related to effective educational practices like holding high expectations and using formative assessment, both of which are aspects of diagnostic teaching. An educational policy measure like performance standards will only have an effect when teachers are willing and able to implement it. This study explores primary school teachers' attitudes, concerns and knowledge of performance standards and diagnostic teaching through in-depth interviews (N=9) and a questionnaire survey (N=793). Teachers appear to be relatively unfamiliar with performance standards. Nevertheless, they expect standards will positively influence their daily practice and student performance. They do express concerns about the potential effect of performance standards on weaker students. Teachers fear that the basic level will be too difficult for weaker students and the lowest performance standard will therefore be impossible to reach. Currently, teachers often do not discuss with their colleagues which performance levels they expect from different groups of students. Performance standards may stimulate these discussions on learning goals.