Proud to be tvmbo - Kortlopend Onderwijsonderzoek

alization in education. One of the schools, Anna van Rijn College in Nieuwegein,
which started tvmbo in 2010-2011 and which at present chairs the network of tvmbo
schools, invited Utrecht University to carry out this research project on its behalf.
1.5.1 Tvmbo quality ‘standard’
The tvmbo quality standard can be found in Dutch in Appendix 1: Standaard Europees
Platform tweetalig vmbo. This quality standard has been created by a network of
tvmbo departments in partnership with the European Platform, and serves as a benchmark
for bilingual vmbo schools. In the future, it will be used during inspection visits
to see if tvmbo departments are up to standard. For non-Dutch readers, some highlights
of the standard are presented here.
The standard requires the following:
A. Results
• The results for English: at the end of the fourth year of tvmbo should be reached
as indicated in Table 1.1.
• The results for Dutch and other school subjects at the end of tvmbo have to be at
least as good nationally for comparable students not doing bilingual education.
• Students have achieved the kerndoelen (curriculum aims) for internationalisation
and have done a number of internationalisation projects (e.g. exchange, international
ICT project).
B. Education
• At least 30% of contact time is in English and at least as much attention is paid to
Dutch as to English.
• At least two content subjects must be taught in English.
• The school has at least one native speaker teacher on its staff.
• The teachers working in tvmbo have at least level B2 in English on the Common
European Framework of Reference for languages (Council of Europe, 2009).
• Attention is paid to language in content lessons.
• Authentic material in English is used.
• There is a lot of attention paid to internationalization, e.g. in policy documents, the
curriculum and projects for students.
• Attention is paid to vocational aspects of learning in English.
• Teachers should have CLIL skills.
C. Quality
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