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Dutch secondary education counsellors and tutors guide students in their study profile choices. Case studies were used to identify factors that characterise profile recommendations. In Case Study 1, vignette (fictitious) students asked for advice. Of the 12 participants, eight provided product advice (study profiles) and 12 provided process advice (important factors), mainly relating to students' interests. In Case Study 2, vignette students wanted to choose between a profile for which they had better marks, or one in which they were more interested. Of the 19 participants, 12 recommended study profiles. All participants provided process recommendations: these mainly involved interests, but also marks. In both case studies, recommendations were not characterised by students' SES, and a few were somewhat characterised by gender.

Success for All, a multi-tiered school reform program, has its origins in the US and has recently expanded to the Netherlands. Using a multiple case study approach, we investigated similarities and differences in the way struggling readers are supported at two Success for All schools in the US and two in the Netherlands. First- and second-grade teachers and other staff members involved in the implementation of Success for All and the support of struggling readers were interviewed. We concluded that American and Dutch interviewees agreed on the benefits of Success for All for struggling readers, such as the engaging whole-class lessons and the possibility to offer tutoring. Furthermore, in both countries a tension was observed between the scriptedness of Success for All and the need for flexibility in the support of struggling readers. Regarding differences, we observed that both contextual and cultural factors led to variations in the way struggling readers are supported.

Since people's attitude toward lesbians, gay men and bisexual people (LGB) affects young LGB people's mental health and subsequently their quality of life, it is important to establish people's attitudes toward LGB people. The current study examined attitudes toward lesbian, gay and bisexual people among Dutch students and the psychometrical characteristics of adapted instruments measuring attitudes toward sexual diversity. The students in the sample (N = 1.633) were recruited from secondary schools. The participants completed questionnaires with scales measuring attitudes toward LGB people. The results indicate that participants hold positive attitudes overall, but there are differences with regard to gender and educational level. In addition, the used instruments prove to be psychometrically sound for measuring LGB attitudes and this work contributes to the empirical debate about whether adolescents' attitudes toward lesbians, gay men and bisexual people underly domains of a general attitude toward LGB people. Our results indicate that students do not seem to distinguish among sexually diverse subgroups much, possibly a sign of increased awareness and knowledge of LGB groups. The use of one general measure of attitudes of sexually diverse people may be considered in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cohen's kappa coefficient is commonly used for assessing agreement between classifications of two raters on a nominal scale. Three variants of Cohen's kappa that can handle missing data are presented. Data are considered missing if one or both ratings of a unit are missing. We study how well the variants estimate the kappa value for complete data under two missing data mechanisms--namely, missingness completely at random and a form of missingness not at random. The kappa coefficient considered in Gwet ("Handbook of Inter-rater Reliability," 4th ed.) and the kappa coefficient based on listwise deletion of units with missing ratings were found to have virtually no bias and mean squared error if missingness is completely at random, and small bias and mean squared error if missingness is not at random. Furthermore, the kappa coefficient that treats missing ratings as a regular category appears to be rather heavily biased and has a substantial mean squared error in many of the simulations. Because it performs well and is easy to compute, we recommend to use the kappa coefficient that is based on listwise deletion of missing ratings if it can be assumed that missingness is completely at random or not at random.

Students in secondary education inevitably favour some subjects more than other subjects. This appraisal may affect how motivation relates to performance in these subjects. Whereas autonomous motivation is generally linked to positive school outcomes, the effect of controlled motivation is less clear. This study specifically focused on the associations of controlled motivation with performance in the context of favoured and disfavoured subjects. In the present study, secondary school students (N = 918) identified 2 favoured and 2 disfavoured subjects. Hierarchical linear modelling was performed to investigate the relationship of autonomous and controlled motivation with performance in these subjects. Results showed that autonomous motivation positively related to performance in both types of subjects. The association of controlled motivation with performance was negative in both contexts, and more negative in disfavoured subjects. For teaching practice, this means that teachers should always stimulate autonomous motivation, even for negatively appraised subjects.

Student performance is related to motivation to learn. As motivation generally declines during lower secondary education, one might expect performance to decline as well during this period. Though, until now, it has been unclear whether this pattern exists. In the present study, we examined student performance during the early years of secondary education from a developmental perspective. Participants were 1,544 Dutch secondary school students across three grades (grades 7 to 9). To investigate student performance trends, we analysed report card grades by using hierarchical linear modelling with two levels (level 1, time point; level 2, student). Potential moderators to be examined were (1) gender, (2) school type and (3) initial level. A linear decline in report card grades from grade 7 to 9 was found for boys and girls, in all school types, and regardless of initial level. Two variables moderated the steepness of the decline: school type and initial level. Gender and school type had a main effect on performance level. The same pattern was observed for the subset of "core subjects"--Dutch, English and mathematics. Motivational and cognitive factors that may explain the performance decline are discussed.