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In recent years many countries have introduced authentic performance-based assessments in their national exam systems. Teachers' ratings of their own candidates' performances may suffer from errors of leniency and range restriction. The goal of this study was to examine the impact of manipulating the descriptiveness, balancedness, and polarity of the rating scales on the elevation and spread of the performance ratings. The study was conducted in the field setting of a (simulated) high-stakes national exam in Dutch pre-vocational education. A total of 55 teachers rated the performances of 652 candidates (aged [plus or minus]16) on four authentic performance-based tasks. Multivariate multilevel analyses found the psychometric quality of the teachers' performance ratings to be more favorable for positively unbalanced scales than for balanced scales. Positively unbalanced rating scales yielded the lowest (i.e., least generous) and most discriminative ratings. The descriptiveness and polarity of the rating scales were of lesser importance for the rating distributions. On the basis of the findings it was decided to introduce positively unbalanced scales in the national exams for pre-vocational education. (Contains 2 tables.)

This article reports on a study into the impact of students' use of the Internet and the computer at home on digital skills they need for school. The study was conducted in the lower grades of Dutch secondary education (students aged 13-15). More than 2500 students, distributed over 116 classes in 68 schools, participated in the study. Internet and computer skills were measured by means of an objective test. Multilevel analysis was used to examine the impact of home access and use on Internet and computer skills taking into account the effect of students' backgrounds. Students in pre-university education, third-graders and non-minority students appeared to have better Internet skills and a more advantageous home computer use than students in pre-vocational education, first-graders and minority students, respectively. The Internet skills of girls were hardly less developed than those of boys. Home access to e-mail and the extent to which students use the home computer for surfing, e-mailing, chatting and text processing were found to be substantially related to Internet and computer skills (taking into account the effect of several background characteristics of the students).

In a national assessment program, 57% of Dutch ninth-grade students had a positive attitude towards the environment and 35% were prepared to make sacrifices for the environment. Student knowledge about environmental problems, however, was fragmentary and often incorrect. Environmentally responsible behavior was more strongly connected with the willingness to make sacrifices than with attitude toward the environment. Contains 38 references. (Author/PVD)

Examines relationships between writing instruction and functional composition performance of third-year secondary education Dutch students. Finds that, of 36 instructional characteristics, effective ones included instruction and exercises in writing functional texts, writing for a specific purpose, tailoring to a particular audience, global rating of students writing by the teacher, and frequent evaluation of Dutch language proficiency through teacher-made tests. (RS)