Doorlopende Leerlijnen Taal en Rekenen

In the official report on learning trajectories ('doorlopende leerlijnen') it is specified which achievement level students have to reach at different thresholds in the Dutch educational system: at the change from primary to secondary education, and at the different thresholds from secondary education to either intermediate vocational education (mbo), higher vocational education (hbo), or university (wo). In this paper we will discuss (1) several misconceptions surrounding the 'doorlopende leerlijnen' and (2) the feasibility of the norms imposed for reading and spelling. It is concluded that, on average, students do reach the norms imposed by the 'doorlopende leerlijnen', but that a relatively large proportion of students in the lower tracks of vocational education fail to do so.