2012 National Assessment of French in the Third Grade of Secondary Education in Flanders (General - Technical - Art Track)

In 2012 a national assessment was carried out, which was commissioned by the Flemish government, to assess the extent to which students have achieved the attainment targets for French (listening and speaking) at the end of the third grade of general, technical and art secondary education. Data were collected through a written listening test with two different versions: one for the general track and one for the art and technical track. In the general track, a representative sample of 1650 students from 74 Flemish secondary schools participated. In the art and technical track, a representative sample of 1467 students from 70 Flemish secondary schools participated. 490 additional students of the art track from 11 Flemish secondary schools participated in the listening test as well. Speaking skills were assessed through aperformance assessment (again, one version for the general track and another version for the art and technical track). In the general track, the speaking test was administered to a representative sample of 450 students. In the art and technical track, it was administered to a representative sample of 395 students. 62 additional students of the art track took the oral performance assessment as well. Tests were supplemented with background questionnaires for students, parents and French teachers. These questionnaires collected information on the general background characteristics of the students and their families, and subject-related background characteristics (e.g., the attitudes of the students and their families toward French, and the language policies in the schools). The response rates were 100% for the student questionnaire and 85% for the parent questionnaire. Teachers were able to complete a part of the questionnaire online, for which the response rate was 96%. For the paper part, the response rate was 88%.