Heritability of Educational Achievement in 12-year-olds . . .

Abstract

tional test of educational achievement (CITO), administered around age 12, in order to determine high school entrance level. The results of the test are often used as an independent judgment, besides the teachers ' opin ion, i n advising the parents on the future educational level of their child. So the CITO is used as an aid in choosing the most appropriate type of high school (e.g., academic versus technical). From a historical perspective, this attention for "independent" testing has to do with the possibilities for selection. The establisher of the CITO (Eindtoets Basisonderwijs, 2002) emphasized that this national test of educational achievement has put the effect of education in a particular school to the test besides measuring possible learning potential or cognitive abilities in children (Geldermans, 2001). It was hypothesized that success in scholastic achievement depended on the quality of the elementary school. A large number of articles in Dutch daily newspapers were dedic