Spreekt u het Nederlands? (Do you speak Dutch?)

Posted by Philissa at 3:16 PM

If so, you might want to visit the website of Onderwijs Consumentem Organisatie, or the Education Consumers' Organization of Amsterdam. Schools are very different in the Netherlands -- there, the government supports private and parochial schools -- but parents aren't. There, just as they do here, parents want to find the best schools for their children and help make those schools excellent. For the last two years, representatives of OCO have visited Insideschools to share their experiences running a similar organization, and this year, the two sites created a formal relationship that has been recognized by Amsterdam's alderman for education. (That's Insideschools director Pam Wheaton signing on as a partner with OCO's Han van Gelder in the picture above.) We've already gotten several good ideas from the folks at OCO -- but we probably won't be buying Insideschools-branded bikes to ride to school visits!