This paper deals with results of an evaluation study of the results of a municipal stimulation program (Better Performance) in the City of Rotterdam. Although the official objective of this policy was giving grants to schools to improve performance (mainly on language and mathematics), a secondary objective was to contribute to improve professional capital, culture and policies in the schools in order to achieve long term improvements. The research question was:

Which interventions and developments on schools in Rotterdam have, since 2010, had a positive effect on school results.

Dutch education is doing well in comparison with that of other countries. With average financial commitment above-average quality is achieved, when quality is measured by performance on the core subjects and progression to higher education.

Polls as TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study), PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) and PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) show that primary and secondary education in the Netherlands compete well compared to other countries in the EU. Pupils need to be optimally prepared for further education and participating in society. For this they have to gain knowledge and skills in different domains. They also need to (get to) know certain values and norms, and cultural capital. In the last years more and more attention was laid on measurable goals, particularly in literacy and numeracy performance.

This focus on measurable performance derived attention to other subjects and values of education. Such as history, economics, philosophy, cultural, etc. But also becoming a socially engaged professional and person with social skills, citizenship education and solving of cross-curricular 'advanced skills' as problems.

Next to these an emphasis is put on the contribution of local educational progrmams to professional capital. Hargreaves and Fullan (2012) out this world wide on teh agenda. It involves a long-term investment to develop human capital (and economic returns) from early childhood to adult life. For high-quality teachers and teaching, this means requiring teachers to be highly committed, thoroughly prepared, continuously developed, properly paid, well networked with each other to maximize their own improvement, and able to make effective judgments together using all their capabilities and experience. Professional capital has three components: human, social, and decisional. Human capital is about the qualities of individuals. Human capital must be complemented by social capital—groups working hard in focused and committed ways to bring about substantial improvements. Social capital can raise individual human capital—a good team, school, or system lifts everyone. The third component—decisional capital—involves making decisions in complex situations on innumerable occasions with different problems and cases. It is what professionalism is all about, especially when well-qualified professionals do this together.

In a series of case studies (17 schools in primary and secondary education) it was studied which interventions and developments in the schools did have a positive impact on educational results. A decision to do qualitative case studies was made because the program management thought that there is no one-fits-all solution. They wanted to know what experiences schools have with education policies. The implementation of an intervention, as well as the context in which that intervention can thrive, determines which (kind of) educational processes and results are realized.

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