Internationally the Dutch education system is known as an early tracking system. At the age of 12 pupils and their parents have to choose between vocational and academic tracks. Early tracking systems are supposed to be of disadvantage especially for lower class and/or migrants students. The OECD (2007) stated: In the end, postponement of the present early tracking regime seems inevitable, although this is a major change in the way Dutch society thinks of itself. Looking into the Dutch education system more in-depth, we see that there are connections between vocational and academic/general education. An important connection is between pre-vocational secondary education and senior general secondary education. In Dutch education policy it is a hot issue: should pre-vocational students continue their career via the vocational route or is the general route also a serious option?

In general about 80% of students with a pre-vocational secondary education diplom choose for secondary vocational education and 20% for senior general secondary education.

At ECER 2009 we presented the results of a research into this connection from the point of view of teachers and deans from senior general secondary education. As a follow-up we researched the perception of teachers and deans of pre-vocational secondary schools. We researched comparable topics in order to facilitate a comparison between respondents of the vocational and of the general schools.

The research questions are:

- what do pre-vocational secondary schools think about the possibility to choose an academic/general track?

- how do students that choose for the vocational track (secondary vocational education) perform in comparison to students that choose the academic track?

- Senior general secondary schools are allowed to handle extra entrance conditions for pre-vocational students (besides the standard condition of having a diplom). Examples are: a positive advice of the school team of the pre-vocational school, a positive learning attitude and/or the condition that the student has a higher mean figure on his/her final list. What do pre-vocational schools think of these extra conditions? How far do they see it as an extra guarantee that their students will succeed?

- how do pre-vocational schools students with aspiration for general secondary education prepare these students and what do they think of the guidance of there students when they are in general secondary education?

The results of this research will be compared with the results of our previous research on the same topic with respondents of senior general secondary schools (Van Esch & Neuvel 2009).

Esch, W. van & J. Neuvel (2009), Part of the Dutch dream. Transition from vocational to general education. Den Bosch/Amsterdam (The Netherlands): ecbo Esch, W. van & J. Neuvel (2010), From vocational to general education: main route or escape route? Den Bosch/Amsterdam (The Netherlands): ecbo (forthcoming) OECD (2007), Review of Tertiairy Education. Netherlands.Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development