How the DutchClassFinder score works
Every scored school gets a number from 0 to 10. It is our independent judgment, computed the same way for every school from public data — never edited by hand, and never influenced by payment. Schools cannot buy a better score, and 127 of 197 schools currently qualify for one.
The four components
Reputation45%
The school's Google rating, adjusted for how many reviews stand behind it. A 5.0 from 8 reviews scores lower than a 4.8 from 400, because a handful of reviews is a weaker signal than hundreds. Schools with fewer than 5 reviews are not scored at all.
Course range25%
How much of the Dutch-learning journey the school covers: CEFR levels taught (A0 through C1), the variety of course formats offered, and whether it prepares students for the official exams (Staatsexamen NT2 or inburgering).
Value20%
The school's typical (median) group-course fee compared with the median for its city — or the national median where a city has few priced schools. Cheaper than the median scores above 7, pricier below. Prices come from each school's own website, with the checked date shown on its page. Only comparable group-course fees are scored; hourly private-lesson rates are never compared with course prices, and schools that don't publish prices are simply not scored on Value.
Trust & transparency10%
What we could independently verify: whether the school holds the Blik op Werk keurmerk (checked against the official register — the requirement for DUO-loan funding), publishes its prices openly on its website, matches a live Google Business listing (re-checked monthly), and publishes a full street address and phone number. Not finding a school in the keurmerk register means "unverified", never "not eligible".
The headline score is the weighted average of the components we can compute for that school. When a component is missing — for example, no verified pricing yet — it is shown as "not yet scored" and its weight is spread over the rest. We never guess at missing data and never penalize a school for information we haven't collected yet.
Why not just show the Google rating?
We do show it, on every listing. But most language schools have excellent Google ratings, so a wall of near-perfect stars tells you very little about which school fits better. The score adds what the stars leave out: how much evidence backs the rating, how broad the school's offering is, and what we could independently verify.
What the labels mean
- 8.5+ Excellent — outstanding on nearly every measure
- 7.0+ Very good — a strong choice, well above average
- 5.5+ Good — solid, with some weaker areas
- below 5.5 Fair — mixed reviews or a narrow offering
A "Fair" school is not a scam — it may simply be small, new, or specialized. And "not yet scored" means exactly that: too few reviews to judge fairly, not a hidden bad score.
Versioning and corrections
This is formula version 1.2. When the formula changes — for example, when verified pricing activates the Value component — we update this page and the version number. Ratings and review counts are refreshed from Google monthly.
Spot something wrong about a school? Tell us and we will check it.