Database for Quality of Schools

The Pact for Innovation and Research 2009 by the Leibniz Association provides the funding for setting up a system for collating knowledge of educational quality processes. We will thus develop a database for empirical educational research, collecting instruments regarding constructs of the quality of schools and instruction. It will systematically process the different instruments of assessment used in empirical studies, document relevant parameters and allow their use in research contexts.

This “database for quality of schools“ will provide empirical educational researchers with comprehensive services, it aims to support and alleviate research processes. This includes options for searching the areas of theory construction, planning and operationalising assessments. To this purpose, we intend to develop an easy-to-use documentation of the assessment instruments that is guided by scientific standards. The systematisation of relevant constructs and instruments from quantitative empirical educational research renders a significant contribution to conceptualising and modelling procedures, making them accessible to the research community.

Once a prototype has been designed, a systematic extension of the database is planned in a national and international context. The Center for Research on Educational Quality and Evaluation and the Information Center for Education co-operate in setting up the system.

Objectives

The project addresses three general objectives:

• extending knowledge about educational quality

• gaining insights into measurement models and respective concepts applied in empirical educational research

• gaining informational scientific insights with regard to metadata formats and standards

Funding

Leibniz Association, within the framework of the Senatsausschuss Wettbewerb (Senate Committee Competition, SAW)

Database for Quality of Schools (in German)