About

The department focuses on societal, structural and institutional conditions that impact educational attainment. The research projects investigate the education system’s efficacy, the provision of equal educational opportunities and chances within the system, and the effectiveness of educational innovations and governance instruments. Researchers in the department are particularly engaged in assessing the role institutional and individual conditional factors play for success and failure in educational pathways.

A focus is placed on the analysis of transitions and trajectories in education as well as their consequences for further educational attainment depending on individual resources and institutional or organisational variables of the education system. In this context, the department also targets effects of structural change and reform measures in the education system.

Research findings deliver important indications for evidence-based and sustainable governance in education. At the same time they enter into educational reporting.

Central projects of the department are the national report Education in Germany as well as the BERLIN Study, a scientific monitoring of the school structure reform in Berlin.

Director: Prof. Dr. Kai Maaz

Department Units

Decisions in Education, Educational Trajectories, and Educational Outcomes

How do people reach decisions in education, and what are the consequences of these decisions for their further educational career and life? This research unit focuses on effects of adolescents’ decisions on educational matters regarding their educational pathways, and mid-term as well as long-term monetary and non-monetary educational outcomes. A focus is placed on the analysis of gender-specific and social disparities along with psychosocial factors. To this end, a research group was established in cooperation with the IPN – Leibniz-Institute for Science and Mathematics Education: Individual Developmental Trajectories and Institutional Conditions across the Lifespan. It particularly focuses on longitudinal analyses of individual developmental processes and context-related influences at different stages of life and at different junctures of educational biographies.

Educational Monitoring and Educational Reporting

Which general developments and trends can be observed in the German education system? This area of research comprehends several projects that focus on a continual, data-based observation, analysis and interpretation of the education system at different levels and to different extents depending on the region. The core of this research area is currently marked by the coordinating function DIPF holds for the National Report on Education which is conducted in cooperation with a number of partner institutions.

School Structure, Implementation and Effects of Educational Reforms, School Development Conditions

What role do structural and organisational conditions and their changes play for educational attainment? Currently, fundamental structural and school organisational changes are happening in nearly all areas of the school system. On the one hand, this research unit focuses on the analysis of intended and unintended consequences of structural changes and administrative reforms regarding educational attainment and patterns of inequalities in educational success. On the other hand, concrete prerequisites for successful implementation of educational reforms are investigated to identify approaches to an effective and efficient implementation of reform measures.

Management

Director

Prof. Dr. Kai Maaz

Heads of Units

Dr. Michael Becker, Decisions in Education, Educational Trajectories, and Educational Outcomes

Dr. Stefan Kühne, Educational Monitoring and Educational Reporting

Dr. Marko Neumann, School Structure, Implementation and Effects of Educational Reforms, School Development Conditions

Contact

Office: +49 (0)30 293360-313

• BONUS study: Scientific monitoring and evaluation of the Bonus Program for schools in challenging circumstances in Berlin
• BIJU – Learning Processes, Educational Careers, and Psychosocial Development in Adolescence and Young Adulthood Study
• Educational choices and educational pathways within the context of structural changes in Berlin’s secondary school system (BERLIN study)
• Individual Developmental Trajectories and Institutional Contexts Across the Lifespan
• KEGS – Competence Development in Elementary Schools – Enhancement Study
• MEChS – Modeling Educational Effectiveness and Equity at the School Level
• MILES-HuGS – Primary and Secondary Social Background Effects at Different Points of Transition in the Education System
• NEPS – National Educational Panel Study, stage 5
• National Report on Education
• Research synthesis on the genesis of social inequalities in educational attainment
• Tradition and Innovation: Developmental processes at non-academic track secondary schools in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Saxony