Given the aim of comparative tests to initiate school and teaching development processes and the continuing unsatisfactory reception and use of comparative tests, the question arises as to what scientific contribution could increase the reception and use of the results in schools. This is not a question of the quality of the tests and ease of use, but rather of their practical applicability in schools.

Based on open responses in evaluation surveys and personal interviews, the evaluating institutions ISQ-Berlin/Brandenburg, Kompetenztest.de and zepf gained the impression that there are schools that work with the results of comparative tests or even with the comparative tests themselves and use them for school or teaching development. However, apart from anecdotal information, there is currently no systematically collected data on what is actually being done in schools, by whom and in what way, when it is said that comparative tests are being used. It can be assumed that the way in which the tests are used and followed up is not random, but is related to various internal and external contextual conditions and requires the cooperation of various actors. Accordingly, several perspectives need to be taken into account. This is now to be achieved in a multi-perspective study in cooperation between the three institutions mentioned above. Three key insights from school development research are guiding the direction of the project.

Firstly, it can be assumed that, due to the diversity of schools, there are no immediately standardisable ways of using and developing them. Secondly, the further development of schools and teaching is subject to its own internal dynamics, which depend, among other things, on the respective understanding of the actors involved and are difficult to influence from outside. Thirdly, schools do not adopt ready-made concepts, but rather endeavour to adapt external impulses to their own specific school conditions. Local knowledge plays a central role in this.

The objectives of the study funded by the BMBF are to gain knowledge about the extent to which schools that claim to use comparative tests actually do so. In other words, it is about specific forms of use and also about whether these are the intended benefits of implementation. Another strand of research, which is almost implied in the first, aims to ask schools what specific obstacles would need to be removed in order to enable them to use the findings from comparative tests.

While the first strand pursues the overarching goal of presenting other schools with specific possibilities for use and the associated steps and efforts, the second strand aims more at incorporating input from schools into the further development of comparative tests, thereby increasing their usefulness for schools.

The project is being carried out in close cooperation with and with the support of Dr Christof Nachtigall, University of Jena, kompetenztest.de project, Prof. Dr Holger Gärtner, Peter Harych and Dr Rico Emmrich, Institute for School Quality of the States of Berlin and Brandenburg e. V.

contact person

• Dr. Michael Zimmer-Müller M.A.
• Prof. Dr. Josef Strasser
• Prof. Dr. Ingmar Hosenfeld, Dipl.-Psych.

project staff

• Johanna Detzel, M.Sc. Wirtschaftspäd.
• Dr. Ilona Weyrauch, Dipl. Päd.
• Franziska Wick, M.A.