Monitoring educational standards
National assessment studies (IQB-Ländervergleich)
The IQB regularly – at intervals of several years – reviews and reports on whether and to what extent students are achieving the learning targets contained in the educational standards. The results are given at the level of Germany’s 16 states. These national assessment studies require large numbers of test items that both adequately reflect the content of the standards and provide as much reliable information as possible on the students’ competencies in the areas in which they are being tested. Developing items that fulfil both of these requirements is an extremely challenging and complex task.
The test items are devised by experienced teachers who receive intensive training from the IQB and work closely with experts in subject didactics. The teachers’ first drafts of the items are evaluated from a subject-didactic perspective, reviewed to ensure that the language is understandable, and revised as necessary. The items are then given to individual classes to see whether the students can handle the formats and understand the questions in the way that the developers intended. Depending on the outcome of this review, the items might be revised again.
The next stage involves conducting a pilot study to determine whether the items can adequately reflect the learning outcomes described in the educational standards. This review is on a slightly larger scale than the one before, with multiple states and several thousand students participating. The results of the pilot study are analysed in detail and the findings are used to make any final corrections to the items.
The final versions of the test items are then given to a sample of students representative of Germany’s student population to determine how difficult the items will be for all the students in the country. The information produced by this study is also used as the basis for developing proficiency level models.
By the time an item has made it through this last preparatory step and is ready for inclusion in a national assessment study, the teachers and subject-didactic experts have done an enormous amount of highly intensive development work. All performance assessments conducted on the basis of Germany’s educational standards are rooted in a constructive collaboration between these teachers and experts and the IQB.