Implementation and Evaluation

The Educational Standards establish a binding framework that guides all stakeholders in the German education system (teachers, teacher educators, school administrators, school supervisory authorities, curriculum committees, and education policymakers, as well as parents, students, and the general public). They specify the competences students are expected to develop in each subject and demonstrate, through exemplary learning tasks, how these competences can be fostered by competence-oriented teaching.

Bildungsstandards

The Educational Standards serve as the basis for the curricula and final examinations of the federal states, which have committed to implementing these standards. Teacher education and professional development programs also address which competences should be developed through instruction and how this can be achieved in practice.

Based on the educational standards, test items are also developed to assess the extent to which the targeted competences are achieved. The results of these assessments provide regular feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the German education system as a whole (IQB Trends in Student Achievement) as well as of individual classes and schools (StarS and VERA). The results help identify areas of concern and support the development and implementation of targeted measures to improve schools and classroom instruction.

Ensuring basic competences

“StarS – Starting Strong in Primary School” focuses on ensuring basic competences at the transition from early childhood education to primary education and aims to provide all students, regardless of their social background, with a strong start to their school career.
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VERA

The Nationwide Achievement Tests (VERA) are conducted in grades 3 and 8. They assess the extent to which students have achieved the educational standards and indicate the areas in which teachers and schools need to make corrective adjustments to teaching and learning one year before the end of primary education or lower secondary education, respectively.
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IQB Trends in Student Achievement

The IQB Trends in Student Achievement assess the extent to which the educational standards are being achieved in the federal states at the end of primary education and lower secondary education. The results provide evidence on areas where action is needed both across Germany as a whole and within the individual federal states.
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Joint Pools of Abitur Exam Tasks of the Federal States

To align the requirements of Abitur examinations (leading to the General Higher Education Entrance Qualification) across the federal states and ensure their quality, the IQB coordinates the development of jointly used Abitur examination tasks based on the educational standards.
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