IQB Trends in Student Achievement

What are the IQB Trends in Student Achievement at the Primary Level? 🔗

The IQB Trends in Student Achievement at the primary level regularly evaluate to what extent Grade 4 students across all German federal states meet the competence goals outlined in the educational standards for German and Mathematics. To this end, the IQB usually conducts primary level surveys every five years. The results are analysed at the level of each federal state’s school system. This gives educational policymakers a clearer picture of which current measures are delivering results and where further improvement is still needed.

Who takes part? 🔗

Schools and classes in Grade 4 are selected at random using a complex sampling method, yielding representative findings for each federal state and across Germany as a whole. Approximately 30,000 children from around 1,500 schools across Germany participate in each assessment. Furthermore, the children’s parents, their German and Mathematics teachers, and the headteachers complete questionnaires.

What do the surveys test? 🔗

In German, the 2011, 2016, and 2021 surveys assessed the competence domains Reading, Listening, and Orthography. In Mathematics, test items covered all five content-related competence domains (core ideas) defined in the educational standards. Here, the results are reported separately for each core idea and combined as a composite indicator of global math competence.

The test items usually consist of a stimulus – in German, this could be a text for Reading Comprehension or an audio recording; in Mathematics, it might be the description of a mathematical problem – and a set of tasks. Different task formats are used for this purpose. Closed-format tasks provide response options that students must select or arrange. In open-format tasks, students are required to phrase their responses independently.