IQB Trends in Student Achievement 2015

A total of 37,000 Grade 9 students in approximately 1,700 schools from all German federal states participated in the IQB Trends in Student Achievement 2015 (formerly National Assessment Study). In each randomly selected school, one class was chosen – also at random – to participate in the assessment. In special schools, a larger test group was formed instead, usually including several learning groups. The assessment took place from mid-April to mid-June 2015, although the exact timing varied slightly between the individual federal states.

In all federal states, students’ competences in German and English were assessed. In Baden-Württemberg, Berlin, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, French competences were also assessed. In German, the test items referred to the three competence domains defined in the educational standards: „Reading – Dealing with Texts and Media”, “Speaking and Listening”, and “Writing”. However, the study focused only on the subdomains of Reading, Listening, and Orthography, rather than assessing the full range of these competence domains. In English and French, students completed test items on Reading Comprehension and Listening Comprehension.

The study also recorded learning conditions both within and outside school to account for these factors when interpreting the test results. To that end, the study included written questionnaires for the students, their parents, their German and Mathematics teachers and their schools’ headteachers. Collecting background information allows the test results to be interpreted in a substantiated and objective way. Furthermore, the study measured indicators of students’ basic cognitive skills.

The IQB Trends in Student Achievement are conducted by decision of the ministers of education of the German federal states. Overall responsibility for scientific oversight and data protection compliance rests with the Institute for Educational Quality Improvement (IQB) at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin under the academic leadership of Prof. Dr Petra Stanat. The IQB developed, pre-tested and optimised the assessment instruments and questionnaires used in the study. IEA Hamburg was responsible for organising and conducting the data collection. IEA Hamburg also trained external test administrators, who then carried out the assessments in the schools.

Furthermore, IEA Hamburg scored the students’ answers and processed the data according to the IQB’s stipulations. The IQB analysed the data and determined students’ proficiency levels in the individual federal states.

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