The Transfer of Worker Children to Secondary School

Education expectations and ideas about further school education of
children. Judgement on the school system and attitude to school
matters. Information on personal situation at work and in life.

Topics: The data set consists of several surveys:

A) Initial survey of the worker families:

1. information on school choice: education aspiration for the subject
child; school choice not desired; school desire by the child; frequency
of conversations with teachers of the child and type of school
recommended by them; preferred deciding persons for selection of the
school to attend after elementary school; importance of selected
aspects for the school choice of the child; learning difficulties of
the child; school grades of the child in German and mathematics;
assumed upward social mobility of the child; orientation of school
choice on the school choice of other children; judgement on the
importance of advice received on school choice after the 4th grade;
type of decision ruling in the school of the child about further school
attendance; importance of selected aspects about further development of
the child; ideas about the later employment direction of the child.

2. school system and relations between parents and teachers:
self-assessment of knowledge about various types of school; interest in
more information about a certain type of school; information on
availability of the various types of school and means of transport that
can be used there as well as the time needed; assessment of
characteristics and behaviors particularly promoted in the different
types of school; frequency of attendance at parents evenings in school;
participation in education events; attitude to cooperation between
parents and teachers and interest in school matters; time expended by
the child for homework and frequency of help by other persons with
homework; most important reasons for school success of a child (scale);
judgement on the education system in the Federal Republic (scale).

3. work and occupation: personal occupational activity; length of
company employment; frequency of change of job in the current company
and change of company; personal duration of unemployment; job
satisfaction; occupational concepts of the future; job security;
dismissals within the last few years at work; characterization of one´s
own work (scale); technical innovations at work and at one´s place of
work; monotony of the work; frequency of being checked on at work;
attitude to representation of workers interests; activities in
intra-company groups (e.g. factory fire service, company sport) and
union commitment.

4. family and environment: satisfaction with general economic
situation in the Federal Republic and expected development in the next
few years; judgement on the economic situation and employment situation
in the city or region; discrimination of the worker compared to other
occupational groups; judgement on the security of the jobs of various
occupational groups; most important reasons for occupational success;
most important characteristics of a desired occupation or job (scale);
importance of future plans; characterization of social milieu in the
residential area; attitude to technical progress; evaluation of one´s
own work at home and in one´s family; dissatisfaction with this job.

5. Demography: The following questions were posed regarding father and
mother of child of interest: age; number of children; school attendance
of one´s children regarding various types of school; marital status;
personal school education and school education of parents; occupational
changes in the last 1 to 2 years; occupational position; memberships;
weekly working hours; shift work; assembly work; training for current
occupational activity; occupation exercised earlier; company size; net
income; status outside of occupation; change of residence in the last 1
to 2 years; residential status; length of residence in current
residential quarter.

The following additional questions were posed to mothers currently not
working outside the home: length of non-employment and interest in
taking on employment.

B) First parents complete survey: education aspiration; school
attendance of other children; personal school degree or of spouse and
school degree of one´s own parents; personal professional position or
that of spouse.

C) Second survey of the worker families:

1. questions on the child attending 5th grade: type of school
attended; means of transport used on the way to school and time
required for this; judgement on behaviors and characteristics
particularly promoted by current school (scale); participation in
parents evenings during the current school year.

2. school: frequency of conversations with teachers in this school
year; learning difficulties; desired school degree; assumed upward
social mobility of the child; judgement on one´s own knowledge about
various types of school; perceived changes between current school and
elementary school (scale); time expended for homework and frequency of
providing help in doing homework; conduct when repeating a year;
importance of educational goals of the school; attitude to cooperation
between parents and teachers; interest in school matters; general
judgement on the education system in the Federal Republic; school
desire during attendance of 4th grade; time of selection of current
type of school; school grades in German and mathematics; judgement on
the assessment performed in the elementary school recommendation about
school development possibilities of the child and reasons for a lack of
agreement with this evaluation; importance of selected aspects for
selection of type of school (scale); advice received from various
groups of persons in selection of the school; deciding persons for
school choice.

3. miscellaneous: moves and occupational changes within the last few
years; most important prerequisites for occupational success (scale);
judgement on the general economic situation in the Federal Republic;
job satisfaction; job security.