Teacher Judgement and Education Chances

The influence of the teacher in the fourth elementary school grade on the chances of schoolchildren to transfer to one of the three secondary schools: high school, secondary school and junior high school.

Topics: 1. Attitudes to talent distribution and talent inheritance; assessment of equality of distribution of talents in all social classes and discrimination against underclass children; inheritability of
character traits; tasks and educational goals of the school; possibilities of the school to develop talents; importance of school education for girls; semantic differential of the ´talented schoolchild´; criteria for judgement on the readiness of a schoolchild for secondary school and difficulties in evaluating the school development of a ten-year-old child; image of the types of school (semantic differentials); importance of school subjects; attitude to financial support for education; criteria for the selection of secondary school or high school; demands on teacher training and
teaching activity.

2. Regarding the schoolchild being investigated: judgement on work attitude and achievement status of the schoolchild; semantic differential of his characteristics; popularity with teacher; contact of teacher with parents; teacher recommendation for transfer and assumed wish of parents; school grades in arithmetic, spelling and German.

3. Social statistical data about teacher, class and school: number of children; number of service years; social origins of teacher; number of schoolchildren and proportion of girls, Catholics and transfers to high school and secondary school; general judgement on the class.

Demography: age (classified); sex; marital status; number of children; religious denomination; social origins.

Interviewer rating: qualitative judgement on length of interview; number of contact attempts.

Also encoded were: aggregate data about the school; figures on graduates going to secondary school and high school; religious affiliation of the schoolchildren.