Wirkungen der Selektion WiSel (2011 - 2014)

The research on school effectivity has worked out a complex variety of proximal and distal determinants of achievement. Beside school and classroom the family essentially contributes to explain students achievement disparities. Subsequent to the international comparisons of achievement studies (TIMSS, PISA, IGLU), evidence showed that distal institutional factors (educational system, school level) add to these differences. The question gets relevance in educational politics, because the transition regimes and school structures in Switzerland differ between the cantons. Until now the influence of educational structure on the change of students’ achievement during the transition from the primary school to the lower secondary school as well as the individual coping of academic demands in school transitions have not yet been compared between the cantons.

Out of that three main questions result for this research project:
(1) How strongly do cantonal and institutional determinants influence the domain specific and general educational expectations and values as well as the students' achievement in German and Mathematics of adolescents during the transition to lower secondary education?
(2) How strongly does the class composition affect the domain specific and general educational expectations and values as well as the students' achievement in German and Mathematics at the end of primary school and after the transition to lower secondary education?
(3) How strongly does the individual's coping of school challenges at the end of primary school and after transition to lower secondary education influence the educational expectations and values as well as student achievement?

The five cantons vary in the time point of transition and in the transition regime. Thus, they form a quasi-experimental design. While students in the cantons of Basel-Landschaft and Aargau enter lower secondary education after the 5th grade, students in the cantons Bern and Lucerne move on to lower secondary education after the 6th grade and students in the canton of Basel-Stadt move on after the 7th grade. For the first time, the varying situations of transition allow us to analyze the changes with regard to characteristics of students, parents and classes (education expectations and values, academic self-concept, classroom climate) as well as the achievement in German and Mathematics under varying cantonal conditions.

Approximately 1,800 5th grade students and their parents and teachers in the cantons of Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, Aargau, Bern and Lucerne filled out standardized questionnaires. The students also filled out achievement tests in the subjects German and Mathematics. In 6th and 7th grade, surveys were carried out with instruments adapted to the respective transfer situation (longitudinal sample with three main examinations). In addition, the classroom teachers of the selected classes were consulted by a short standardized questionnaire at the end of the 5th and 6th grade (two follow-up teacher surveys).