Current research findings reveal three key challenges for the German education system: Firstly, too many pupils do not reach the minimum standards in the basic skills of German and maths. Secondly, the socio-economic status of parents has a significant impact on children's educational success. Thirdly, many pupils suffer from psychosocial stress. In international comparison, countries such as Canada and Estonia have made remarkable progress in these areas through the strategic use of data. These countries offer valuable approaches that Germany can learn from.
A successful approach is to define clear strategic goals that serve as a common framework of orientation for the entire education system. These goals should be based on three pillars: improving competences and performance, promoting equal opportunities and supporting pupils' well-being and personal development. The regular and targeted use of data plays a central role here. Digital dashboards, which display performance indicators and other data in real time, enable managers at various levels to make decisions and control measures. It has been shown that both ‘small data’, i.e. detailed insights into individual learning processes, and ‘big data’, which identifies trends and patterns at system level, are crucial for successful school development.
In the Canadian province of Alberta, data utilisation is implemented in a structured and differentiated way. Teachers have access to classroom data, school administrators have access to all school data and the school inspectorate and the Ministry of Education have access to regional and system-wide data. This structured use of data is supported by regular professional learning communities in which managers exchange information and develop common goals.
School leaders play a key role in the effective use of small data. They are responsible for creating an environment in which individualised support measures can be developed on the basis of the collected data. At the same time, they must promote a collaborative working culture in which teaching staff regularly analyse data and derive pedagogical measures. The school supervisory authority also plays a key role by promoting the exchange of best practice between schools and ensuring that schools have the necessary resources to utilise data.
Ministries of education and state institutes support the use of big data and create a framework for system-wide data utilisation. They are responsible for planning and managing the school system, recognising trends and patterns by analysing data and deriving measures to improve the quality of education. A central element of this is the training of managers in the field of data analysis.
Overall, it is clear that a data-based education system must combine both top-down and bottom-up approaches in order to be effective. While previous top-down approaches often failed due to their rigidity and bottom-up initiatives often remained isolated, modern education systems must be horizontally and vertically networked. The key lies in co-operative professionalism. It aims to use data as a basis for joint decision-making processes without being determined solely by the data. Germany faces the challenge of implementing a cultural change towards a learning, data-based school system that is orientated towards international best practice examples. Managers at all levels of the education system must take responsibility and promote a learning culture based on transparency, trust and shared responsibility. This is the only way to sustainably improve the quality of education.
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About this series
The series informs in a concentrated form about important positions of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung on current topics. The individual issues present key findings and recommendations, offer brief analyses, explain the Foundation's further plans and name KAS contact persons.
