Analysis of medium-run effects of shortening higher secondary school duration by one year in Germany

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To solve the trade-off between length of schooling and length of labor market participation, most German states have reduced the duration of university preparatory schooling from 13 to 12 years but kept constant the graduation requirements. The aim was to achieve the same level of education quality within a shorter period of time to allow high school graduates an earlier start of their professional career. The effects of this reform on several outcome variables were and are analyzed in a research project, which has been funded by the DFG for nearly five years, and for which a prolongation is applied. The analyses are based on unique panel data that have been collected by three survey waves, in which 1,014 high school graduates from the double cohort of graduates 2007 in Saxony-Anhalt participated in total. The data include representative, extensive and detailed information over a long observational period - on family background, school education, post-secondary education and labor market entry. In this, the data differ substantially from other available data. In a number of studies, the reform effects on school achievements, workload and extracurricular activities, personality traits, post-secondary education decisions, abilities and motivation in university education and on labor market entry have been analyzed in a number of studies. A part of them have already been published or are accepted for publication. In addition, the effects of the reform on post-secondary education have also been investigated in other federal states using nationwide data. The objective of the applied prolongation of the project is to continue the started analyses that are not completed by now. Furthermore, it is planned to merge the panel data with administrative data on integrated labor market biographies provided by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). On the basis of this merged data, it is intended to analyze long-term effects of the reform on success in the labor market. In addition, these data might allow to analyze reform effects on fertility and family formation as well.