School- and class-profiles in upper secondary schools and comprehensive schools in the German federal state of Lower Saxony

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Recently more and more German schools develop specific school and/or class profiles in order to attract students and thus to be able to keep their enrolment figures up. On the one hand, school and class profiles enable schools to react to internal and external requirements in a way that accounts for the needs of all groups involved in a specific school. On the other hand, schools can actively influence their body of students by explicitly or implicitly selecting certain groups of students for their schools whenever there is a surplus of applications. Several studies show that selection processes concerning the choice of the type of secondary school (the German Gymnasium (upper secondary school) or integrierte Gesamtschule (comprehensive school)) as well as the choice of specific schools in a certain city or area are related to students social background and class affiliation. These selection processes and the influence of profiling on internal and external school development as well as the effects of certain profiles on students school achievement, have up to now hardly been subject to empirical research. The aim of the project ProfilBildung an Niedersächsischen Gymnasien und integrierten Gesamtschulen (ProBiNi; School- and class-profiles in upper secondary schools and comprehensive schools in the German federal state of Lower Saxony) is to conduct a systematic and multi-perspective first-time analysis of these aspects. The study is designed as a combination of a longitudinal and cross-sectional survey with three measurement points. With the help of standardized questionnaires students, parents, teachers, and principals will be asked for their respective intentions, their choices, and their attitudes towards school and class profiles. Furthermore, students school achievement will be analyzed in a quasi-experimental design (treatment group vs. reference group). Therefore the most common treatment of attending a music/orchestra-oriented and science-oriented class will be analyzed using a random sampling according to the results of a previous analysis of school homepages as well school administrational documents of all upper secondary schools and comprehensive schools in the regions of Braunschweig and Hanover. This sampling procedure will include both, classes with specific profiles and classes without profiles. The three measurement points of the longitudinal analysis will be set at the beginning of Year 5 for all relevant groups and will be repeated at the beginning of Year 6 (students) and Year 7 (students, parents and teachers). Several methods of analysis will be employed to focus on the specific aims of the project: regression and correlation analyses, multilevel analysis, latent growth curve analysis and propensity score matching. All in all with the ProBiNi - project it will be possible to draw a complete picture of the implications class profiles have for individuals as well as for schools and school development processes.