Lernstandserhebungen: Mehrwert oder nur Mehraufwand?

Since the school year 2015/16, it has been mandatory in Baden-Württemberg to assess students’ basic competencies in German and mathematics at the beginning of the fifth grade using the Lernstandserhebung Lernstand 5. Like other national learning assessments (e.g., VERA), Lernstand 5 is a procedure in the context of Data Based Decision Making, but differs from the latter in its primarily individual-diagnostic concept. It is, therefore, of interest how teachers assess the potential of Lernstand 5 and how they use the results. This study examines mathematics and German teachers’ beliefs about various aspects of Lernstand 5 in a sample of N = 744 teachers from different school types. The results indicate that the feedback of the results is easy for the teachers to understand, but on average the teachers are skeptical about the benefit of Lernstand 5. More positive beliefs about Lernstand 5 were associated with increased use of the results for teaching. In addition, the results indicate differences between school types: Teachers at non-academic schools, especially at comprehensive schools (Gemeinschaftsschulen), hold more positive beliefs about Lernstand 5 and stated that they used the results more often in their teaching.