YEAR 2021

The journal "Large-scale Assessments in Education" will publish a special issue with a focus on the methodology of large-scale longitudinal studies in educational research. For this issue, contributions from a variety of disciplines that address methods of data collection and analysis in educational studies are sought. In terms of content, the issue connects to the 6th International NEPS Conference, which will be hosted as a virtual conference by the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) in June 2021. Contributions for the special issue can be submitted until November 30, 2021.

How people's educational trajectories are developed is also the subject of current longitudinal research in China. The Renmin University of China in Beijing is home to the Chinese Education Panel Survey (CEPS), a study that is similar in many respects to the National Educational Panel Study in Germany (NEPS). Initiated by the Survey Coordination Unit of the Center for Study Management, a first virtual exchange between representatives of CEPS and NEPS took place on March 26, 2021.

In the second half of 2021, a new junior research group on "Outcomes of Education Across the Lifespan" is to start at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi). For this purpose, the institute is now looking for a head for the group. Applications will be accepted until April 15, 2021.

Video meetings, teamwork platforms and virtual conferences have become an integral part of pandemic working life since spring 2020 at the latest. For many employees, the use of these networked digital technologies is now a natural part of their everyday working lives. Current analyses of the Corona supplementary survey in the National Education Panel (NEPS) now provide information on which occupational and educational groups used digital technologies more frequently in the first lockdown than before the pandemic. However, the data also show that the pandemic-induced digitization surge has not reached all employees and is even contributing to a new digital divide in the workforce that could last long beyond the pandemic. The authors of the report call for steering measures to be taken now.

The Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories will host the 6th International NEPS Conference on June 8, 2021. This year the main focus of the conference will be on the advancement of methodological practices in educational large-scale assessments. To this end, the keynote address by Matthias von Davier (Boston College, USA) and an opening presentation by Suzanne Jak (University of Amsterdam, NL) will address current topics in modeling and analysis of complex data structures. Conference papers can be submitted until April 15, 2021.

In his LIfBi Lecture in early February, Prof. Dr. Rolf van der Velden, long-time director of the Research Centre for Education and the Labor Market (ROA) Maastricht, presented a chapter for a newly planned book. Titled "It's the skills, stupid!" he discussed how education and individual labor market success are linked and what mechanisms are at work.

The first "Call for Modules" in the National Education Panel Study (NEPS) has resulted in new survey modules. After a scientific evaluation and detailed discussion of 17 externally prepared project outlines in various committees, three proposals have now been selected for inclusion in the NEPS. It is the first time that content has been included that has not been developed by the NEPS network itself. The new modules "Self-efficacy for motivational regulation", "The innovative teacher – proactive behavior in occupations" and "Conspiracy mentality and political deprivation" complement the NEPS survey program with content that is likely to be highly relevant for questions from various scientific disciplines.

How children and adolescents with a refugee background progress through the German education system plays a central role in their integration and their opportunities to participate in all areas of society. The newly approved project "Educational Trajectories of Children and Adolescents with Refugee Background (BildungswegeFlucht)" will be conducted at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) in Bamberg and will examine educational trajectories as well as educational decisions of young refugees at key interfaces of the German education system with a longterm perspective. On the one hand, the focus is on the transitions of children from elementary school to the structured school system and, on the other hand, on the transitions of young people to vocational training and the labor market.

Since the beginning of the year, the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) has been responsible for several sub-projects in the newly founded Consortium for the Social, Behavioural, Educational and Economic Sciences (KonsortSWD). KonsortSWD began its work in October 2020 as one of nine founding consortia of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI). Under the claim "Good data. Better research!", the existing data infrastructure for the scientific community is to be strengthened, expanded and deepened. LIfBi is now launching a call for applications for funding of data management projects until the end of April in the sub-project "Funding FDM".

Dr. Christel Figgener, President of the Hessian State Statistical Office, is a new member of the Leibniz-Institut for Trajectories‘ Board of Trustees. She succeeds Regierungsdirektor Anke Ortmann-Gerhardt.