YEAR 2020

From now on, the Research Data Center at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (RDC LIfBi) informs in the semi-annual newsletter "LIfBi data" on current and upcoming data releases, user trainings and other events, new features in data and documentation offerings, as well as on relevant services and publications.

On July 5, 2018, the LIfBi released the last of its four and highly enthusiastic apprentices into the working world: Three graduates are beginning to work at the LIfBi as qualified specialists supporting research, while another graduate will start working at the University of Bamberg.

Jörg Welker attended the 15th annual IMISCOE conference (International Migration, Integration, and Social Cohesion), which took place from July 2-4, 2018, in Barcelona, with a contribution from the study “Refugees in the German Educational System” (ReGES).

As part of LIfBi lectures, Professor David Kaplan, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, discussed ways of how to evaluate statistical modelling through predictions with Bayesian approaches in his talk “New Developments in Bayesian Model Averaging”.

After the field start in December 2017, the first wave of interviews of refugee families as part of the study “Refugees in the German Educational System” (ReGES) ended in July 2018 in selected communities in Bavaria, Hamburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saxony.

Under the umbrella of “Research in Germany”, the German Research Foundation (DFG) is organizing a joint appearance of various participants of the German research landscape at this years’ ISA World Congress in Toronto, Canada, taking place from July 15 to 21, 2018: funding organizations, six panel studies—among them the National Education Panel Study (NEPS)—, the German Data Forum (RatSWD), as well as numerous researchers and initiatives from different German research institutes.

On 28th and 29th June 2018, the 2nd international meeting of the project „Social InEquality and its Effects on child Development: A study of birth cohorts in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands“ (SEED) took place at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi).

The current report “Education in Germany 2018” was published today on June 22, 2018, and presented to the public by the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (KMK) in Berlin (link to report in German).

This year’s workshop of the College for Interdisciplinary Educational Research (CIDER) took place from June 4 to 6 at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi).

With the enrichment of the survey and competence data of the NEPS adult cohort with administrative data from the so-called Integrated Employment Biographies of the IAB, a new and innovative data product for scientific analyses is now available to interested researchers.

As part of the LIfBi lectures, Dr. Marko Neumann from the German Institute for International Educational Research (DIPF) Frankfurt/Berlin presented the “BERLIN-Study”. This multicohort longitudinal study, investigates the structural reform of Berlin’s secondary school system carried out since 2010/11.

As part of LIfBi lectures, Prof. Dr. Yvonne Anders from Freie Universität Berlin held a presentation on May 15, 2018, about how the pedagogical quality in day care can be adequately measured.

On May 14 and 15, the 60th NEPS user training took place for scientists analyzing NEPS data—this time giving an “Introduction to the Data of the Starting Cohort 1 With a Focus on Learning Environments”.

As part of LIfBilectures, Katarina Weßling from the Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA) at Maastricht University presented on the topic “The Teacher and the ‘Ghetto’–Investigating the Influence of School Class and Neighbourhood Contexts on Teachers’ Evaluations of Primary School Students”. She shared her thoughts and analyses of the influence of school class composition and economical-cultural school environment on teachers’ recommendations for a choice of secondary schools.

On November 22-23, 2018, the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) will host the 3rd International NEPS Conference. Proposals for contributions can be submitted from now on.

In January 2018, two new projects started at LIfBi: Research projects SEED and LIFETRACK are part of the European research program “Dynamics of Inequality Across the Life Course” (DIAL).

In his lecture titled “Federal School System and Small-Scale Social Segregation: About the Increasing Relevance of Context Effects in the Empirical Educational Research” Prof. Dr. Marcel Helbing from the Social Science Center Berlin (WZB) and the University of Erfurt discussed the question regarding the extent to which context effects can be conceptualized and measured in empirical educational research. The lecture was held on April 17.

On April 12, 2018, Dr. Klaus Pforr, Research Assistant at the German Microdata Lab at GESIS-Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences, presented a project in which small-scale regional context data are extrapolated from the microcensus.

Starting on April 1, 2018, Prof. Dr. Sabine Weinert has taken over the position of Interim Director of the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories and will thus also lead the NEPS study “Educational Trajectories in Germany”. She succeeds Prof. Dr. Sandra Buchholz, who had been managing the Institute during its dynamic development phase after the retirement of Prof. Dr. Hans-Günther Roßbach.

Led by the Chair Professor Marlis Buchmann from the University of Zurich, the 14th meeting of the LIfBi Board of Trustees took place on March 21, 2018. Interim Director Professor Sandra Buchholz gave her final report to the Board of Trustees about key themes and developments during her one-year tenure, which will end on March 31, 2018. Professor Sabine Weinert was appointed by the Board of Trustees as the new Interim Director as of April 1.