Collecting Additional Panel Data on Former Special Education Students in the Context of the National Educational Panel Study
Aim
Which educational paths are chosen by students with special educational needs when they leave school? Can they make a direct transition to vocational training and who supports them on their way? Can they successfully complete vocational training? How do their competencies develop after school? So far, there are hardly any data about their subsequent educational career.
The main objective of this project was to collect additional data on former students with special educational needs in NEPS Starting Cohort 4–Grade 9–who attended the ninth grade of a special school in the school year of 2010/11.
Background
Unfortunately, no reliable longitudinal data on the post-school careers of former students with special educational needs had been available on a nationwide level yet. The limited number of regional or local studies did not provide a basis for comprehensive analyses, and most of these studies lacked a sufficient number of cases for quantitative analyses. For the first time, the follow-up study of students with special educational needs in Grade 9 enabled detailed analysis of the vocational and employment histories of these former students with special educational needs.
Approach
The contents of the questionnaire focused on institutional and personal support systems, the detailed survey of careers, and the subjective evaluation of the transition after school.
Results
With the publication of the Scientific Use Files 11.0.0 (doi:10.5157/NEPS:SC4:11.0.0) on November 13th, 2020, the project was successfully completed on time. For the first time in Germany, a comprehensive sample of (former) special needs students could be observed in their transition from school to vocational training and work and in their further development over a period of 8 years (2010-2018) in a total of eleven survey waves. As is usual with the National Educational Panel Study, this data set is available to the scientific community for detailed analysis free of charge.