SPP 1646:  Education as a Lifelong Process. Analysing Data of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS)

• Subject Area: Social and Behavioural Sciences
• Term: from 2012 to 2024
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 200734181

In Germany, little is known about education as a lifelong process or about the cumulative and interactive impact of learning that occurs in multiple contexts over the life span. The new National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) in Germany provides unique, nationally representative longitudinal data on individual educational careers and competencies and how they unfold over the life course in relation to the family, educational institutions, workplaces and private life. The Priority Programme encompasses 17 research projects from six different disciplines that are devoted to one or more of the following research topics: (1) studying competence development over the life course, (2) utilising the NEPS database for other relevant substantive analyses, (3) combining NEPS data with additional national and/or international datasets and (4) dealing with methodological issues relevant to the NEPS. These projects are distributed throughout seven German universities and seven German research institutes. The Priority Programme is coordinated by Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Dr. h.c. Hans-Peter Blossfeld and Prof. Dr. Sabine Weinert (both University of Bamberg). The first assessment waves of the NEPS were carried out in 2009/2010 (adult cohort) and 2010/2011 (kindergarten children at age four, children in secondary school at ages 10 and 15, and freshmen at the institutions of tertiary education). In 2013, a sample of infants (in their first year of life) will be added to the NEPS. These cohorts will be followed up by yearly sweeps. Data from the first wave of the NEPS was recently published as a scientific use file. While the main programme is approved for six years (since 1.1.2012), the individual projects will be implemented initially for three years and may be extended after three years as well as new projects will be included.

• DFG Programme: Infrastructure Priority Programmes
• International Connection: Norway, USA

Projects

• A Bayesian model framework for analyzing data from longitudinal large-scale assessments (Applicants Aßmann, Ph.D., Christian ;  Carstensen, Claus ;  Pohl, Steffi )
• Acculturation as an effective mechanism on immigrant students academic achievement and well-being. An analysis of data of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). (Applicant Lilla, Nanine )
• Alternative Routes to Higher Education Eligibility: Disentangling Diversion Processes from Higher Education (Applicant Schindler, Steffen )
• Causal estimates of education on fertility, marriage and cohabitation (Applicant Tamm, Marcus )
• Competencies and educational choices across gender and immigrant background in Germany - The role of gender socialisation (Applicant Kogan, Ph.D., Irena )
• Coordination Funds (Applicant Weinert, Sabine )
• Determinants of the emergence of gender-specific patterns of competencies and decision making over the educational career in Germany (Applicant Blossfeld, Hans-Peter )
• Development and Determinants of Student's Aspirations in Elementary School (Applicant Wohlkinger, Florian )
• Education and Vocational Training, Transitions and Labor Market Outcomes (Applicant Fitzenberger, Ph.D., Bernd )
• Educational- and occupational careers of tertiary education drop-outs. A longitundinal analysis with the NEPS-Erwachsenenpanel (Applicant Tieben, Nicole )
• Educational Progress of Children at Risk of Low Academic Achievement: A Psychometrically Informed Investigation of Educational Outcomes and Resilience Factors with Longitudinal Data of the National Educational Panel Study (Applicants Doebler, Philipp ;  Gebhardt, Markus )
• Employment-Related Further Training in a Dynamic Labor Market: The Role of Business Cycles and Technological Change (Applicants Anger, Silke ;  Pollak, Reinhard )
• Enhancing the Quality and Utility of Longitudinal Data for Education Research (Applicants Drechsler, Jörg ;  Sakshaug, Joseph )
• Ethnic Networks and the Educational Achievement of Immigrants across the life-span (Applicant Kalter, Frank )
• Extension and Application of Local Structural Equation Modeling to Longitudinal Data (Applicants Hildebrandt, Andrea ;  Schroeders, Ulrich )
• Heterogeneity and reading competence: The role of institutional and home learning environment (Applicants Nottbusch, Guido ;  Spörer, Nadine )
• How Does Reducing the Intensity of Tracking Affect Student Achievement and Equity? Evidence from German State Reforms (Applicant Wößmann, Ludger )
• Impact of early childcare arrangements and the home-learning environment on child development (ViVAplus) (Applicants Roßbach, Hans-Günther ;  Weinert, Sabine )
• Inequality in Educational Transitions During Secondary School: Family, Regional and Institutional Conditions (Applicant Ditton, Hartmut )
• Modeling missing data in competence tests (Applicant Pohl, Steffi )
• New opportunities or reinforced disadvantages? Variation in returns to low-achieving school leavers' participation in pre-vocational training measures - Extension: Dropping out of VET programs (Short: N.O.R.D. 2) (Applicant Solga, Heike )
• Occupational Sex Segregation and its Consequences for the (Re-)Production of Gender Inequalities in the German Labour Market (Applicants Kleinert, Corinna ;  Leuze, Kathrin )
• Schooling and regional factors as determinants of employees' participation in further education (Applicants Görlitz, Katja ;  Tamm, Marcus )
• Social inequality in (post-)secondary educational careers: The relevance of spatial contexts (Applicant Hillmert, Steffen )
• Social Networks and the Transition from Education to Work (Applicant Roth, Tobias )
• Stability and Change in Adult Competencies: Patterns and Predictors of Literacy and Numeracy Development (Applicant Lechner, Clemens )
• Teacher Effectiveness and its Determinants in Germany: A Deepened Analysis (Applicant Wößmann, Ludger )
• The effect of geographical mobility, college quality and career interruptions on the returns to education (Applicants Puhani, Patrick ;  Sprietsma, Maresa )
• The effects of regional and neighbourhood contexts on young people's aspirations and access to vocational education and training in Germany (Applicant Ludwig-Mayerhofer, Wolfgang )
• The impact of compositional, contextual and institutional school characteristics on health and well-being throughout the educational career (Applicant Richter, Matthias )
• The relationship of attitudes towards education, social origin and educational success. (Applicant Offerhaus, Judith )
• The role of immigrants' first and second language proficiency for social integration, particularly in education: Analyses of NEPS data (Applicants Kristen, Cornelia ;  Stanat, Petra )
• Trajectories and transitions throughout the educational career: Implications for young peoples health and health inequalities. (Applicants Rathmann, Katharina ;  Richter, Matthias )
• Using the NEPS database to examine effects of a reform in upper-secondary education on achievement differences, and gender disparities (Applicant Trautwein, Ulrich )
• Value-added Based Measures of Teacher Effectiveness and their Determinants in the German National Educational Panel Study (Applicant Wößmann, Ludger )
• Video-Based Validity Analyses and Interrelations between Measures of Early Childhood Competencies and Learning Environments (ViVA II) (Applicants Roßbach, Hans-Günther ;  Weinert, Sabine )
• When immigrants are aiming high: Educational achievement and attainment in light of greater aspirations (Applicants Kristen, Cornelia ;  Will, Gisela )
• Which role do classmates play for own achievement growth? An empirical analysis of the transmission channels through which ability peer effects operate. (Applicant Kiss, David )

• Spokesperson: Professorin Dr. Sabine Weinert, since 4/2013