Der Übergang vom Primar- zum Sekundarschulbereich: Übergangsentscheidungen von Lehrkräften

The transition from primary school to secondary school is an important event both for pupils and their parents and is a major determinant of further educational and professional progress. The transition decision by primary school teachers in Luxembourg is largely based on a pupil‘s marks, but is also (unconsciously) influenced by information that is not performance-related, such as social background, a pupil‘s immigration background and the educational attainment of their parents.
Luxembourg school grades and test results in the three core subjects have the strongest influence on the binding transition decision. Most pupils remain with the school type to which they were assigned at the end of fundamental school. Throughout the observation period, only 6% of the pupils changed to a different kind of school. However, both the parents‘ socio-economic status and the pupil‘s immigrant background exerted an influence on the transition decision. It must therefore be assumed that not only the pupil‘s individual performance will determine to which type of school they will go, but also their family background. This raises the question of how a performance-related, less socially selective transition decision can be promoted.
In a school system in which the transition decisions are binding and the freedom of choice is very low, the accuracy of the assessment is particularly important. Therefore teachers should:
(1) be explicitly reminded of their responsibility for the decision in the period in which transition decisions are being made.
(2) have the opportunity to learn about decision models and factors that reduce the quality of decisions and actively question them during the period in which the transition decisions are taken.
(3) be taught about optimum decision-making models, which include adequate weighting of the
student‘s characteristics and incorporate them appropriately.