Creating Educational Career Options on the Upper Secondary School Level and Safe-Guarding Standards.

The present study was carried out to investigate consequences of the opening of the upper secondary school system. Opening means that in the German system, multiple ways lead to the final school-leaving certificate ("Abitur"). Based on data from Baden-Wuerttemberg and Northrhine-Westfalia we analyzed English achievement in different types of upper secondary schools (traditional "Gymnasium" vs. comprehensive school vs. vocational "Gymnasium"). English achievement was measured by means of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). North American universities usually define cut-off values (minimum standards) for the TOEFL that must be reached by nonnative speakers in order to be accepted for an undergraduate program. Findings show that most students from traditional "Gymnasien" reach the TOEFL-cut-off values defined by American universities, whereas substantial numbers of students from the other school types failed meaning that their TOEFL- scores were below the cut-off values. The findings clearly suggest that the opening of the upper secondary school system has led to some unsolved problems in terms of reaching minimum standards in English as a foreign language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Am Beispiel gymnasialer Oberstufen in Baden-Württemberg und Nordrhein-Westfalen wurde untersucht, welche Konsequenzen die Öffnung der Wege zur Hochschulreife für das in der Oberstufe erreichte Leistungsniveau in Englisch hat. Die Englischkenntnisse wurden mithiilfe des Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) erfasst. Der TOEFL erlaubt, anhand von kritischen Werten, die amerikanische Universitäten als Aufnahmekriterium für ausländische Studen ten festsetzen, Leistungserwartungen (Standards) am Ende der gymnasialen Oberstufe zu definieren. Die Analysen machen deutlich, dass große Anteile der Absolven ten an ailgemein bildenden Gymnasien die kritischen Werte im TOEFL erreichen. Die Anteile an den übrigen Schulformen sind deutlich geringer. Die Befunde implizieren, dass infolge der Einrichtung akernather Wege zur Hochschulreife die Einhaltung von Leistungsstandards - hier in der Fremdsprache Englisch - ein ungelöstes Problem darstellt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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