IQB Trends in Student Achievement 2021 (IQB-BT 2021)

The IQB Trends in Student Achievement 2021 (IQB-BT 2021) marks the start of the third cycle of national assessment studies conducted by the Institute for Quality Development in Education (IQB). These studies regularly assess the extent to which students in the 16 federal states of the Federal Republic of Germany are achieving the competence targets set out in the educational standards of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs. As part of the IQB Trends in Student Achievement 2021, key competences in the subjects of German and mathematics were tested among 26,844 4th-grade students at 1,464 primary schools. Like previous IQB studies, it thus provides a concurrent overview of students’ skills that is representative at the state level. As usual, the competence data is also supplemented by a wide range of contextual information that describes, in particular, students’ family background and motivational characteristics, teachers' and teaching characteristics, and the school context. In combination with the IQB National Assessment Study 2011 and the IQB Trends in Student Achievement 2016, the IQB-BT 2021 enables the description of trends in students’ skills over a 10 year period. Furthermore, this is the first study of the national education monitoring programme in Germany since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, information on how the pandemic and distance learning were managed was also collected for the first time. (IQB)

  • Research Design: Oberservational Design
  • Sample: Students in grade 4 (N=26,844); Teachers (N=1,738); Principals (N=1,178); Schools (N=1,464)
  • DOI: 10.5159/IQB_BT_2021_SUF_Off-site_v1
  • Restrictions: Yes

  • Socio-demographic Background
    • ISCO
    • ISEI
    • SIOPS
    • EGP class
    • ISCED
    • ISCO of the parents
    • ISEI of the parents
    • SIOPS parents
    • ISCED of parents
    • Years of education: parents
    • Occupational position of parents
    • Highest educational attainment of parents
    • Graduation qualification of parents
    • Educational qualification parents
  • Migration Background
    • Country of birth
    • Country of birth of the child
    • School abroad
    • Moving age
    • Country of birth child
    • Generational status
    • Refugee biography
    • Country of birth parents
    • Country of birth grandparents
  • Cultural Capital
    • Use of German at home
    • Books at home
    • Age at language aquisition
    • Institution of language acquisition
    • Mother tongue of parents
    • Literary works read by parents
  • Family Background
  • Personal Characteristics
    • Sex child
    • Age of the child
    • Social behavior
  • School-related Attitudes and Behaviors
    • Readiness of the child to learn and perform
    • Attitude towards joint teaching students with/without special educational needs
    • Gender stereotypes
    • School Satisfaction
  • Occupational Situation
    • Professional development needs
    • Instructions per week
    • Work contract
    • Satisfaction
    • Future career plans OR Intention to continue working in the profession
    • Effort
  • Professional Education
    • Teacher education (teaching degree program)
    • Teacher preparatory service (induction phase)
    • Lateral entry
    • First academic degree
    • Subjects in first degree program
    • Further studies
    • Second academic degree
    • Subjects in second degree program
    • Recognized teaching qualification through continuing education
    • Teaching type
    • Focus of the special education training
  • Institutional Characteristics
    • Use of support services by the child
    • School type
    • Sponsorship of the school
    • Mixed-age school entry phase
    • Type of school
    • Degree of urbanization of the location
    • Preschool care
    • School abroad
    • German grade
    • Math grade
    • Transition recommendation
    • Special educational needs
    • Identified specific learning disability
    • Support focus
  • Educational Biography
    • Educational needs
    • Factors influencing primary school choice
    • Transition decision
  • School Atmosphere
    • Gender stereotypes
    • Experience of stress
  • Performance Assessment/ Diagnostic Competence
    • Assessment of performance requirements
    • Compensation for disadvantages
    • Documentation
  • School Effects
    • Parents' assessment of school quality
  • Cognitive Learning Outcomes
  • Metacognitive Learning Outcomes
  • Individual Characteristics
    • Sex
    • Age
  • Professional Self Concept
    • Career choice motivation
    • Attitude towards joint teaching
  • Pedagogical Content Knowledge
    • Definition of the language of instruction
    • Instruments for assessing language proficiency
    • Language diagnostics
  • Professional Experience
    • Years working
    • Working hours at current school
    • Years working at the school
  • Evaluation and Achievement Measurement
    • Participation in VERA-3
    • Professional development on VERA assessments
    • Attitudes towards VERA
    • Participation in professional development on VERA assessments
    • analysis of VERA assessment results
  • Participative School Climate
    • Involvement of students
    • Trusted persons / trusted adults
    • Co-determination
  • Lesson Design/ Teaching Practice
    • Internal differentiation
    • Design of early literacy instruction
    • Error climate in early literacy instruction (spelling instruction)
    • Digital media use
    • Teaching Methods During the COVID-19 Pandemic
    • Distance learning
    • Hybrid instruction
    • In-person instruction
    • Individual exemption
  • Use and Variation of Different Teaching Methods
    • Small-group work
    • Classroom instruction
    • Interdisciplinary learning
    • Learning by teaching
    • Phonics-based writing
    • Use of digital teaching and learning methods
    • Evaluation of Distance Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic
  • Lesson Preparation and Lesson Content
    • Language in math lessons
  • Learning Atmosphere in the Classroom and in the Class Group
    • Experience of stress
  • School Location
    • Federal state (Bundesland)
  • Organization of School Operations
    • Duration of distance learning
    • Duration of hybrid learning
  • Organization of Teaching Operations
    • Assignment of behavior and effort grades
  • Organization of all-day Operation
    • Form of all-day operation
    • Start of full-day operation
    • Cooperation with after-school care or youth services
    • Number of days of full-day operation
  • School ICT Usage
    • Number of ICT
    • ICT operating time
    • Number of ICT with internet
    • Operating system
    • ICT rooms
    • WLAN
    • Use of learning software
    • Availability of software
    • Media coordinator
  • Composition of the Student Body
    • Number of students with special educational needs (SPF)
    • Number of refugees
    • Country of origin of refugees
    • Integration of refugees
  • Composition of the Faculty
    • Number of educational staff
  • Cooperation
    • Extracurricular additional offers
  • Individual and Institutional Background
  • Self-Related Attitudes
    • Self-worth
    • Self-efficacy expectation
    • Taking responsibility
    • Self Concept
    • Experience with technical equipment
    • Confidence in using technology
  • Learning and Performance-related Attitudes
    • Interest
    • Subject-specific self-concept
    • Anxiety
    • Boredom
  • Perception of School as a Living Environment
    • Victimization and social inclusion
  • Social Climate
    • Performance pressure
    • Gender stereotypes
    • Academic support
  • Deviant Behavior
  • Class Management
    • Supportive learning climate
  • Professional Support/ Individual Support
  • Effective Use of Time/ Discipline in the Classroom
  • Student Orientation/ Social Support
  • Reference Norm Orientation
  • Instructional Offerings
    • Cognitive activation
  • Learning Climate
  • Classroom Climate
  • Other
    • Subject-specific classroom climate

  • Domain-Specific Cognitive Competencies
  • Mathematics Achievement
    • Numbers and operations
    • Patterns and structures
    • Sizes and measurement
    • Space and shape
    • Data, frequency and probability
  • Test Instrument Mathematics
  • in-house development
  • Linguistic Competence
    • Reading Speed
  • Test Instrument Language
  • German Language
  • Reading
  • Listening Comprehension
  • Spelling
  • Cross-Domain Cognitive Skills
    • Logical thinking
  • Test Instrument Intelligence
  • BEFKI - Berliner Test zur Erfassung fluider und kristalliner Intelligenz
  • KFT - Kognitiver Fähigkeitstest
Apply for Scientific Use Files
Data Set Published on
March 30, 2026
Current Version Available Since
March 30, 2026
Survey Period
2021
Sample
Students in grade 4 (N=26,844); Teachers (N=1,738); Principals (N=1,178); Schools (N=1,464)
Survey Unit
  • Parents
  • Teachers
  • Principals
  • Students
Measured Competencies
German, Mathematics
Region
Germany, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia
Principal Investigators
  • Schipolowski, Dr. Stefan
  • Stanat, Prof. Dr. Petra
Data Producers
  • Institut zur Qualitätsentwicklung im Bildungswesen (IQB)
Funded by
Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany
Related Studies
Suggested Citation
Stanat, P., Schipolowski, S., Schneider, R., Sachse, K. A., Weirich, S., Henschel, S., Hafiz, N. J., Burblies, J. H., Enke, F., & Grewers, E. (2026). IQB-Bildungstrend Primarstufe 2021 (IQB-BT 2021) [IQB Trends in Student Achievement 2021 (IQB-BT 2021)] (Version 1) [Data set]. Berlin: IQB – Institut zur Qualitätsentwicklung im Bildungswesen. http://doi.org/10.5159/IQB_BT_2021_SUF_Off-site_v1
Restriction Notice

Cognitive abilities must not be used as a dependent variable in the analyses.

Users of the data set should always cite the scale manual:

Burblies, J. H., Grewers, E., Becker, B., Enke, F., Hafiz, N. J., Schneider, R., Sachse, K. A., Weirich, S., & Schipolowski, S. (2026). IQB-Bildungstrend 2021. Skalenhandbuch zur Dokumentation der Erhebungsinstrumente in den Fächern Deutsch und Mathematik. [IQB Trends in Student Achievement 2016 scaling manual. Documentation of the survey instruments in the subjects German and Mathematics] Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institut zur Qualitätsentwicklung im Bildungswesen. https://doi.org/10.18452/36034

Blank data sets

For a first overview of the data set and its variables, dummy data sets containing the variables used and the value labels relating to them are provided for download here.

IQB-BT 2021 Linking IQB-BT 2021 Matching IQB-BT 2021 Principals IQB-BT 2021 Teachers IQB-BT 2021 Teachers specifc IQB-BT 2021 Student

Documentation

Here you can find further documentation:

IQB-BT 2021 Scaling Manual

Further information

  • https://www.iqb.hu-berlin.de/de/schule/primarstufe/bildungstrend/2021/
  • https://doi.org/10.31244/9783830996064

General and study-specific methodological notes on our large-scale assessment studies (IQB Trends in Student Achievement, IQB National Assessment Study, PISA, PIRLS) can be found here: https://fdz.iqb.hu-berlin.de/en/use-data/methodological-information/

Literature

Selected literature is listed here.

IQB-BT 2021 Literature (.bib)