Study title

On 21 May 2006, Swiss citizens adopted the revised education articles of the Federal Constitution by a large majority. Since then, the cantons have been obliged to harmonize key parameters of compulsory education at the national level. These include the age when starting school, compulsory schooling, the duration and objectives of educational levels, and the transitions between school levels (Article 62(4) of the Federal Constitution). In June 2011, for the first time, the 26 cantons approved national educational objectives for four subject areas and thereby created an important basis for the implementation of the constitutional mandate. These educational objectives define the basic competencies which pupils should acquire in the language of instruction, in a second national language and in English, in mathematics, as well as in natural sciences at defined school levels. In the framework of the review of the achievement of basic competencies, the first nationwide tests were conducted in 2016 to determine the extent to which Swiss pupils have already achieved parts of basic competencies in mathematics in the respective cantons at the end of compulsory schooling. On the one hand, the results were supposed to show the degree of similarity between the cantons at the start of harmonization and the degree to which the basic competencies were achieved in the assessed areas. On the other hand, this was the first time that such comprehensive data have been collected, which can be used for national educational monitoring and cantonal processes of quality development. To this end, the standardized performance tests in mathematics were supplemented by a questionnaire on individual, school, and family aspects, which represent key indicators for explaining differences in performance levels. All 26 Swiss cantons participated with a representative sample. The schools and pupils were drawn according to a two-stage sampling procedure. A total of 22,423 pupils took part throughout...