In response to PISA, all German federal states but one have adopted central exitexaminations (CEEs) at the end of all secondary school tracks. Theoretically, the advantagesof CEEs are fairly undisputed. CEEs make teaching and learning output observable andcomparable across schools, and provide...

Economic theory suggests that it is optimal to reward teachers depending on therelative performance of their students. We develop an econometric approach, based onstochastic frontier analysis, to construct a fair ranking that accounts for the socio-economicbackground of students and schools and...

Das deutsche Bildungssystem steht auf dem Prüfstand. Nach den international verglei-chenden Schulstudien der vergangenen Jahre wird in Deutschland über neue, ungewohnte Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten nachgedacht. Reformen des Bildungssystems sind denkbar gewor-den, die es ohne die Debatte um PISA...

The paper analyzes school choice in primary schools in Germany. The data used isfrom Wuppertal, a major city in North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW), where primaryschool districts existed before 2008. It is shown that it is not uncommon to attend aprimary school that is not the assigned public school....