A child's age in comparison to the age of her or his classmates (relative age) has been found to be an influential factor on academic achievement, particularly but not exclusively at the beginning of formal schooling. However, few studies have focused on the generalizability of relative age effects. To close this gap, the present study analyzes the generalizability across students with and without immigrant backgrounds, across three student cohorts that entered school under a changing law of school enrollment, and across classes. To this end, we capitalized on representative large-scale data sets from three student cohorts attending public schools in Berlin, the capital of Germany. We analyzed the data using a multilevel framework. Our results for the overall student sample indicate relative age effects for reading and mathematics in favor of the relatively older students in Grade 2 that become somewhat smaller in size in Grade 3. By Grade 8, relative age effects had vanished in reading and had even reversed in favor of the relatively young in mathematics. Furthermore, relative age effects were not found to be systematically different among students with and without immigrant backgrounds, student cohorts, or across classes. Taken together, these results empirically underscore the broad generalizability of the findings as found for the overall student population and replicate the pattern of findings on relative effects as identified by the majority of previous studies.

Zusammenfassung Eine stark heterogene Schülerschaft gilt für Schulen als herausfordernd für das Erreichen leistungsbezogener Bildungsziele. Wir untersuchen, ob Lernen in über drei Jahrgangsstufen zusammengefassten Gruppen (Jahrgangsübergreifendes Lernen; JÜL-3) die Leistungsentwicklung in Schulen mit einer ethnisch heterogenen Schüler schaft in besonderem Maße unterstützen kann. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass unter Kontrolle der Vorleistung JÜL-3-Schulen mit hohen Anteilen an Schüler*innen mit Migrations hintergrund relativ zu vergleichbaren Schulen, die jahrgangsbezogen unterrichten, einen Leistungsvorsprung in Deutsch (standardisierte Mittelwertdiff erenz [SMD]: SMD = 0,19) und in Mathematik (SMD = 0,16) erzielten. Es wird diskutiert, inwiefern eine Leistungsförderung durch JÜL insbesondere an Schulen erfolgreich ist, die durch eine heterogene Schülerschaft herausgefordert sind. AbstractTh e achievement of high learning outcomes is challenged by a school's highly heterogeneous student body. We investigate whether learning in groups comprising three age cohorts (mixed-age learning; JÜL-3) can be particularly supportive of competence development in schools with ethnically heterogeneous students. Results show that, controlling for prior achievement, JÜL-3 schools with a high proportion of students from an immigrant background achieved an average performance (measured in standardized mean diff erences [SMD]) in German that was SMD = 0.19 better and an average performance Steuerungsinstrumente und Evidenzquellen im Vergleich DDS, 14. Beiheft (2019) in mathematics that was SMD = 0.16 better than in comparable schools teaching their students in groups separated by age. We discuss whether the promotion of learning outcomes by JÜL is particularly successful in schools, which are challenged by a heterogeneous student population.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract