Special tuition for children and young people with a migration background

In the context of the "Special tuition" project, which is funded by the Mercator Foundation, children and young people with a migration background who attend grades five to ten of lower secondary schools were provided with extra-curricular German language and homework support for two to four hours per week. The aim of the extra-curricular tuition was the improvement of migrant students' educational opportunities and assistance in their gaining better or higher qualifications.

The special tuition concept was developed at the University of Essen over 30 years ago and became successfully established there. Since the year 2000 it has been funded by the Mercator Foundation, which decided in June 2004 to put the project out to tender nationally. In the meantime projects which are following the Essen model are being funded at a total of 35 locations. These locations include among other: Essen, Dortmund, Bochum, Bottrop, Dresden, Leipzig, Mannheim, Augsburg, Gelsenkirchen, Bielefeld, Hamburg, Freiburg, Stuttgart, Frankfurt am Main, Potsdam, Mainz, Cologne, Schleswig-Holstein, Wiesbaden, Wuppertal, Berlin, Schwäbisch-Gmünd, Berlin-Mitte, Bremen, Hildesheim, Saarbrücken and Duisburg.

In 2005 the efms took on the scientific monitoring and evaluation of the project. The evaluation aims to answer the following key questions:

1. Effects of the project for the pupils: Does the special tuition concept increase the pupils' performance at school and in the German language? Do the pupils with a migration background strengthen their soft skills (ability to communicate, behavioural certainty, motivation) as a result of their participation in the special tuition?
2. Effects of the project for the teachers: Does the special tuition have positive effects on the teaching qualification of the teachers providing the special tuition? Do the teachers providing the special tuition expect their chances of finding a teaching job to improve as a result of this teaching?
3. Effects for the individual locations in which the special tuition is provided: What individual project concepts are there in the locations? What good-practice examples can be identified?

Publication:
efms: Förderunterricht für Kinder und Jugendliche mit Migrationshintergrund. Evaluation des Projekts der Stiftung Mercator. Kurzfassung. Bamberg 2009