Enlarge image
Board picture for awarding certificates (archive picture): "Much Ado About Nothing"
Photo: Friso Gentsch / DPA
Behavior: poor.
Diligence: satisfactory.
According to an analysis by the Ifo Institute, the controversial assessment of the behavior of schoolchildren by means of so-called top marks is meaningless for educational success and career entry.
In a data analysis, the researchers found no major differences between students with and without the assessment, as the economic research institute from Munich announced on Monday.
The controversial debates about these grades are "much ado about nothing," said Ifo researcher Florian Schoner.
The top grades are not awarded for professional performance, but for social behavior - whoever receives top grades can see whether and how social or reliable they are.
"Neither in terms of school performance, character traits or employment, we can prove any significant differences for schoolchildren with and without behavioral grades," emphasized Schoner.
Whether there were top notes has neither positive nor negative effects there.
In 2019, a student from Saxony successfully sued against top marks in his diploma.
He had argued that giving the behavioral grades reduced his chances of getting an apprenticeship.
The experts in the study did not investigate whether students with good top grades were more successful than those with poor grades.
For their analysis, the researchers used data from federal states in which the top note practice changed - that is, where these censorships were introduced or abolished.
They evaluated these differences.
According to the researchers, one possible explanation for the ineffectiveness is that the information content of the notes is low.
The subject grades of the students already included behavior and cooperation in part.
sun / dpa