Center for Research on Education and School Development Celebrates 50th Anniversary

The IFS was founded on 27 June 1973 by educational researcher, Prof. Hans-Günter Rolff, who was also the director for over thirty years. At that time, the IFS was the first research institute of its kind at a German teacher training college (PH). “We wanted to conduct cutting-edge research and not leave school development to the government ministries,” says Rolff, looking back on the early days. Once PH Ruhr was integrated, the IFS became part of Dortmund University in 1980 and now belongs to the Department of Educational Sciences and Psychology.

Significant public interest in school performance studies

Starting with just one professor and nine employees, the IFS has since grown rapidly and now has five professors and a total of around 60 employees. The second professor was added almost 20 years after the center was founded, followed by the third in 1997, the fourth in 2001, and the fifth in 2023. During the panel discussion, Prof. Wilfried Bos talked about how the PISA study shocked Germany in 2000, and how the IFS conducted a number of other comparative studies as a result, including TIMSS in 2007 (mathematics and natural sciences) or ICILS in 2012 (computer and data skills).  However, the IFS also supported the development of all-day schools academically or advised schools in challenging locations in various cities in the Ruhr region. With the founding of the German Academy for Educational Leadership (DAPF) in 2005, the IFS also responded to the widespread lack of school administrators.

However, it is still the research results on pupil performance that garners the IFS the most public attention in politics and society – right down to interviews in the daily news. This is especially true when the results point to weaknesses within the education system. IGLU 2021, a study commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs, recently revealed alarming results on the literacy of fourth graders.  Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger praised the center's work on its anniversary: “The Center for Research on Education and School Development stands for academically sound and dedicated work,” wrote the minister in her congratulations.

Interdisciplinary collaboration with other departments

The center has a measurable research strength. Since it was founded, the IFS has executed over 200 projects and two dozen alumni have been offered professorships. The IFS currently logs almost 3 million euros in third-party funds for research projects per year. In his congratulations, President Prof. Manfred Bayer also highlighted the interdisciplinary collaboration with other departments at TU Dortmund University, for example in the FAIR joint project, which is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. “This is where educational science and data science join forces to develop innovative methods of tackling social challenges – the range of subjects at our university offers ideal conditions for this,” says Bayer.

Prof. Nele McElvany, who has been managing the IFS since 2014, thanked her two predecessors and all former and current employees of the IFS in her speech: “From school development and international comparative school performance studies to individual educational processes – over the past 50 years, the center has developed a holistic view of schools. We will continue with this approach in the future and keep working closely with our partners in schools.”

Back