However, the success of the reform is quite mixed. Performance has neither increased across the board nor has educational inequality decreased, shows an anthology published on the ten-year anniversary. In the publication of the Austrian Society for Research and Development in Education (ÖFEB), educational scientists examined how teaching practices have changed as a result of the switch to the NMS. According to the article by Christoph Helm and Claudia Schreiner, there were only significant improvements in learning support in German lessons.
In English it was only slightly lower, and in mathematics support actually declined in the first few years following the introduction of the NMS, as shown by a comparison of data from the educational standards reviews from 2009 to 2018. Teachers at schools that were attended by many young people tried to do so with a non-German mother tongue and from lower social classes, to respond more closely to the needs of young people in all subjects and at all times of the survey.
Only partially more equal opportunities
The change has only partially led to more equal opportunities. It is true that the level of proficiency in English has improved more among NMS students than among AHS students and even more so among students with a migrant background or from educationally disadvantaged families. At the same time, according to an analysis by Mario Steiner, the social differences at the transition from primary school have increased over the last decade – and thus during the establishment of the NMS. Students with a migrant background are found even more often at the NMS and even less frequently at lower secondary schools than before. The chances of switching to an AHS upper level or BHS following an NMS have increased, especially for students with a migrant background. However, more and more students with an NMS background are dropping out of school that leads to the Matura.
According to the researchers, the changed grading in the NMS is also “not a success story”: the overlapping grading scale with de facto seven grades at the “basic” or “in-depth” levels from the 3rd grade onwards can no longer be meaningfully combined with the legal grade definitions be brought,” says the analysis by Ferdinand Eder and Georg Hans Neuweg. This problem remains even following the conversion of the new middle school to the middle school in 2020, which also saw the reintroduction of permanent performance groups from the 2nd grade onwards and seven-part grading at the “Standard” and “Standard AHS” levels. The assessment according to “in-depth level” or “standard AHS” is a prerequisite for switching to an AHS upper level or BHS following graduation without an admission process.
At high schools you have to do “noticeably more” to get a grade
What is also “very irritating” for the researchers is that in order to get the same grade, “noticeably more” has to be achieved at high schools than at the actually equivalent “in-depth level” of the NMS. According to their findings, the performance standards there – with the exception of “Very Good” – have been massively and fundamentally lowered. At the “basic level,” performance standards have remained the same or even been tightened.
The new middle school was a prestige object of SPÖ Education Minister Claudia Schmid, who actually wanted to take a step towards comprehensive schools. However, this failed because the ÖVP stuck to the AHS lower level. The NMS was initially introduced as a pilot project in 2008/09 and was finally implemented across the board in 2012/13 following mixed evaluation results. The new system included, among other things, team teaching in German, math and English for two teachers to teach together for six hours per week. From 2015, the additional hours might also be used for other support measures (promotion of gifted students, special or advanced courses, etc.). With the 2020/21 school year, the NMS was renamed “middle school” once more under turquoise-blue.
