Today a variety of diagnostic data is available for most federal states in Germany. Such data forms a strong basis in developing programmes for school- and instruction improvement. Professional data analysis, as well as practice-orientation in its use in needed, to provide schools with development of support measures in practice. One measurement tool within the scope of statewide statistics contains social indices. In North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) such indices are used for fair comparisons e.g. in feedback proficiency levels of students to schools (Isaac, 2011). Index-data can be complemented by achievement data and results of central exams of the same cohort. Such multilevel data can be used to identify schools in neighbourhoods with challenging socio-economic circumstances, which have problems in exploring their potential. Based on this data, school-development programmes can be established, which provide schools with evidence-based support that fit their actual needs. The joint research and development project “Developing Potentials – Empowering Schools” follows that path, bringing the Institute for School Development Research TU Dortmund and the University of Duisburg-Essen together with the State Institute QUA-LiS. Starting point of the project is the identification of schools that deviate from the empirically expected learning outcomes by their social index either positively or negatively, and schools that perform as expected (Burkard, Isaac & Pfeiffer, 2014). In a second step the situation of good and weaker schools is analysed with view to internal and external conditions. In a third step this data is used in developing specific support-programmes for schools with comparable context and development conditions. The presentation introduces the NRW social index and the identification of schools in challenging circumstances. In addition, analyses to site-specific disparities using the social index are presented. Findings related to schools demonstrating unexpected high or low results, opens opportunities for goal-oriented activities of school development.

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