The problem of students who fail at school is known all around the world. These children are said to have learning difficulties, “learning delays” or even learning disabilities. Whereas in most of the western countries most of these students attend comprehensive schools, Germany excludes most of these students to other types of schools. Germany has developed a highly discriminating system of special education with special schools for children with different special needs. Accordingly there are specific schools for students with learning disabilities. Since they have smaller classes and teachers who are trained in diagnostics and the promotion of learning difficulties these schools are supposed to foster learning disabled children in the most adequate way.

Historically the German special needs schools for children with learning difficulties were established in the 19^th century for students who showed a delay of performance of at least two years. Even today there is no indication, that students with learning disabilities learn or develop competencies in a different way than their peers that attend regular schools. Most of them seem to learn much slower and therefore have learning delays of several years. But they quiet differ in (low) performance and cognitive potential. The range of the students’ intelligence quotient varies roughly between 55 and 85 points.

As a consequence of TIMSS and PISA and with the purpose to raise the quality of instruction at school several new instruments of governance were introduced and are quite well established by now. That is e.g. central exams or the yearly assessment of the students’ performance in classes three and eight. Special needs schools have not been addressees of some of those changes. These schools seem to be a hidden fourth track of the German school system. They have been excluded to a large extent from the before mentioned assessments. That happened for a quite simple reason: the tests are much too difficult for the vast majority of students with learning disabilities. That means the special needs schools are excluded from an action that is supposed to support schools in their evidence-based quality development because there is no applicable instrument for the assessment.

To assess a group of students whose performance is much below-average but nethertheless quite heterogeneous, a test needs to offer items with a broad range of difficulties. Therefore I have composed an instrument using already existing items to assess the mathematical literacy of students with learning disabilities in classes 8 and 9. Taking into account the learning delays of at least two years my sources were a) a psychological test to assess the basic mathematical competencies on primary school level and b) items that were used for the comparative assessment in class 6 of the Hauptschule (lower secondary school) in different German Länder (federal states).

My research questions are:

1. Does an instrument that uses items to actually assess younger students’ performance fit the potential of students with learning disabilities?
2. How extensive are the students’ learning delays? Is it still adequate to refer to the historically experienced two-year-delay?

Biermann, A. & Götze, H. (2005). Sonderpädagogik. Eine Einführung. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer. Lauth, G.W., Grünke, M. & Brunstein, C. (Hrsg.) (2004). Interventionen bei Lernstörungen. Förderung, Training und Therapie in der Praxis. Göttingen: Hogrefe. Moser Opitz (in Vorb.). Test zur Überprüfung mathematischer Basiskompetenzen: unveröffentlichter Test, TU Dortmund. Peek, R. (2002). Die Bedeutung vergleichender Schulleistungsmessungen für die Qualitätskontrolle und Qualitätsentwicklung von Schulen und Schulsystemen. In F.E. Weinert (Hrsg.). Leistungsmessungen in Schulen (2. Auflage) (S. 323-335). Weinheim: Beltz. Schröder, U. (2000). Lernbehindertenpädagogik. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer. Weinert, F.E. (2001). Vergleichende Leistungsmessung in Schulen – eine umstrittene Selbstverständlichkeit. In F.E. Weinert (Hrsg.). Leistungsmessung in Schulen (2. Auflage) (S. 17-31). Weinheim: Beltz. Online sources for PARS-F test items: Assessment (Kompetenztests) in Thuringia : http://www.kompetenztest.de/kompetenztest1.html Assessment (Lernstandserhebungen) North Rhine Westphalia: http://www.standardsicherung.schulministerium.nrw.de/lernstand8/materialien/ Assessment (Vergleichsarbeiten) in the Federal Republic of Germany (since 2008): http://www.iqb.hu-berlin.de/vera2