A Historical Study on the Dissemination Process of German School Report Cards

Abstract

This paper aims to provide a historical description of how school report cards (Schulzeugnisse) were established in German society from approximately 1788 to 1848. School report cards in Germany are official documents providing information on the academic achievements and behavior of each pupil/student as a summarized form of evaluation. Previous research has already clarified the mechanism of the system for training the national elite, but this paper describes how the German evaluation system was accepted by the people along with the movements of society. Indeed, experts discuss school report cards in terms of educational practice of policy. With the historical approach, however, it is interesting to find that German school report cards were accepted in society not because of the needs of educational practice or policy, but because of the requirement of German federal states for students to take the final exam (Abitur) of the Gymnasium and to receive a school report card for application to universities in order to prevent antiestablishment students from entering the universities. In fact, some progressive university students staged a coup d'état just before school report cards became compulsory.