ICCS is the global comparative study on civic and citizenship education in schools. It focuses on pupils in year 8 and thus on youth at an age at which the school can still contribute to shaping knowledge and attitudes before they are called upon to vote in elections for the first time. In the study, conceptual political knowledge and basic argumentation skills are surveyed. To roughly the same extent, the study focuses on pupils' attitudes, their sense of belonging and their willingness to participate through various modes of participation.

ICCS takes into account the formal, non-formal and informal educational context with a focus on relevant civic learning opportunities, participation experiences and characteristics of the school climate. In addition to students, teachers, school administrators and information from the education system are also included. The study enables an international comparison covering more than two-thirds of education systems within the EU.

ICCS 2027 is scheduled for spring 2027 in the northern hemisphere. ICCS 2027 provides for a stratified sampling of schools that is optimized for the representative mapping of the population.

Milestones
2025 Piloting and preparation for the field test
2026 Implementation and evaluation of the field test and preparation for the main study
2027 Survey phase of the main study
2028 Creation of the data set; analysis and reporting
2029 Publication of the report, feedback to schools, provision of the data set

The German Conference of Education Ministers (KMK) voted in favor of a representative sample for Germany as a whole.
The national consortium for ICCS 2027 in Germany is composed of interdisciplinary members from the fields of social sciences didactics (Prof. Dr. Katrin Hahn-Laudenberg, University of Münster), educational research and school pedagogy (Prof. Dr. Hermann Josef Abs, University of Duisburg-Essen) and psychological diagnostics (Prof. Dr. Frank Goldammer, DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education in Frankfurt am Main).

The national study center (NSC) is being set up at IfPol at the University of Münster in cooperation with the Educational Research and Schooling department at the University of Duisburg-Essen. The study is funded in Germany by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and internationally by the European Union (EU).

If you have any questions about the project, please contact Prof. Dr. Katrin Hahn-Laudenberg or our team e-mail adress.

In February and March of 2025, new student test and student questionnaire items were successfully piloted in schools in Germany. The national study center now works together with the international study center and the IEA on preparing the field trial which is to be completed in spring of 2026.

The central results of ICCS 2022 can be obtained on the website of the 2022 study. You can also find the report there, in German (open access). The international report can be obtained on the IEA website (open access).