The Startchancen Programme is the largest and longest-running education programme in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. Since the 2024/25 school year, the federal and state governments have been supporting around 4,000 schools in challenging circumstances over a period of ten years, with a total budget of 20 billion euros. Around one million pupils are expected to benefit. The funding flows into three pillars: the equipment and design of the learning environment, an opportunity budget that schools allocate themselves, and additional staff for multi-professional teams. The declared goal is ambitious: by the end of the programme, the number of pupils at these schools who fail to meet minimum standards in German and mathematics is to be halved. In addition, socio-emotional skills are to be strengthened and children and young people empowered for democratic participation. The evaluation is carried out within a research consortium led by the Institute for Applied Social Sciences (infas). Within this consortium, Evaluation Office is responsible in particular for the economic efficiency assessment in both of its parts. The measure-level assessment asks how the resources deployed relate to the competence gains achieved. The implementation-level assessment asks what administrative effort arises at the level of the Länder, municipalities and schools in order to implement the programme. The evaluation runs until 2030. It accompanies implementation continuously and reports on the efficiency and effectiveness of the measures and on their long-term results.
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