The context of this project entitled Supporting Culturally Responsive Leadership and Evaluation in Schools (CReLES) relates to the increased immigration into countries of Europe with the consequent range of diversity of cultures among students in schools. In line with the current influx of migrants and refugees to Europe and the international Sustainable Development Goal of inclusive and equitable education for all, this project aims to prioritise the inclusive education of migrant students and the school leadership that facilitates that inclusive education.

This project focuses on the support and strategies needed in all levels of school leadership in order to facilitate the needs of a diverse multicultural classroom and a diverse multicultural school. The main objective of the project is the enhanced school inclusion of students with a migration background through the identification and dissemination of innovative practice in culturally responsive school leadership, the development of frameworks for the evaluation of culturally responsive leadership as well as the provision of high-quality training resources in the form of leader training and the development of a MOOC for school leaders and those interested stakeholder groups outside of the project.

Improving the educational achievement of migrant students can involve a serious, demanding challenge for classroom teachers. In this staff challenge, the exercise of school leadership at all levels of the school is crucial in addressing the needs of staff for professional learning and in providing direction and support for staff. For students with a migration background, the school can be the first place of belonging within a new country and culture.

Objectives

CReLES project aims to enhance school inclusion of students with a migration background through:

• the identification and dissemination of innovative practice in culturally responsive school leadership,
• the development of frameworks for the evaluation of culturally responsive leadership,
• the provision of high-quality training resources in the form of leader training
• the development of a MOOC for school leaders and those interested stakeholder groups outside of the project.

Parent Survey

Currently, we are experiencing a societal crisis triggered by the Corona pandemic with far-reaching effects on almost all areas of society. This situation, new to everyone, quickly led to novel challenges, many unanswered questions and, depending on the stakeholder group, different information needs. With the aim of at least partially satisfying these information needs, many surveys have already been conducted in the DACH countries. Among them the School Barometer (www.Schul-Barometer.net), an online survey including more than 25,000 students*, parents and teachers (see Huber & Helm, 2020 for initial findings)

Objctives

By answering the following research questions, we aim to fill a key research gap in what is known about the situation of educationally disadvantaged students during Corona.

1. To what extent were students from low socioeconomic families particularly disadvantaged during the school closures?
2. Is there evidence of a scissors effect? That is, did the disadvantage of socioeconomically worse-off students grow as a result of the school closures?
3. How does Austria compare to Germany in these questions?

To answer these research questions, the parent survey already conducted for Germany by Wößmann et al. (2020) at ifo Munich is partially replicated for Austria. This enables a comparison between Austria and Germany with regard to the research questions posed. Furthermore, the parent survey focuses even more on the group of educationally disadvantaged students* in order to capture their learning processes (motivation, learning effort, competencies), their home resources (technical equipment, parental and sibling support) for learning at a distance, and the quality of instruction they perceive (clarity of learning tasks, relationship with the teacher) during school closure.

For this purpose, we draw on experience, scientific evidence, and networks from www.Schul-Barometer.net (Huber & Helm, 2020).