Expert:innenrunde Startchancen (ExSta)

The “Expert:innenforum Startchancen” project is dedicated to promoting in-depth networking among stakeholders and, in particular, the exchange between practitioners and academics in the field of schools in disadvantaged areas.

The project was prompted by the announcement of the Startchancen programme to support schools with a high proportion of socially disadvantaged students in the coalition agreement of the former Federal Government in 2021. Usually, there's no room for the government to discuss the design and implementation of political programmes with all the relevant stakeholders around it. This often leads to the point that the potential of existing expert knowledge cannot be fully employed to effectively support schools and improve educational opportunities for students. This is where the cooperation project between the WZB and the Robert Bosch Foundation comes in.

In a similar way to the Startchancen programme for schools, the funding of Startchancen-Kitas (daycare centres) initiative announced in the coalition agreement of the current federal government will be examined in the four-part event series Expert:innenforum Startchancen Frühe Bildung (Early Education).

The central aim of the networking initiative is to contribute to the maximum effectiveness of the Startchancen programme´s implementation and to promote the conceptual development of the Startchancen daycare centres initiative. Therefore, the support for schools and daycare centres with a high proportion of socially disadvantaged children will be regarded at the governance level – for example, by ensuring that support measures are more tailored to needs, better aligned with successful practices, incorporate scientific findings, and are designed to be synergistic and interlinked through greater knowledge sharing and exchange. In addition, the project aims to improve networking between knowledge carriers and decision-makers at all levels of the education system with the goal of promoting social equality in education.

Six Startchancen expert forums took place between 2022 and 2025. The documentation of the forums can be found on the project website of the cooperation partner Robert Bosch Stiftung.

Comments and analysis on the Startchancen programme can be found on the Startchancen blog.