Extended Education in Germany between Complementation and Compensation: An Analysis of Extracurricular Primary School Offerings With Regard to Content, Frequency, and Range, in Connection With the Composition of the Student Body

Abstract

All-day schools, the most common school form with extended education offerings in Germany, are expected to complement regular hours of school instruction with a wide array of offers and to compensate for origin-related educational gaps by providing specific offerings for disadvantaged students. Complementation and compensation can only be achieved by providing extracurricular offerings within the all-day school program suitable for the respective student body. This study empirically investigates the extracurricular offerings at 300 German primary schools with regard to their content, frequency, and range, in connection with the composition of the student body. Descriptive findings show high prevalence of homework assistance, remedial eaching, sports, and music/art. Conducting latent profile analysis, three distinct profiles of extracurricular school programs were identified depending on the extracurricular offerings provided. Schools with a student body with lower levels of linguistic competence and higher amounts of immigrant students were more likely schools providing homework assistance and a broad range of offerings. Our results suggest that offerings partially meet the specific needs of the student body, but that the potential is not yet fully exploited in order to bring about complementation and compensation.