The Conceptualisation, Measurement, and Coding of Education in German and Cross-National Surveys (Version 2.0)

This contribution provides an overview of the theoretical conceptualisation, empirical operationalisation, and the measurement and coding of education in national and international survey research. In this context, the term "education" refers to the level of education attained by an individual, which must be distinguished from concepts such as competencies, performance at school, and educational disciplines. Because education is often included in statistical models in a merely routine way, emphasis is placed on the connection between the theoretical concept, the indicator, the measurement instrument, and the variable. When doing so, use is made of long-standing social science research on educational returns and educational inequality. A distinction is made between linear, ordinal and categorical concepts of education that have emerged from the different theoretical approaches, and that, to some extent, impose different requirements on data collection and coding. Indeed, it is true to say that there is no consensus as to how education should be conceptualised, measured, compared across countries, and statistically modelled. The contribution does not give a recommendation for a "one size fits all" educational variable that would be appropriate for all studies. Rather, it endeavours to encourage readers to make an informed decision on the measurement of education in the respective educational context and to support them in doing so

Education in OECD's PIAAC Study: How Well do Different Harmonized Measures Predict Skills?

The comparable measurement of educational attainment is a challenge for all comparative surveys and cross-national data analyses. While education is an important predictor or control variable in many research contexts, it is particularly important when studying education and education-related outcomes such as skills or labor market chances. This study evaluates the cross-nationally comparable measurement of education in OECD's Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, PIAAC, in terms of its construct validity when predicting general basic skills. In order to do so, the predictive power of country-specific (i.e. non-comparable) education variables is compared to the predictive power of different cross-nationally harmonized variables, namely the detailed ISCED-based coding scheme used in PIAAC, ISCED 2011 and 1997 levels, the broad education levels 'low, medium, high', ES-ISCED, as well as years of education. The analyses consist in sets of country-wise linear regressions, taking PIAAC’s plausible values and complex sampling into account, and use adjusted R2 as the indicator for predictive power and validity. The results show that while harmonization into a detailed coding scheme such as the most detailed comparable variable available in PIAAC does not entail large losses of information, the way this variable is further simplified plays a major role for validity. The paper also highlights shortcomings of the detailed variable from a theoretical point of view, such as the lack of differentiation of vocational and general education and other markers of educational content and quality, which are important aspects both for skill development as well as the labor market outcomes of education, and of the country-specific measures of education, which may make the detailed PIAAC education variable look better than it actually is

The classification of education in surveys: a generalized framework for ex-post harmonization

All social science (and many other) surveys measure respondents' educational attainment. However, most of them do it in different ways, resulting in incoherent education variables across surveys. This complicates the cumulation of different datasets and hampers survey data reuse. For cross-national surveys that are designed to be comparative from the outset, methods for ensuring comparability in the measurement of education across countries have improved substantially over the last decades, relying on ex-ante output harmonization. For ex-post harmonization, the situation is more difficult because the data have already been collected, with education measures that only partly overlap in the amount and kind of information they store about respondents' education. This results in aggregated measures when harmonizing data ex-post. Such aggregated measures may underestimate associations with education in multivariate analyses, leading to biased results. They also do not allow testing hypotheses on the effects of specific types of education, such as vocational programs. This paper presents a new framework for harmonizing education variables ex-post, building on the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) and experience from cross-national surveys using ex-ante harmonization. It includes a new coding scheme called 'generalized ISCED' or GISCED, and extension variables standardizing aspects of education not covered by ISCED. It proposes solutions for problems that specifically occur in ex-post harmonization, for example source categories spanning ISCED levels. The paper also shows how to apply the GISCED framework to existing data. An empirical illustration shows how detailed harmonized education measures may give insights for research and policy not possible with more aggregate measures

Degrees of competency: the relationship between educational qualifications and adult skills across countries

Background: Educational qualifications and literacy skills are highly related. This is not surprising as it is one aim of educational systems to equip individuals with competencies necessary to take part in society. Because of this relationship educational qualifications are often used as a proxy for "human capital". However, from a theoretical perspective, there are many reasons why this relationship is not perfect, and to some degree this is due to third variables. Thus, we want to explore the net relationship between educational attainment (harmonized according to the International Standard Classification of Education, ISCED) and literacy skills, and how much skills vary within education levels across countries. Methods: We use data from 21 countries from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies 2012. This paper compares the literacy skills of adults who achieved different levels of educational attainment across countries. Given the high degree of educational differentiation in most countries, we do this using a more differentiated educational attainment variable than what is commonly used. In our analyses we firstly adjust for factors that are likely to affect access to education and the acquisition of educational qualifications and literacy skills, such as parental education and language and migration background. In a second step, we also take into account factors affecting skill development after initial formal education, such as occupation and skill use at home. Results: We firstly find a high degree of heterogeneity of skills across countries for equivalent education categories. Secondly, we find skill similarities for equivalent education categories classified at different broad education levels, sometimes even breaking the hierarchical order of 'higher education entails higher competencies'. Conclusion: We conclude that ISCED levels cannot be taken as a cross-nationally comparable proxy for human capital in terms of literacy skills, and that education has to be harmonized in a substantively more meaningful way in future adult literacy surveys

Dimensions of Migrant Integration in Western Europe

The integration of immigrant minorities is a major concern for diverse societies - with major implications for the well-being of those affected, social cohesion and group relations, and economic and social progress. In this paper, we give a comprehensive description of long-term migrant integration in Western Europe to investigate theories of migrant assimilation and integration. We take a multidimensional approach, looking at 10 indicators measuring social, structural, political, civic and cultural integration. We take an innovative approach to measuring minority background by using two complementary measures: generational status, distinguishing first and second-generation migrants from the third and higher up 'natives,' and self-reported ancestry, separating those with autochthonous-only ancestry from those with various kinds of allochthonous ancestry. Using interaction effects between these measures, we can test whether generational change is faster or slower for some ethnic groups than for others, i.e. whether different groups integrate at differing speeds. Using the pooled samples of all Western European countries included in the European Social Survey rounds 7 and 8, we run multivariate regression analyses to estimate the effects of migrant background on the 10 indicators of integration. Compared to migrants with autochthonous ancestry, respondents of Middle Eastern, North African & Central Asian as well as Sub-Saharan African ancestry are less integrated on all dimensions of integration except the political and civic ones. The South & South-East Asian group is also substantially less assimilated socially and culturally, but not so much structurally. They are closely followed by the South East and East European groups, following the same pattern except that the latter are less integrated politically as well. We only find substantial interaction effects between ethnic group and migrant generation for two integration indicators, namely citizenship and homophobia, for which speed of integration thus appears to differ across ethnic groups. For all other indicators, integration speed does not appear to differ across ethnic groups, supporting straight line assimilation theory, with social integration in terms of interethnic friendship potentially rather following a 'bumpy-line' pattern

Die Konzeptualisierung, Erhebung und Kodierung von Bildung in nationalen und internationalen Umfragen (Version 1.1)

Dieser Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über die theoretische Konzeptualisierung, empirische Operationalisierung sowie die Erhebung und Kodierung von Bildung in der nationalen und internationalen Umfrageforschung. Bildung bezeichnet hier das erreichte Bildungsniveau eines Individuums und muss von Konzepten wie Kompetenzen, Schulleistungen und Fachrichtungen abgegrenzt werden. Da Bildung häufig bloß routineartig in statistische Modelle aufgenommen wird, wird der Zusammenhang zwischen theoretischem Konzept, Indikator, Messinstrument und Variablen in den Vordergrund gestellt, wobei auf die langjährige sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung zu Bildungserträgen und Bildungsungleichheit zurückgegriffen wird. Dabei werden lineare, ordinale und kategoriale Konzeptionen von Bildung unterschieden, die aus jeweils unterschiedlichen theoretischen Ansätzen hervorgehen und z.T. unterschiedliche Anforderungen an Erhebung und Kodierung stellen. Es herrscht nämlich durchaus keine Einigkeit darüber, wie Bildung zu konzeptualisieren, zu messen, über Länder hinweg zu vergleichen und statistisch zu modellieren ist. Der Beitrag gibt daher auch keine Empfehlung einer „one size fits all“-Bildungsvariablen, die für alle Studien zweckmäßig wäre, sondern versucht stattdessen, den Leser zu einer informierten Entscheidung für die Messung von Bildung im jeweiligen Forschungskontext anzuregen und dabei zu unterstützen

Measuring migrants’ educational attainment: The CAMCES tool in the IAB-SOEP migration sample

Education is one of the most frequently used variables in social science research. However, it is challenging to measure educational attainment with a high degree of validity and comparability in migrant surveys. In migrant surveys, respondents were educated in various different educational systems. Rather than providing specific response options for the qualifications available in every country of origin, migrant surveys often use generic response options (such as “secondary education”) that supposedly work equally well for respondents educated in all kinds of educational systems. Given the lack of universal understanding of such generic categories, we have doubts whether this approach leads to reliable, valid, and comparable data. To improve the measurement of educational qualifications obtained abroad, GESIS has developed a new tool in the project “Computer-assisted measurement and coding of education in surveys” (CAMCES). In this paper, we present how migrants’ education is usually measured in the German IAB-SOEP Migration Samples and the alternative measurement using the CAMCES tool implemented in the IAB-SOEP Migration Samples 2015 and 2016. We analyze the coverage of educational systems in the CAMCES tool, compare the level of item nonresponse and non-coded responses affecting the standard and the CAMCES instruments, and examine the consistency of the resulting education variables. The paper concludes by discussing benefits and limitations of either measurement approach, and by giving an outlook of possible applications of the CAMCES tool

Die Messung von Bildung bei Migrantinnen und Migranten in Umfragen (Version 1.1)

Da das höchste erreichte Bildungsniveau in deutschen Umfragen gewöhnlich durch spezifisch deutsche Schul- und Ausbildungsabschlüsse erfasst wird, sind die entsprechenden Fragebogenitems für Personen mit ausländischen Abschlüssen oftmals schwer zu beantworten. Dieser Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über verschiedene Ansätze zur Messung von Bildung bei Personen mit ausländischen Bildungsabschlüssen, insbes. Zugewanderten, und ihre Eignung für verschiedene Erhebungssituationen. Zunächst wird die Codierung der Bildungsvariablen thematisiert. Diese orientiert sich entweder am deutschen Bildungssystem oder an Klassifikationen, die für den internationalen Vergleich entwickelt wurden. Auch die Herleitung von Bildungsjahren ist eine Möglichkeit, die Daten vergleichbar zu codieren. Dann werden verschiedene Erhebungsinstrumente vorgestellt, die das Problem auf unterschiedliche Art und Weise zu lösen versuchen: die Verwendung deutscher Standarditems, die Verwendung generischer Antwortkategorien, die Verwendung herkunftslandsspezifischer Antwortkategorien, und der Einsatz eines datenbankbasierten Tools. Die Lösungen, die im Sozio-oekonomischen Panel (SOEP) und im Rahmen der National Education Panel Study (NEPS) entwickelt wurden, werden ausführlich dargestellt. Zum Schluss werden weiterhin bestehende Interpretationsprobleme und Einschränkungen diskutiert, die auch die Passung des Indikators "höchster Bildungsabschluss" für verschiedene theoretische Konzepte bei Migrantinnen und Migranten betreffen.Since the highest level of education achieved is usually captured in German surveys by specific German school-leaving and training qualifications, the corresponding questionnaire items are often difficult to answer for persons with foreign qualifications. This guideline provides an overview of different approaches to measuring education among persons with foreign educational qualifications, especially immigrants, and their suitability for different survey contexts. First, the coding of educational variables is discussed. This is based either on the German education system or on classifications developed for international comparison. The derivation of years of education is another way to code the data in a comparable way. Then, different survey instruments are presented that try to solve the problem in different ways: the use of German standard items, the use of generic response categories, the use of country-of-origin specific response categories, and the use of a database-based tool. The solutions developed in the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and the National Education Panel Study (NEPS) are presented in detail. Finally, existing interpretation problems and limitations are further discussed, including the fit of the "highest educational attainment" indicator for different theoretical concepts among migrants

TWEAK-FN14 signaling induces lysosomal degradation of a cIAP1–TRAF2 complex to sensitize tumor cells to TNFα

Synthetic inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) antagonists induce degradation of IAP proteins such as cellular IAP1 (cIAP1), activate nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) signaling, and sensitize cells to tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα). The physiological relevance of these discoveries to cIAP1 function remains undetermined. We show that upon ligand binding, the TNF superfamily receptor FN14 recruits a cIAP1–Tnf receptor-associated factor 2 (TRAF2) complex. Unlike IAP antagonists that cause rapid proteasomal degradation of cIAP1, signaling by FN14 promotes the lysosomal degradation of cIAP1–TRAF2 in a cIAP1-dependent manner. TNF-like weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK)/FN14 signaling nevertheless promotes the same noncanonical NF-κB signaling elicited by IAP antagonists and, in sensitive cells, the same autocrine TNFα-induced death occurs. TWEAK-induced loss of the cIAP1–TRAF2 complex sensitizes immortalized and minimally passaged tumor cells to TNFα-induced death, whereas primary cells remain resistant. Conversely, cIAP1–TRAF2 complex overexpression limits FN14 signaling and protects tumor cells from TWEAK-induced TNFα sensitization. Lysosomal degradation of cIAP1–TRAF2 by TWEAK/FN14 therefore critically alters the balance of life/death signals emanating from TNF-R1 in immortalized cells