The ZIB

The Centre for International Student Assessment (ZIB) e.V. is an affiliated institute of the Technical University of Munich (TUM➚). It was founded in October 2010 by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF➚) and the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (KMK➚). Its aim is to establish high-level international educational research and to make a significant contribution to quality assurance in education.
One of its core tasks is the planning, implementation, and evaluation of the PISA studies in Germany. A key focus is also on research projects dealing with methods for data collection and evaluation in PISA studies and other international comparative education studies (so-called Large-Scale Assessments, or LSAs).
In its further research, ZIB primarily focuses on practical questions. The institute places great importance on incorporating the perspectives of practitioners in education. It conducts in-depth analyses of existing data and shares its findings with education policymakers and state institutes. These stakeholders use the institute's well-founded knowledge to make decisions in education policy and practice and to develop informational materials for relevant actors.
The data from PISA and other national and international educational studies are processed at ZIB in a research data center and made available to researchers for further study. In addition, early-career researchers are trained in handling these datasets.
The implementation of these tasks takes place at ZIB’s locations at the TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology in Munich (TUM), the German Institute for International Educational Research (DIPF) in Frankfurt am Main, the Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN) in Kiel, and the Institute for Educational Quality Improvement (IQB➚) in Berlin. ZIB’s research groups are closely integrated into their respective institutes, allowing ZIB to benefit from the existing expertise at each location.
At the first three locations, which are primarily focused on ZIB’s research, individual ZIB professorships have been established. The work at TUM focuses on conducting, analyzing, and reporting on the PISA studies, as well as creating in-depth analyses. DIPF and IPN are primarily engaged in methodological research and support the substantive projects from other program areas. IQB hosts the research data center (FDZ at IQB), and is also heavily involved in promoting early-career researchers at ZIB.
ZIB is a member of the Leibniz Education Research Network (LERN➚).