The Startchancen program is the largest education program in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. 4,000 schools with a high proportion of socially disadvantaged students will receive targeted support through the program.  The CHANCEN research network, which brings together researchers from 19 institutions, provides evidence-based support to the federal and state governments in implementing the Startchancen program. The network comprises a Leadership Board and Central Coordination, a Governance Center, Transfer and Transformation Hubs, as well as five Competence Centers.

The Educational Psychology departmental unit at the University of Potsdam is responsible for the subproject “Theory of Change” within the Governance Center of the CHANCEN research network. The Governance Center aims to support the educational administrations and support systems of the federal states in developing and implementing effective cooperation formats, as well as in fostering coherence within their governance systems. The central objective of the “Theory of Change” subproject is to develop and continuously refine a logic model for the Startchancen program. This work is carried out in collaboration with the evaluation consortium and in coordination with the federal and state governments. The logic model serves two purposes: First, it supports program management by making the assumed effects of the Startchancen program transparent and describing how the program’s components contribute to achieving its goals. Second, it provides the conceptual foundation for the program’s evaluation. The “Theory of Change” subproject conducts regular empirical assessments of the logic model and communicates the findings to federal and state governments, enabling its ongoing refinement. In collaboration with other subprojects of the Governance Center and the Transfer and Transformation Hubs, the subproject also offers support to the federal states in developing state-specific logic models.