Study paper from 2010 in the field of Education - General Didactics, Educational Goals, Methods, Grade: 2.7, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Language: German. Abstract: The discourse surrounding the German school, which has intensified in public and academic circles since the publication of the first PISA study in 2000, views institutional education, committed to the goal of equal opportunities, as being in crisis. It is not the necessity of an institution that educates future generations that is being questioned in public and in the academic discourse of education and social sciences, but rather the manner in which it is designed. The actions and results - both in international and national comparisons - produced by today's schools have weakened their legitimizing basis within society.