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Educational Reform

Equity, Quality in Education and Development in El Salvador

Education reform in El Salvador has over the last decade enjoyed a high profile in the country. After these ten years perspectives for success are varied. Undoubtedly the system has expanded and improvement in survival rates have had positive effects on the education level - especially among the younger groups - and on reducing illiteracy, but there are also important gaps in the education sector in El Salvador and the system continues to produce differences in education between rural and urban children and between children from families with greater or lesser income.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between policies and practices in the educational sector and the various faces of inequity in education in El Salvador. With this emphasis on policies and practices in El Salvador, an attempt is made to go beyond showing the obvious - that there are important differences in the schools of El Salvador - to identify the role of current policies in addressing this reality.

Download .zip file (1.1 mb, Spanish text): Equity, Quality in Education and Development in El Salvador

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Proceedings of the Education Policy Forum: Workshop for the analysis of the education sector in El Salvador

An Education Policy Forum was held in December 2003 to reflect on the state and progress of reform policies implemented in El Salvador over the last decade and to identify policy challenges and knowledge priorities for the next ten years. This activity was sponsored by the Ministry of Education, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank and organized by the EXCELL Project and Centro Alfa. This document not only presents results of the Forum, but also seeks to stimulate discussion and thought about the sector's needs and options in face of a new decade of education reform.

Download .pdf's (Spanish text):

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Information Uses and Needs Study in Education in El Salvador

In El Salvador, the last decade has offered important progress in empirical information concerning the education sector. However, little is known about the use of this information and its impact upon the development of education policies at the local, regional and/or department level. The purpose of this study is to diagnose the information uses and needs concerning quality in education for decision-making in the Ministry of Education (MOE). A literature review examines trends in the analysis of quality in education. A second section describes an information flow model emphasizing information uses and needs concerning quality in education and how these orient decision-making in education.

Findings from the study suggest that data collection by the information and evaluation system still do not respond to the concept of quality in education defined by the MOE itself, because it lacks data concerning educational processes, especially those happening in the classroom. Such scarcity of information also exists concerning the social context of education. The study shows that, although there is a general recognition of the purpose of the information and evaluation system and a favorable opinion concerning its operation, information produced is still scarcely used. The study ends with recommendations focused especially on agents involved in the definition of educational policy.

- Information Uses and Needs Study in Education in El Salvador (PDF, 2.8 mb, Spanish) / (ZIP, 566 kb, Spanish)

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Details about EXCELL: Educational Reform

Component 1. Strengthen the Ministry of Education's capacity to improve decentralized school management and modify and implement educational reforms.

This component will strengthen the MOE's ability to support educational reform, improve quality of education and contribute to improving processes that facilitate student learning by strengthening the abilities of approximately 150 mid-level managers (defined as those under the level of National Director, down to and including Department Directors). The Component is divided into two Sub-Components.

• Sub-Component 1.1 Strategic planning and management capacity development.

  Mid-level management will be given support in planning and strategic management practices, translation of the MOE's macro-strategies into useful guidelines for school principals, and the development of strategies of support for the implementation of educational reform at the school level.

• Sub-Component 1.2 Application of monitoring and evaluation systems and research.

  This component will strenthen the MOE's capacity for data and information processing concerning monitoring and evaluation of the education system, interpretation and technical analysis of data and information, and enhance the ability to conduct research activities that contribute to improving educational quality.