| EQUIP1/Nicaragua – Excelencia
The Expansion of Centers of Excellence in Nicaragua with Emphasis on the APA Method, otherwise known as Excelencia, is a USAID-funded four-year project with a mandate to expand proven educational methodologies into schools throughout Nicaragua. The project focuses on expanding on a national scale a successful educational model utilizing active teaching, community participation, and reformed curriculum with an emphasis on the educational needs of indigenous people and ethnic communities. Excelencia builds upon the successful BASE and BASE II projects, using the APA methodology (Aprendo, Pratico and Aplico), active teaching, community participation, and reformed curriculum to support:
- decentralization,
- schools as centers of learning,
- students as architects of their own learning, and
- empowering teachers.
Excelencia introduces these educational methodologies into new schools through a model of school mentoring. Schools that have implemented and fully incorporated the Excelencia educational methodologies will serve as mentors for surrounding schools. In addition, Excelencia activities emphasize training and capacity building workshops for Ministry of Education officials, teachers, school directors, school councils, and students to empower the key players to sustain the educational model. Excelencia also provides complementary instructional resources including personal erasable whiteboards for the multi-grade students, “mathematics baskets” (kits of resources for hands-on learning) and other supplies to support active learning in the classroom.
Excelencia project has the following components:
- Result 1 - Expand APA methodology: Implementing the APA active learning model in 2,692 schools and incorporating early reading programs from the Centers of Excellence in Teacher Training (CETT) project and, in the Atlantic Coast, incorporating bilingual education approaches.
- Result 2 - Curriculum validation: Developing and validating school materials with special emphasis on multi-grade school materials using a competency based methodology. In the autonomous regions, validate a local based curriculum and develop materials in the languages of the indigenous and Afro-Caribbean students.
- Result 3 - Research studies: Conducting longitudinal and other research studies to assess the impact of the project; conducting field studies to determine effective means of improving transition to and from primary school.
- Result 4 - Privately managed schools: Result 4 will expand the successful model school approach to 300 privately managed schools serving poor rural communities, including ethnic communities, by partnering with NGOs and faith-based organizations.
- School Reconstruction - A November 2008 program expansion tasks EXCELENCIA with rebuilding two schools destroyed by Hurricane Felix and providing educational materials to other schools in the region.
By the end of the project, EXCELENCIA's model school approach will function in close to 3,000 schools throughout Nicaragua (in at least 2692 public schools and 300 privately mangaged schools). The project will also have contributed to the process of validating a new national curriculum, and will have produced student assessments and research reports to measure the effectiveness of the model school expansion.
EQUIP1 Partners
American Institutes for Research
Academy of Educational Development
Save the Children
Award Amount
$15.9 million
Award Duration
December 2005 – September 2009
Chief of Party
Jose Ignacio Mata
Project Manager
Markus Broer, mbroer@air.org
USAID CTO
Alicia Slate, aslate@usaid.gov
For more information, contact:
Markus Broer, Project Manager, mbroer@air.org
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Photos from “Compartiendo Nuestras Mejores Prácticas para Alcanzar la Excelencia Educativa”
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