Strategic Review of the EDUCO Program - EQUIP123.net

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Strategic Review of the EDUCO ProgramJuly 2010Summary: A Problematic Parallel System Exists in ACE and CDE-SchoolsCDE school principals are interested in ensuring a good level of teacher performance, but lackthe necessary support to do so. In general, CDE school principals suggest that the Teaching ProfessionLaw should be amended to enable inducing teachers to maintain a good level of professional work.This would also require changing the models of governance, to give schools a greater sense of “outwardresponsibility,” which would tend to put a halt to the wear and tear from having the luxury to allow internalbattles. Moreover, no less than half the people interviewed said they would be in agreement withbeing able to dismiss an employee following an evaluation and repeated reprimands. However, opinionwas divided about the possibility, if the law were amended, of the principal being the one to assume theresponsibility of evaluating and dismissing the teacher. They proposed that the ACEs or CDEs couldformally suggest possible sanctions before a competent entity (one that acts conscientiously, and not theway they have up until now), leading to the possibility of dismissal.El Salvador is leaning in two directions at the same time. On the one side, it offers the ACE schools, amodel of education that gives the responsibility for running the school to the parents, who participate activelyand exercise relatively effective accountability. They have the administrative, financial, and hiringresponsibility and manage human resources, in accordance with special regulations for ACE schools.Here, there are not many appointed principals and those who do exercise this role do not have the correspondingleadership or the incentives to do it well. This ACE model serves relatively poor communities,ensures coverage for these students, and attains academic achievement equivalent to the traditional educationalmodel, despite inferior working conditions. CDE schools represent the more traditional model.They are run by principals who are responsible for managing the school and who are accompanied bya governing council that has parent, teacher, and student members. With this type of representation,parents cannot demand effective accountability, which enables CDE schools, in many cases, to be placesfor clashes and conflict more than for serving students. It should be noted that among CDE schools, notall have an appointed principal, and many principals, whether appointed or acting, have not been fullytrained for their roles, and receive little ongoing support. In CDE schools, neither principals nor parentshave the authority to hire or fire teachers, at least according to the Teaching Profession Law, and have togo through other institutional channels to select or remove teachers. In this CDE model, students learnonly as well as ACE school students, despite not being as poor and despite having, in general, betterconditions, which suggest that the CDE model is not as efficient as the ACE model. To a certain degree,it could be said that both ACE and CDE schools have problems, but the problems are, up to a point, mirrorimages of each other. ACE schools achieve greater accountability and greater efficiency, but createanxiety among teachers. CDE school teachers have longer tenure, but also have less discipline, becausethere is less community power, and therefore, are less efficient (they have equal achievement despitehaving better conditions).32
Strategic Review of the EDUCO ProgramJuly 2010Furthermore, the fact that this parallel or bifurcated system exists means that citizens have a very asymmetricalrelationship with the government, and this minimizes any sense among the public that theyare equal in their production relations in the education sector, and that they have a shared destiny. Thishampers the political development of the nation and the sense of national unity, in a country where thefeeling of a shared destiny is precisely one of the rarest of social goods.Along these lines, the primary concern should not be how to solve the problems and situations in eitherschool administration entity, but rather how to improve the functioning and effectiveness of all schools.Therefore, to achieve greater school effectiveness, it is worthwhile to rethink school governance in allschools, for the purpose of achieving greater job stability, but without losing accountability. Furthermore,to attain a unified system, which is desirable for reasons of political and social development, itis appropriate to think of solving the problems that remain in the ACE and CDE schools through thecreation of a model that enables extracting greater discipline and accountability from those who are inservice to the community, but, also, greater professionalism in management, more stability for teachers,and a greater sense of a shared destiny in the educational life of the country.It would also be possible to make partial improvements, especially in the EDUCO model. As wasalready explained, our task was not to recommend an ideal solution, but rather to present an array of optionsfor improving the situation. The next section presents all the options across a wide range.Discussion of Options (not prioritized)With the analysis of the current situation in EDUCO, the research team proposes an array of five policyoptions to be discussed with decision-makers in El Salvador. These options are not presented in order ofpriority, nor with any specific recommendation. Three of the options continue with a bifurcated system,and three would result in a unified system. Only one of the options (in our opinion) would increasequality in all the country’s schools. The proposed options are:Maintain Parallel SystemsOption A: Continue EDUCO as it currently exists.Option B: Keep EDUCO with changes in teacher hiring to increase their stability.Option C: Keep EDUCO with changes in ACEs, stressing governance over administration and management.Establish a Combined, Unified National SystemOption D: Unified governance combining the advantages of both ACE and CDE models.Option E: Eliminate EDUCO and turn all the ACEs into CDEs.33
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