Evaluating Integrated Responses to Educational Disadvantage (2000)

ContextEducational disadvantage and, in particular, early school leaving are issues that have grown in significance innational policy arenas in Ireland in recent years. Through key policy initiatives and documents, successiveIrish governments have demonstrated a commitment to reducing and preventing educational disadvantage:* The National Anti-Poverty Strategy (NAPS 1997) represents a major policy initiative by the State to placethe needs of the poor and socially excluded at the top of the national agenda in government policydevelopment and action. NAPS identifies addressing educational disadvantage as one of its fivestrategic aims and promotes the development of integrated, area-based responses to address theproblem of early school leaving.* The Government programme to tackle educational disadvantage, The New Deal. A Plan for EducationalOpportunity (1999) is a landmark policy initiative designed to counteract educational disadvantage,involving the expenditure of an additional £180m over three years, through a comprehensive range ofmeasures across all levels of the education system.The National Development Plan 2000 - 2006 (1999) sets out a national strategy to sustain and developIreland's economic and social development. It emphasises the promotion of social inclusion as acentral objective, and commits substantial national resources to strategies that promote education andservice integration to meet the needs of those areas and groups experiencing poverty and socialexclusion throughout the country.The Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (2000), the national agreement between the governmentand social partners, emphasises the case for increased priority of social inclusion measures in publicspending. It emphasises the value of life-long learning and sets objectives that target the reduction ofeducational disadvantage from early childhood to adult education.A substantial number of initiatives have been developed throughout the 1990s to address the problem ofeducational disadvantage in Ireland. The position of the Department of Education and Science, throughoutthe years, has primarily been to target additional resources to where problems of inequality and disadvantageexist and, in particular, to target schools located in areas of considerable socio-economic disadvantage.Examples of resource-based responses to educational disadvantage, within the formal education system,include, among others:the designation of schools as disadvantaged;* the Early Start Programme;Consequently, a substantial number of integrated initiatives have been established bythe Department of Education and Science and other agencies, including:the Home School Community Liaison Scheme of the Department of Education and Science;the Department of Education and Science 8-15 year old Early School Leavers Initiative;* the Department of Education and Science Stay in School Retention Programme;* the Combat Poverty Agency Demonstration Programme on Educational Disadvantage;the Programme for Peace and Reconciliation Educational Disadvantage Initiative;* initiatives organised through the work of the Area-Based Partnership companies.Each of these programmes has endeavoured to draw together a variety of formal and non-formal educationalinterests involved in the education and welfare of young people for the purpose of developing locallyappropriate integrated strategies.Since 1996, the Combat Poverty Agency Demonstration Programme on Educational Disadvantage hasdeveloped integrated responses through the support of local networks in four areas around the country'.Membership of networks typically includes, among others, representatives of schools, parents, trainingcentres, youth and community services, area-based Partnership companies, statutory services and specialinterest groups.The experience of the Demonstration Programme on Educational Disadvantage has shown that there is a keyrole for local networks in stimulating and developing integrated responses to educational disadvantage. Thenetworks have facilitated and co-ordinated personnel from a variety of formal and informal educationalsectors to come together to research, plan and develop collaborative actions. They have facilitated theirconstituent members to enhance their understanding of the nature and causes of educational disadvantageand enabled them to break down the isolation they felt in addressing educational disadvantage, prior to thedevelopment of the Demonstration Programme.Above all, the networks have developed strategic approaches to tackling educational disadvantage in theirrespective areas by ensuring the equal participation of all key interests' and by acting as a catalyst forinformation sharing, shared analysis of issues/problems/priorities and collaborative action, based on thatshared analysis.Evaluation Process & Reportthe Breaking the Cycle Initiative;the Teacher Counsellor/Support Teacher Scheme.Increasingly, there has been a recognition of the multi-dimensional nature of educational disadvantage,acknowledging that educational disadvantage is rooted in the complex interaction of factors at home, inschool and in the community. This enhanced understanding of the problem has identified the need toaddress educational disadvantage through the development of integrated approaches involving the home,school and community.The evaluation of the Demonstration Programme was both evaluative and formative in nature. Regularperiodic interaction between the programme evaluation team, the local networks and the Combat PovertyAgency assisted participants in the programme to reflect on their work, as it developed and to become cleareron the desired direction of that work. Participation in programme discussions, seminars and with individualnetworks also provided the evaluation team with opportunities to become familiar with, and contribute todeveloping understanding of issues and concerns, as they arose within the programme. In particular, theprogramme evaluation team provided important guidance to each of the networks in the development oftheir respective processes to monitor and evaluate their work, at a local level.Drogheda Youth Educational Network, Drogheda, Co. Louth; Killmarden Education Network, Killinarden, Tallaqht, Dublin 24, Network (orEducation Support Tuam Area, Tuam, Co. Galway, Tralee Education Network, Tralee, Co KerryEspecially those who might otherwise not have a voice, e.g. parents( Evaluating Integrated Responses