May 2010 Archives

Carlos Peña, en su columna semanal en El Mercurio que adjunto abajo, sostiene que el discurso de Piñera del 21 de mayo tiene una orientación clara de derecha.  Por ejemplo, destaca dos de las medidas en educación: la elección por parte de los padres y los liceos de excelencia.  Voy a enfocar mi comentario en la medida que propone fomentar la elección por parte de los padres; los liceos de excelencia ya han sido muy discutidos y criticados, y comparto la crítica de Peña.  

Para promover la elección por parte de las familias, el Presidente va a enviar una carta con un mapa de los resultados de todas las escuelas de la comuna del colegio de todos los apoderados del sector subvencionado.
Más alla de si la medida es ideológica o no - incluso creo que es muy sensato mejorar la información para los padres dado que Chile tiene un sistema de mercado educacional que los padres valoran - el problema fundamental es el detalle de su propuesta. 

Ayer el Ministro de Educación anunció cómo van a entregar a los  padres los resultados de SIMCE para mejorar sus elecciones.    Según señala,  "el mapa indicará la ubicación de todos los colegios de la comuna correspondiente y, en base a colores, los resultados de la prueba Simce. Se asignarán puntos rojos a los colegios que estén bajo el promedio nacional, puntos amarillos a los que estén en el promedio y puntos verdes a los establecimientos que se encuentren sobre el promedio nacional." Ver www.mineduc.cl

El problema es que el promedio del SIMCE no es un buen indicador de la efectividad de una escuela porque, sobre todo, está altamente correlacionado con el nivel socioeconómico de los alumnos del establecimiento (y otros factores externos de la escuela).  El Ministerio va a pintar rojo (y estigmatizar) a los colegios "malos" por atender a alumnos más pobres (o menos motivados) y sugerir que son menos efectivos que otros que son menos pobres y más aventajados (o más selectivos).   Cuesta entender por qué el Ministro decidió usar promedios y no crear otros indicadores (que son menos ruidosos) que muestran el progreso del establecimiento. Por ejemplo, podría haber usado la clasificación de la Subvención Preferencial (o lo que propone la ley de aseguramiento de calidad) que intenta controlar por NSE y mira el progreso de la escuela.  

Otra medida complicada que vale la pena destacar es el otorgamiento de premios e incentivos para aquellos alumnos, escuelas y profesores que logren mejorar notoriamente sus rendimientos en el SIMCE.
El problema con usar SIMCE para asignar recursos y premiar escuelas y docentes es que no es un instrumento preciso.  El público (y parece que el Ministro Lavin) cree que SIMCE tiene alguna validez científica, como un termómetro, que no la tiene.  SIMCE (como todas las pruebas) tiene un margen de error, similar a las encuestas de opinión pública.  El mismo alumno puede lograr distintos puntajes cuando toma la misma prueba en distintas oportunidades.  Este ruido estadístico puede afectar el puntaje de un curso (o una escuela).   Por ejemplo, si un grupo de alumnos está resfriado el día de la prueba, o si un perro ladra afuera de su sala de clase durante la prueba, o si el profesor no tiene buena química con el curso.  En suma, muchos factores que no tienen nada que ver con la efectividad de la escuela pueden afectar el cambio del puntaje del SIMCE.  

Y si se va a utilizar SIMCE para asignar recursos, los expertos indican que las escuelas (y cursos) deben tener un mínimo número de alumnos (ojala sobre 40) por cohorte para poder reducir el ruido estadístico entre pruebas.  Si no, aumenta el riesgo de clasificar mal a las escuelas y profesores.  El problema es que la mayoría de las escuelas en Chile son chicas.  Hay un paper publicado en American Economic Review por Miguel Urquiola y otros economistas que ilustra el problema con los programas focalizados en Chile que usaron el SIMCE para clasificar las escuelas deficitarias. 
http://www.columbia.edu/~msu2101/ChayMcEwanUrquiola%282005%29.pdf

También hay otro paper de Urquiola, Mizala y Romaguera publicado en otra revista de Economía que también muestra los problemas con usar el SIMCE para rankear escuelas. 
http://www.columbia.edu/~msu2101/MizalaRomagueraUrquiola%282007%29.pdf

También ver el paper más reciente de Jesse Rothstein, economista de UCBerkeley, sobre los problemas complejos con usar pruebas como SIMCE para medir el valor agregado de profesores.  Rothstein sostiene que, como los profesores y alumnos no son asignados aleatoriamente a sus cursos, es muy difícil atribuir el logro de una prueba a la efectividad del profesor.
http://gsppi.berkeley.edu/faculty/jrothstein/jesse-rothstein

Este tema requiere mucho mayor reflexión y análisis.

Gregory
http://www.cpce.cl/educar/
---------------------------
Un mensaje ideológico

Carlos Peña

El discurso del 21 de mayo dejó ver el puñado de ideas que, simplificadas a más no poder y bajo la forma de ideología, orientan a la derecha.

Desde luego, está la convicción de que si usted remunera una cierta conducta, la gente tenderá a realizarla. La muestra más notable, y cercana a la caricatura, de ese prejuicio (cuyo origen está en la economía neoclásica), fue el anuncio de un bono para quienes sostengan su matrimonio por medio siglo. ¡Piñera presentó la idea como una forma de promover la familia!

¿Habrá alguien que piense, de veras, que ese bono ayudará a disminuir eso que Baudelaire llamó el "horror doméstico"? ¿Alguien que a la vista de un bono pueda tolerar el hastío con que la vida lo maltrata? El anuncio de Piñera fue un ejemplo de cómo una buena idea (la de usar incentivos en las políticas públicas) puede ser transformada por el apuro retórico en una simple estupidez.

En materia de educación apareció otro de los rasgos ideológicos que inspiran a Piñera.

La derecha piensa que la buena educación depende, en una medida importante, de la elección familiar. Es la vieja idea de Friedman: si usted tiene un mercado abierto de proveedores educativos y deja a la gente escoger, los padres sancionarán las malas escuelas y matricularán a sus hijos en las de mejor desempeño. Esta idea inspiró parte importante de los anuncios educativos de Piñera.

Parece una idea sensata, pero a poco de analizarla se descubre un error. Como la literatura muestra hasta el hartazgo, la familia es una de las principales causas de la desigualdad escolar (puesto que la familia transmite redes, capital cultural, habitus y ese tipo de cosas). ¿En virtud de qué la causa de un problema podría ahora, repentinamente, transformarse en la solución? La famosa frase del Parsifal -la mano que inflige la herida es la misma que la cura- no se aplica desgraciadamente en educación.

La idea de los liceos de excelencia muestra también otro rasgo ideológico de interés.

Es verdad que si existieran colegios de excelencia habría una mayor cantidad de alumnos talentosos y sin recursos que podrían aspirar al éxito (medido por su acceso a cupos universitarios valiosos). Pero ocurre que una medida como esa -que Piñera anunció- simplemente descremará al sistema público: concentrará, mediante la selección por rendimiento, a los más talentosos y resilientes, y aislará a los más deprivados; dará a los que tienen y quitará a los que no tienen. ¿En qué sentido una medida como esa corrige la desigualdad? Sólo si usted piensa que el rendimiento escolar es producto de la voluntad del alumno (y no, en su mayor parte, reflejo de dotaciones involuntarias) esa es una medida justa.

En fin, el tema de la seguridad pública mostró otra característica de la ideología que inspiró el discurso.

La derecha piensa que una de las claves del incremento de la inseguridad es la existencia de demasiadas garantías. Entre ellas se contaría la defensa penal pública. ¿Acaso -parece preguntar Piñera- no es el colmo que el Estado financie la defensa de quienes delinquen y en cambio deje indefensa a las víctimas? Es lo que subyace en el anuncio de la creación de una defensoría de las víctimas.

Ese punto de vista descansa en un malentendido. El Estado ya financia la persecución penal (esa es la tarea de la fiscalía). Y cuando paga la defensa de los imputados lo hace para legitimar el castigo. El Estado de Derecho consiste en eso: en respetar con escrúpulo las reglas a la hora de aplicar la coacción. Así, entonces, no es que el Estado esté del lado de los delincuentes (como sugiere Piñera cuando anuncia que ahora se pondrá del lado de las víctimas). Simplemente está del lado de la ley.

Y no hay pragmatismo que pueda relativizar eso.

Pero si esos anuncios muestran los rasgos ideológicos de la derecha, hubo un gesto que los subraya hasta el hartazgo: junto a la tontera de las bodas de oro, Piñera guardó silencio sobre las parejas gay. Un buen gesto para el conservantismo, pero un engaño para todos los interesados en las libertades, quienes, creyendo lo que oyeron en la campaña, votaron por él.


--
Gregory Elacqua
--
Sub-director
Centro de Políticas Comparadas de Educación
Universidad Diego Portales
56-2-676-8535
56-09-6-206-5993
www.cpce.cl

Este artículo explora el fenómeno del crecimiento de colegios privados de bajo costo en barrios marginales en distintas partes del mundo.

Gregory
http://www.cpce.cl/educar/

---------------
Boston Globe
Class difference

By Riddhi Shah  |  May 9, 2010

HYDERABAD, India--The end-of-day bell has just gone off at MA Ideal High School, and a Grade 4 classroom on the first floor explodes into a rush of activity. Pig-tailed girls and boys in indigo shorts jump out of their benches and jam through the doorway. But in a corner toward the back of the room, 10-year-old Sanaa Sultana ignores the shrill ringing. She continues reading aloud quietly from her English textbook. Next to her, 11-year-old Mohammed Majid--a hulking, towering contrast to Sultana's tiny frame--follows her in his own book, repeating after her, sentence for sentence. Sanaa is Mohammed's partner in the school's peer-to-peer learning program. When he joined MA Ideal a year ago, Mohammed didn't know more than a few rudimentary words of English. Now, after a year of sitting with Sanaa, one of the class's brightest students, Mohammed almost effortlessly makes his way through an entire sentence.

One floor above them, young teachers in salwar kameezes--long, loose tunics paired with drawstring tapered pants--assemble in neat rows in a classroom, waiting a monthly training session to begin. Today they will learn how to encourage class participation. On the ground floor, Mohammed Anwar, the school's proprietor, is talking to a group of parents. He's telling them about his plans to introduce Genki, a phonics-based teaching method that will help first-generation English learners speak the language more fluently. The burqa-clad mothers are unconvinced, preferring instead the more conventional method of teaching by textbook, but Anwar, with his energy and zeal, manages to be persuasive.

MA Ideal also offers its students free karate lessons, computer classes, soccer training, and health camps. But the school--a private, small-scale venture--is not situated in a plush upper-middle-class neighborhood. Instead, it is tucked away in Kishanbagh, a sprawling slum of low-slung concrete huts, tin-roofed shanties, and bare-bellied children who gambol with skinny, underfed dogs. And the average fee at MA Ideal High School? About $3 per month--one-20th the cost of a typical private school in India.

MA Ideal is part of a grass-roots private school movement that has spread through India in the last two decades. Kishanbagh, a 5-square-kilometer patch of land, has 28 low-cost private schools, while India itself has some 300,000, each a buzzing hive of teaching, learning, and extracurricular activity. These schools offer poor residents across the country an alternative to the inefficient public school system. In Kishanbagh, for example, the local public school is a cavernous building where teachers rarely show up, toilets regularly overflow, and classes are almost never held. In the western world, private schools are associated with high fees and plentiful resources, but Hyderabad's schools succeed by focusing on efficiency and accountability.

Principals like Mohammed Saleem of the nearby Adams High School say that fierce competition between schools forces institutes to strive toward providing the best education they can. ''We have to listen to parents because otherwise they will admit their children to a different school. I have to constantly find new ways to keep parents interested in my school," says Saleem.

The last two decades have witnessed the rising popularity of low-cost private schools across the developing world. Researchers estimate that there are now 1 million budget schools in countries like Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, China, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Uganda. Started by local entrepreneurs, these schools are most often located in urban slums, operate out of a few rooms, and are run by teachers who are paid less than half the salary of a government teacher. Few receive state support or external funding.

And yet, low-cost private schools are far more effective than their government counterparts. In India, for example, the country's largest educational NGO, Pratham, has estimated that 68 percent of the students enrolled in low-cost private schools can read fluently as opposed to just 53 percent in government schools. In Ghana, James Tooley, a University of Newcastle professor who has been studying low-cost schools, found that in English, private school students on average scored 72 points out of 100 on a test designed by Tooley, while government school students scored 58 points.

The results have been so impressive that some researchers are now suggesting that low-cost private schools might be the answer to educating the world's poor. Advocates like Tooley are asking for government deregulation, private investment, and international support to help the sector expand and bring in children who for too long have had to deal with crippled state schools. "International and governmental support will lead to increased competition; more schools will want to enter the market, giving rise to better schools," says Tooley.

Education has long been directly related to a country's rise out of poverty. Literate citizens tend to have smaller families, better health and sanitation, lower mortality rates, lower infant mortality, and ultimately, higher incomes. Educated societies are also more gender-equal, less corrupt, and better governed. According to the World Bank, every year of schooling increases wages by a worldwide average of about 10 percent. The completion of primary school reduces a child's chances of contracting HIV/AIDS by half.

However, in large swaths of the developing world, public education has failed. In India, despite an education budget of $10 billion, 33 percent of the country's population continues to be illiterate. In Nigeria, teacher absenteeism is astonishingly high and teacher-pupil ratios are as low as 1:90. In Uganda and China, public schools exist only in urban or semi-urban areas, while in Kenya, public schools are over-enrolled and teachers frequently go on strike. The common problem is a lack of accountability: Public school principals are often answerable only to bureaucrats sitting in distant offices who rarely visit the schools. Parents have little or no control over the education of their children.

It was this disillusionment with the public sector that inspired Hyderabad's first few entrepreneurs--often parents whose children had been forced to attend government schools--to start private schools in the 1980s. By the time Tooley arrived in Hyderabad in 2000 on an assignment from the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank group that promotes private investment in developing countries, the number of low-cost schools in the city had ballooned. "I was supposed to be studying private schools for the rich," he says. "But instead I discovered this flourishing movement that empowered the poor."

After a year of investigating the phenomenon in India, Tooley traveled across continents in search of other low-cost private schools. What he saw shocked him: Small, private educational enterprises were almost ubiquitous in developing countries. He even found schools in rural China where officials insisted there were none. Soon other academics began studying the steadily expanding movement.

One of the reasons that educators began championing low-cost private schools was their economic efficiency. In India, the government spends an average of $125 per child per year. The annual cost of a low-cost private school is rarely more than $80 per child. It was clear that the private sector--unorganized and scattered as it was--was providing a better education, at a lower cost than the government.

For the international development community, the crisis surrounding education is growing. Despite sustained campaigns and considerable developmental aid, universal primary education remains elusive and illiteracy rampant. As of January 2010, 72 million school-age children were still out of school. And according to current projections by the UN, 58 of the 86 countries that are not yet fully literate will not be able to get there by 2015.

As a result, some organizations are beginning to alter their tactics. The World Bank, for instance, has supported two pilot projects for low-cost schools in India and Pakistan and also funded subsidies for school voucher projects in Colombia and the Philippines. "There is a growing sense that this is a sector worth looking at. It's time to be bold and try new things," says Harry Patrinos, lead education economist for the World Bank.

Proponents are hoping that the World Bank's enthusiasm will encourage other organizations to push governments to support low-cost schools. One suggestion is to allow companies to invest and offer loans to schools. Currently, a few countries like Ghana and the Dominican Republic allow private companies in education, but others, like India, don't. Several organizations have already begun to invest in low-cost education: Opportunity International, for instance, offers loans to hundreds of budget schools in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In India, on the other hand, entrepreneurs like K Suryakala Reddy, founder of New Little Scholars School in Hyderabad, are forced to file false applications for home loans to finance schools.

For critics, though, the popularity of low-cost schools is a dangerous trend, one that will ultimately marginalize the very poor. Society's poorest, says Dina Craissati, UNICEF's senior education adviser, often cannot pay even the very meager fees of budget schools. Worse, low-cost schools are ultimately unsustainable because "in times of economic crisis, the poor will sacrifice nonessentials like schools fees first." And finally, public schools are the only way to hold governments accountable for providing their citizens with education--a right that many countries have enshrined in their constitutions.

But proponents of budget schools insist that there is a way around these objections: Governments can fund vouchers for extremely poor students. Many low-cost schools already offer scholarships based on need, but state intervention will help standardize the practice and solve the problem of limited access. However, says Tooley, there is a caveat: Making the vouchers too freely available may topple the careful balance of competition, parental choice, and accountability that makes these schools work.

Other critics say that an increasing dependence on private schools will create a more unequal society. Rich students will opt for better schools, with the poor having to make do with underfunded, badly staffed schools. "Low-cost private schools are a response to a very bad situation. Instead of encouraging them, we need to make the public system more effective," says Henry Levin, professor of economics and education at Columbia University.

Academics like Levin recommend offering public schools more funds in return for regular attendance by teachers and frequent teacher training.

But back in the dusty, baking heat of Hyderabad, 37-year-old Hazrat Sultana is too battle-worn to believe that more money will improve the local public school. Sultana, a stay-at-home mother whose husband owns a footwear stall in the slum, recently pulled her daughters out of the government school.

"The problem isn't the money," she says. "The problem is that the teachers don't have to listen to us."

They now attend Golden Jubilee school, a three-story bare block where the windows don't have panes and flower-patterned curtains substitute for doors. The public school was bigger, she admits. But just one year in Golden Jubilee has taught her daughter Anjum Nazia more about fractions and world capitals than she learned in seven years at the government school. Anjum Nazia now wants to become an engineer some day.

Riddhi Shah is completing her master's degree in cultural reporting and criticism at New York University's Arthur Carter Journalism Institute. She has worked for the BBC, India Today, and the Hindustan Times in India and has written for Saveur magazine and the Brooklyn Rail in New York. 

--
Gregory Elacqua
--
Sub-director
Centro de Políticas Comparadas de Educación
Universidad Diego Portales
56-2-676-8535
56-09-6-206-5993
www.cpce.cl

José Joaquín Brunner sostiene en el artículo adjunto, que, desde que asumió el nuevo Gobierno, la educación superior desapareció prácticamente de la agenda pública.

Gregory
http://www.cpce.cl/educar/

---------------
16/05/2010
El Mercurio
Educación superior, la gran ausente

El Gobierno aún no enuncia las orientaciones y prioridades de su política para el sector, ni ha designado directivos claves. 

José Joaquín Brunner

Desde que asumió el nuevo Gobierno, la educación superior desapareció prácticamente de la agenda pública. Las universidades afectadas por el terremoto -con sede en Talca, Concepción y Temuco- han debido ceder el protagonismo frente a los colegios colapsados.

El propio Gobierno aún no enuncia las orientaciones y prioridades de su política para el sector. Incluso más: hasta el momento (13 de mayo) no ha designado al personal directivo clave de este ámbito, como son los encargados de la División de Educación Superior del Ministerio de Educación, de Conicyt y de la Comisión Nacional de Acreditación.

Luego, no hay señales del curso que desea seguir el Gobierno ni están tampoco las personas para conducir la marcha del aparato estatal en este ámbito. Podría conjeturarse, por tanto, que los asuntos relativos a la enseñanza terciaria y a la investigación académica no constituyen una preocupación central del equipo gobernante.

De ser así, sería un grave error. La producción, transmisión y difusión del conocimiento avanzado en diversos campos del saber son actividades esenciales para la cultura, la sociedad y la economía. Inciden en la formación de nuestro capital humano más calificado; en la productividad y competitividad del país; en la mejor calidad del debate público y de las decisiones de política, y en la conciencia cultural de la nación.

Sin duda, la educación superior ha progresado en Chile durante las últimas dos décadas: su cobertura se ha multiplicado por más de tres veces, igual que el número anual de graduados; la producción científica se ha diversificado, especializado y vuelto más visible internacionalmente y de mayor impacto; el trabajo académico se ha profesionalizado; hay una relación más estrecha entre algunas instituciones de altos estudios y el sector productivo, y varias universidades, con independencia de su régimen de propiedad y gestión, sirven como plataforma para académicos que intervienen activamente en la deliberación pública.

También hay problemas que urge enfrentar y situaciones que exigen un compromiso enérgico del Gobierno; éste no puede mantenerse ausente.

Hay que duplicar el gasto fiscal en la educación superior, especialmente en beneficio de los alumnos de menores ingresos y a través de convenios de desempeño con las instituciones que presenten los proyectos de mayor valor público.

Se deben revisar las modalidades de asignación de dichos recursos para hacerlas más equitativas y eficientes. Es imprescindible unificar los esquemas de crédito estudiantil existentes y terminar con la odiosa discriminación que ellos conllevan.

Hay que racionalizar la gestión de Becas Chile y apoyar más decididamente los doctorados nacionales. Hay que incrementar la inversión pública en ciencia y tecnología, partiendo por ampliar el apoyo para Fondecyt. Se debe flexibilizar el régimen de control de las universidades estatales que han demostrado una mayor capacidad de gestión.

Y se vuelve urgente reducir la deserción y el tiempo necesario para graduarse mediante un esfuerzo de rediseño curricular y el uso de métodos pedagógicos más efectivos.

En fin, el Gobierno tiene que asumir sus responsabilidades frente a la educación superior, declarar su política para este sector y actuar con prontitud para reunir un equipo en condiciones de encabezar esa política y darle el necesario sustento en el corto y largo plazo.

Hay problemas que urge enfrentar y situaciones que exigen un compromiso enérgico del Gobierno; éste no puede mantenerse ausente.

--
Gregory Elacqua
--
Sub-director
Centro de Políticas Comparadas de Educación
Universidad Diego Portales
56-2-676-8535
56-09-6-206-5993
www.cpce.cl

En Chile, las encuestas indican que más del 90 por ciento de los padres quieren que sus hijos asistan a la universidad.  Y los estudios económicos indican que el retorno económico de estudiar en una institución de educación superior es alto, especialmente para los alumnos que terminan sus estudios.  En el artículo siguiente, un grupo de economistas debaten sobre si es una buena inversión para todos realizar estudios superiores.  Algunos sostienen que para alumnos que desertan o para los que terminan trabajando en carreras que no requieren de estudios universitarios (ej. cartero o asistente de enfermera) no es una buena inversión ni para el individuo ni para el país.  Otros, en cambio, sostienen que los beneficios económicos y no económicos (mejor salud, mejor participación civica, mayor apreciación de cultura) de estudiar en una institución de educación superior, hacen que la inversión valga la pena tanto para el individuo como para el país.

Gregory
http://www.cpce.cl/educar/

-----------------
NYTimes
Week in Review
 May 14, 2010
Plan B: Skip College
By JACQUES STEINBERG

WHAT'S the key to success in the United States?

Short of becoming a reality TV star, the answer is rote and, some would argue, rather knee-jerk: Earn a college degree.

The idea that four years of higher education will translate into a better job, higher earnings and a happier life -- a refrain sure to be repeated this month at graduation ceremonies across the country -- has been pounded into the heads of schoolchildren, parents and educators. But there's an underside to that conventional wisdom. Perhaps no more than half of those who began a four-year bachelor's degree program in the fall of 2006 will get that degree within six years, according to the latest projections from the Department of Education. (The figures don't include transfer students, who aren't tracked.)

For college students who ranked among the bottom quarter of their high school classes, the numbers are even more stark: 80 percent will probably never get a bachelor's degree or even a two-year associate's degree.

That can be a lot of tuition to pay, without a degree to show for it.

A small but influential group of economists and educators is pushing another pathway: for some students, no college at all. It's time, they say, to develop credible alternatives for students unlikely to be successful pursuing a higher degree, or who may not be ready to do so.

Whether everyone in college needs to be there is not a new question; the subject has been hashed out in books and dissertations for years. But the economic crisis has sharpened that focus, as financially struggling states cut aid to higher education.

Among those calling for such alternatives are the economists Richard K. Vedder of Ohio University and Robert I. Lerman of American University, the political scientist Charles Murray, and James E. Rosenbaum, an education professor at Northwestern. They would steer some students toward intensive, short-term vocational and career training, through expanded high school programs and corporate apprenticeships.

"It is true that we need more nanosurgeons than we did 10 to 15 years ago," said Professor Vedder, founder of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, a research nonprofit in Washington. "But the numbers are still relatively small compared to the numbers of nurses' aides we're going to need. We will need hundreds of thousands of them over the next decade."

And much of their training, he added, might be feasible outside the college setting.

College degrees are simply not necessary for many jobs. Of the 30 jobs projected to grow at the fastest rate over the next decade in the United States, only seven typically require a bachelor's degree, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Among the top 10 growing job categories, two require college degrees: accounting (a bachelor's) and postsecondary teachers (a doctorate). But this growth is expected to be dwarfed by the need for registered nurses, home health aides, customer service representatives and store clerks. None of those jobs require a bachelor's degree.

Professor Vedder likes to ask why 15 percent of mail carriers have bachelor's degrees, according to a 1999 federal study.

"Some of them could have bought a house for what they spent on their education," he said.

Professor Lerman, the American University economist, said some high school graduates would be better served by being taught how to behave and communicate in the workplace.

Such skills are ranked among the most desired -- even ahead of educational attainment -- in many surveys of employers. In one 2008 survey of more than 2,000 businesses in Washington State, employers said entry-level workers appeared to be most deficient in being able to "solve problems and make decisions," "resolve conflict and negotiate," "cooperate with others" and "listen actively."

Yet despite the need, vocational programs, which might teach such skills, have been one casualty in the push for national education standards, which has been focused on preparing students for college.

While some educators propose a radical renovation of the community college system to teach work readiness, Professor Lerman advocates a significant national investment by government and employers in on-the-job apprenticeship training. He spoke with admiration, for example, about a program in the CVS pharmacy chain in which aspiring pharmacists' assistants work as apprentices in hundreds of stores, with many going on to study to become full-fledged pharmacists themselves.

"The health field is an obvious case where the manpower situation is less than ideal," he said. "I would try to work with some of the major employers to develop these kinds of programs to yield mastery in jobs that do demand high expertise."

While no country has a perfect model for such programs, Professor Lerman pointed to a modest study of a German effort done last summer by an intern from that country. She found that of those who passed the Abitur, the exam that allows some Germans to attend college for almost no tuition, 40 percent chose to go into apprenticeships in trades, accounting, sales management, and computers.

"Some of the people coming out of those apprenticeships are in more demand than college graduates," he said, "because they've actually managed things in the workplace."

Still, by urging that some students be directed away from four-year colleges, academics like Professor Lerman are touching a third rail of the education system. At the very least, they could be accused of lowering expectations for some students. Some critics go further, suggesting that the approach amounts to educational redlining, since many of the students who drop out of college are black or non-white Hispanics.

Peggy Williams, a counselor at a high school in suburban New York City with a student body that is mostly black or Hispanic, understands the argument for erring on the side of pushing more students toward college.

"If we're telling kids, 'You can't cut the mustard, you shouldn't go to college or university,' then we're shortchanging them from experiencing an environment in which they might grow," she said.

But Ms. Williams said she would be more willing to counsel some students away from the precollege track if her school, Mount Vernon High School, had a better vocational education alternative. Over the last decade, she said, courses in culinary arts, nursing, dentistry and heating and ventilation system repair were eliminated. Perhaps 1 percent of this year's graduates will complete a concentration in vocational courses, she said, compared with 40 percent a decade ago.

There is another rejoinder to the case against college: People with college and graduate degrees generally earn more than those without them, and face lower risks of unemployment, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Even those who experience a few years of college earn more money, on average, with less risk of unemployment, than those who merely graduate from high school, said Morton Schapiro, an economist who is the president of Northwestern University.

"You get some return even if you don't get the sheepskin," Mr. Shapiro said.

He warned against overlooking the intangible benefits of a college experience -- even an incomplete experience -- for those who might not apply what they learned directly to their chosen work.

"It's not just about the economic return," he said. "Some college, whether you complete it or not, contributes to aesthetic appreciation, better health and better voting behavior."

Nonetheless, Professor Rosenbaum said, high school counselors and teachers are not doing enough to alert students unlikely to earn a college degree to the perilous road ahead.

"I'm not saying don't get the B.A," he said. "I'm saying, let's get them some intervening credentials, some intervening milestones. Then, if they want to go further in their education, they can."

--
Gregory Elacqua
--
Sub-director
Centro de Políticas Comparadas de Educación
Universidad Diego Portales
56-2-676-8535
56-09-6-206-5993
www.cpce.cl

Charles Murray, cientista político y autor del libro controversial Bell Curve, explora algunas de las razones que los padres prefieren elegir colegios privados por sobre las escuelas públicas aunque tengan una calidad académica (medido por resultados en las pruebas estandarizadas) similar y muchas veces inferior.

Gregory
http://www.cpce.cl/educar/
----------
NYTimes
May 5, 2010
Op-Ed Contributor
Why Charter Schools Fail the Test
By CHARLES MURRAY

Burkittsville, Md.

THE latest evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, the oldest and most extensive system of vouchers and charter schools in America, came out last month, and most advocates of school choice were disheartened by the results.

The evaluation by the School Choice Demonstration Project, a national research group that matched more than 3,000 students from the choice program and from regular public schools, found that pupils in the choice program generally had "achievement growth rates that are comparable" to similar Milwaukee public-school students. This is just one of several evaluations of school choice programs that have failed to show major improvements in test scores, but the size and age of the Milwaukee program, combined with the rigor of the study, make these results hard to explain away.

So let's not try to explain them away. Why not instead finally acknowledge that standardized test scores are a terrible way to decide whether one school is better than another? This is true whether the reform in question is vouchers, charter schools, increased school accountability, smaller class sizes, better pay for all teachers, bonuses for good teachers, firing of bad teachers -- measured by changes in test scores, each has failed to live up to its hype.

It should come as no surprise. We've known since the landmark Coleman Report of 1966, which was based on a study of more than 570,000 American students, that the measurable differences in schools explain little about differences in test scores. The reason for the perpetual disappointment is simple: Schools control only a small part of what goes into test scores.

Cognitive ability, personality and motivation come mostly from home. What happens in the classroom can have some effect, but smart and motivated children will tend to learn to read and do math even with poor instruction, while not-so-smart or unmotivated children will often have trouble with those subjects despite excellent instruction. If test scores in reading and math are the measure, a good school just doesn't have that much room to prove it is better than a lesser school.

As an advocate of school choice, all I can say is thank heavens for the Milwaukee results. Here's why: If my fellow supporters of charter schools and vouchers can finally be pushed off their obsession with test scores, maybe we can focus on the real reason that school choice is a good idea. Schools differ in what they teach and how they teach it, and parents care deeply about both, regardless of whether test scores rise.

Here's an illustration. The day after the Milwaukee results were released, I learned that parents in the Maryland county where I live are trying to start a charter school that will offer a highly traditional curriculum long on history, science, foreign languages, classic literature, mathematics and English composition, taught with structure and discipline. This would give parents a choice radically different from the progressive curriculum used in the county's other public schools.

I suppose that test scores might prove that such a charter school is "better" than ordinary public schools, if the test were filled with questions about things like gerunds and subjunctive clauses, the three most important events of 1776, and what Occam's razor means. But those subjects aren't covered by standardized reading and math tests. For this reason, I fully expect that students at such a charter school would do little better on Maryland's standardized tests than comparably smart students in the ordinary public schools.

And yet, knowing that, I would still send my own children to that charter school in a heartbeat. They would be taught the content that I think they need to learn, in a manner that I consider appropriate.

This personal calculation is familiar to just about every parent reading these words. Our children's education is extremely important to us, and the greater good doesn't much enter into it -- hence all the politicians who oppose vouchers but send their own children to private schools. The supporters of school choice need to make their case on the basis of that shared parental calculation, not on the red herring of test scores.

There are millions of parents out there who don't have enough money for private school but who have thought just as sensibly and care just as much about their children's education as affluent people do. Let's use the money we are already spending on education in a way that gives those parents the same kind of choice that wealthy people, liberal and conservative alike, exercise right now. That should be the beginning and the end of the argument for school choice.

Charles Murray, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is the author of "Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality."

--
Gregory Elacqua
--
Sub-director
Centro de Políticas Comparadas de Educación
Universidad Diego Portales
56-2-676-8535
56-09-6-206-5993
www.cpce.cl

Ayer, en la Cámara de Diputados, la Concertación se opuso a los artículos clave del proyecto de ley sobre Aseguramiento de Calidad de la Educación.  Especificamente rechazaron la creación de la Agencia de Calidad y la Superintendencia, los ejes principales del proyecto de ley.  Curiosamente, la mayoría de los diputados de la coalición de centro-izquierda rechazaron un proyecto de ley que propone regular uno de los sistemas escolares menos regulados en el mundo, mientras que la derecha lo aprobó, algo impensable hace un par de años. Ahora el proyecto modificado (sin los ejes principales) vuelve al Senado.

Gregory
http://www.cpce.cl/educar/
--------
5 de mayo de 2010
El Mercurio

A. MUÑOZ Y M. FERNÁNDEZ

Pese a que fue aprobado en general, el proyecto de ley sobre Aseguramiento de la Calidad de la Educación sufrió ayer un duro revés en la Cámara de Diputados, luego que la Concertación rechazara todos los artículos clave que requerían de quórum especial para ser aprobados, porque modificaban leyes orgánicas constitucionales.

Pese a que este proyecto surgió durante la administración Bachelet, este es el primer traspié legislativo del nuevo gobierno, que había puesto suma urgencia a la propuesta para despacharla rápidamente.

Entre los artículos que se rechazaron se encuentran los dos ejes centrales de la iniciativa -la creación de la Agencia de Calidad y la Superintendencia, junto con los artículos que les dan atribuciones-, así como aquellos referidos a la estabilidad laboral de los funcionarios traspasados desde el Ministerio de Educación a las nuevas entidades que surgen del proyecto.

Negociaciones

La decisión de las bancadas de oposición de rechazar la iniciativa se debió a que intentaron que el Gobierno le quitara la suma urgencia, con el fin de debatir el proyecto con más calma e incluir indicaciones, tal como habían pedido tanto el Colegio de Profesores como la Asociación de Funcionarios del Ministerio de Educación.

Ayer en la mañana, representantes de las bancadas de la Concertación se reunieron con los ministros Secretario General de la Presidencia, Cristián Larroulet, y de Educación, Joaquín Lavín, para plantear el retiro de la urgencia. En el Gobierno rechazaron esta idea, aunque se abrieron a que la Alianza votara en contra los artículos que ponían en riesgo la estabilidad laboral de los funcionarios de las nuevas instituciones.

Al momento de votar, el proyecto se dividió en dos: por un lado se votaron los artículos que sólo requerían de mayoría simple y, por otro, los de quórum calificado. Los primeros, además de contar con los sufragios de la Alianza, también fueron respaldados por los diputados de la DC Jorge Sabag, Gabriel Silber, Jorge Burgos y Matías Walker. El resto, al ser rechazado por la oposición, no consiguió los 69 votos necesarios para ser aprobados.

Ahora la iniciativa deberá ser enviada al Senado, donde podrían reponerse los artículos rechazados. Si esto ocurre, al haber discrepancias entre las dos cámaras legislativas, el proyecto deberá ser analizado por una comisión mixta. Tanto el Colegio de Profesores como la Asociación de Funcionarios del Ministerio de Educación valoraron el rechazo y llamaron a ampliar el debate del tema.

32 Artículos

del proyecto de ley sobre Aseguramiento de la Calidad de la Educación requerían de quórum calificado; esto es, 69 votos favorables. Sólo 61 diputados los respaldaron. El proyecto completo, que deberá volver al Senado, tiene 113 artículos permanentes y 13 transitorios.

 Los puntos centrales de la iniciativa legal

El proyecto que crea un Sistema de Aseguramiento de la Calidad de la Educación se debate en el Congreso desde el 17 de junio de 2007. Sus principales disposiciones son:

1  Creación de la Superintendencia de Educación. El nuevo organismo tendría el rol de fiscalizar a los establecimientos para que cumplan con los requisitos básicos para operar, monitorear el uso de recursos económicos entregados por el Estado, sancionar a los colegios que no cumplan y tramitar las renuncias y reclamos de terceros en contra de algún recinto educativo.

2  Creación de la Agencia de la Calidad. Esta institución estaría a cargo de evaluar los aprendizajes de los alumnos (haciéndose cargo del Simce o administrando las evaluaciones internacionales), clasificar a los colegios según su nivel de desempeño y generar informes que les ayuden a mejorarlo. Los establecimientos que sean mal calificados podrán recibir apoyo técnico del Ministerio de Educación o de agencias independientes.

3  Conformación de un sistema de aseguramiento de la calidad. El proyecto genera mayores sistemas de información "de fácil comprensión" para el público sobre el nivel de desempeño de los colegios. Adicionalmente, crea mecanismos de ayuda para los establecimientos más deficitarios: se les entrega asistencia técnica, y si luego de cuatro años no presentan avances, pueden perder el reconocimiento oficial y cerrar.

4  Redefinición de las funciones del Ministerio de Educación. Algunos de los roles de las nuevas instituciones los cumple hoy el Mineduc. De aprobarse la ley, éste perdería varias de sus reparticiones. Por ejemplo, la ex ministra Mónica Jiménez, al exponer ante la Comisión de Educación de la Cámara Baja, dijo que la unidad a cargo del Simce pasaría completamente a la agencia. Esto no sólo genera incertidumbre entre los funcionarios de la cartera, sino también entre los expertos. Un análisis del Centro de Políticas Públicas de la UC señaló que el proyecto no clarifica las nuevas funciones del Mineduc, por lo que podrían producirse superposiciones.
Reacciones de los actores políticos

JOAQUÍN LAVÍN
Ministro de Educación

"Me resulta incomprensible que diputados de la Concertación hayan rechazado algunos de estos artículos, que la propia Presidenta Bachelet había impulsado", afirmó ayer el ministro de Educación, Joaquín Lavín.

Agregó que espera que los artículos cuestionados se repongan en el Senado y se apruebe la iniciativa.

CARLOS MONTES
Diputado PS

"El proyecto tiene insuficiencias importantes. Creemos que debe existir un modelo de aseguramiento de la calidad, pero lo que se nos propone tiene grandes falencias", sostuvo el diputado PS Carlos Montes.

El parlamentario afirmó que el ministro Lavín tuvo "mucha rigidez" y no quiso quitar la urgencia a la iniciativa.

CRISTIÁN LARROULET
Ministro Segpres

"Vamos a ir ahora al Senado para trabajar los consensos que nos permitan aprobar este proyecto, que va en beneficio de la calidad de la educación, de los niños y jóvenes de Chile. Yo espero que la Concertación recapacite y prioricemos a los niños y a los jóvenes de Chile para que finalmente saquemos adelante este proyecto".

--
Gregory Elacqua
--
Sub-director
Centro de Políticas Comparadas de Educación
Universidad Diego Portales
56-2-676-8535
56-09-6-206-5993
www.cpce.cl

El artículo adjunto comenta sobre un estudio realizado por un panel de expertos de formación docente en EEUU que analiza el estado de la literatura sobre las mejores políticas, prácticas y programas de la formación docente.  Su conclusión es bastante deprimente: "The research we have on teacher education isn't up to answering some of the most basic questions that people would like to have answers to" resume Andrew C. Porter, el decano del programa de post-grado de educación de Pennsylvania.

Gregory
http://www.cpce.cl/educar/

----------------------
Education Week

Published Online: April 29, 2010
Panel Finds No Favorite in Teacher-Prep Pathways
By Debra Viadero

After six years of study, a national panel of prominent scholars has concluded that there's not enough evidence to suggest that teachers who take alternative pathways into the classroom are any worse­--or any better­--than those who finish traditional college-based preparation programs.

The finding comes in a report released today by the National Research Council, which is an arm of the National Academies, a scientific body created to advise the federal government on scientific matters.

"Now we can see that we've looked at the best available evidence, and the evidence suggests that there are not significant differences," said Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, the chairwoman of the 24-member panel.

Nationwide, an estimated 20 percent to 30 percent of new teachers enter the classroom through nontraditional, or alternative, routes, such as Teach For America or the New York City Teaching Fellows program. That number has grown exponentially over the last 20 years, and over time, many of those programs have become closely linked to postsecondary education programs.

Studies commissioned by the committee and others show, in fact, that differences among various alternative-certification programs are often as great as those between alternative programs and the traditional ones.

A more fruitful line of research, the report adds, is to compare particular aspects of such programs, such as the timing of students' field experiences, the level of teachers' content knowledge, or program selectivity, and how they affect K-12 students' learning.

According to the panel, the lack of solid evidence to answer the perennial debate over alternative-certification vs. traditional college-based programs reflects the generally thin research base in the field over how best to prepare the nation's 3.8 million teachers.

A growing body of evidence suggests that teachers are the single most important school-based influence on children's learning. Yet experts and policymakers disagree on the best way to train the estimated 200,000 people who complete some sort of U.S. teacher-preparation program each year, according to the report from the Committee on the Study of Teacher Education Programs.

"The research we have on teacher education isn't up to answering some of the most basic questions that people would like to have answers to," said panel member Andrew C. Porter, the dean of the University of Pennsylvania's graduate school of education. "We don't want to be in the same position 10 years from now."
Coordinating Data

To prevent that from happening, the panel calls on federal education officials to take the lead in coordinating and linking states' longitudinal databases on education so researchers can better track who enters teacher-preparation programs, where they end up, and how effective they are on the job.

The study was ordered by Congress in 2004 and commissioned a year later by federal education officials. Yet the lack of rigorous research on many of those questions delayed the project, as the committee was forced to commission its own studies on some of the questions. Ms. Lagemann also said the investigation was prolonged by disagreement among the panelists, a politically and academically diverse group that included scholars in history, mathematics, medicine, and economics, as well as education.

"We spent a lot of time discussing and debating what was evidence," said Ms. Lagemann, a research professor and senior scholar at the Levy Economics Institute at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. "We felt very constrained to say things for which there was strong evidence."

In the end, though, the group failed to win the assent of one panelist, economist Michael Podgursky of the University of Missouri, in Columbia. In a brief dissent, he criticizes the panel for making recommendations beyond its charge and relying on "descriptive and qualitative studies, as well as the opinions of teachers and teacher-educators."

The panel also looked specifically at the research on teaching in three subject areas--reading, mathematics, and science. It found the strongest evidence base was in reading and the thinnest was in science. Even so, it concludes, "little is known about the best way to prepare prospective teachers in reading."

To create the kind of nationwide data set the report envisions, the panel suggests capitalizing on the longitudinal education data systems that states are now building with help from the federal government. Beginning in 2005, the department's Institute of Education Sciences began providing states with grants to build comprehensive, student-level data systems, and that effort has continued and expanded with recent efforts such as the Race to the Top Fund.

The challenge, the report adds, would be to set consistent definitions from state to state on what constitutes passing levels on state teacher-licensing exams, for example, or what is meant by out-of field teachers.

But the resulting product could help answer a wide range of basic questions on teacher education that can't be answered now, the report says.

Researchers could find out, for example, who enters what kind of teacher-preparation pathway, where they end up, how long they stay on the job, and how their knowledge and teaching practices differ. The data set could also be used to weigh how changes in state or national teaching policy affect schools.

"If we can build a nationwide data set, that, in itself will encourage more research," Ms. Lagemann said.

Some states, such as Louisiana and Florida, have already begun to collect data tracking teachers coming out of teacher-preparation programs. And Louisiana, in fact, has plans to evaluate such programs based on the test scores of the K-12 students taught by graduates of those programs.

While such efforts are important for research purposes, the report says, it also cautions against drawing definitive conclusions about teacher-preparation programs based on value-added models that measure students' academic growth over the course of a school year--in part because the models don't capture the full range of teachers' skills or factors outside the classroom that influence teaching, according to the panel.

Separately, the report calls on federal education officials to launch a national study of the various mechanisms in place around the country to accredit teacher education programs and whether they line up with best practices in accountability. Those accreditation entities include the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, the Teacher Education Accreditation Council, and state and regional licensing authorities.

Arthur E. Levine, the author of a highly critical report on university-based teacher education programs in 2006, said the report's findings echo those of another report on teacher education research that was published in 2005. In that report, which was put together by a committee of the American Educational Research Association, panelists also bemoaned the lack of research in the field.

"What this study shows," said Mr. Levine, currently the president of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation in Princeton, N.J., "is that we haven't made as much progress as we wanted to in the last five years."

--
Gregory Elacqua
--
Sub-director
Centro de Políticas Comparadas de Educación
Universidad Diego Portales
56-2-676-8535
56-09-6-206-5993
www.cpce.cl

La evidencia sobre si los charter schools son mejores que las escuelas públicas en EEUU es bastante mixta (ver artículo adjunto). Según un estudio reciente de la Universidad de Stanford, menos del 20 por ciento de los charter schools logran mejor desempeño que las escuelas públicas, la mitad producen un nivel de calidad similar que las escuelas públicas y 37 por ciento obtienen resultados significativamente peores que las escuelas públicas tradicionales.  Un desafío ha sido como replicar el modelo del 20 por ciento de charter schools exitosos.  Muchos filántropos (empresarios, cantantes, actores, etc.) han hecho inversiones importantes en los charter schools más exitosos (ej. KIPP) para intentar ampliar su red en los sectores más vulnerables de EEUU (ej. en New Orleans).  Otro desafio ha sido como retener a los padres motivados en las buenas escuelas públicas.  Los estudios indican que las familias prefieren un charter school por sobre una escuela pública de la misma calidad porque sienten que sus hijos estan en un ambiente más seguro.   

Los desafios son similares en Chile.  La mayoría de los estudios que comparan el rendimiento de las escuelas municipales con los resultados de los colegios particulares subvencionados muestran que las diferencias son pequeñas y muchas veces no significativa.  El sector particular subvencionado en Chile es muy heterogeneo.  Hay colegios de primera categoria y otros de muy mala calidad.  El desafio en Chile ha sido como expandir el número de colegios particulares subvencionados exitosos sin subir las barreras de admisión (selección) y como cerrar los colegios (particulares subvencionados y municipales) malos sin limitar la libertad de elección de las familias.  También ha sido un desafío revertir la fuga de la matricula desde el sector municipal al sector particular subvencionado. Las encuestas indican que las familias prefieren un colegio particular subvencionado por sobre una escuela municipal de la misma calidad.  Probablemente escogen mirando los resultados brutos del SIMCE, sin tomar en cuanta el nivel socioeconómico de los estudiantes y probablemente perciben que los colegios particulares subvencionados ofrecen un ambiente más seguro.

Gregory
http://www.cpce.cl/educar/


-----------
NYTimes
May 1, 2010
Despite Push, Success at Charter Schools Is Mixed
By TRIP GABRIEL

In the world of education, it was the equivalent of the cool kids' table in the cafeteria.

Executives from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, McKinsey consultants and scholars from Stanford and Harvard mingled at an invitation-only meeting of the New Schools Venture Fund at a luxury hotel in Pasadena, Calif. Founded by investors who helped start Google and Amazon, this philanthropy seeks to raise the academic achievement of poor black and Hispanic students, largely through charter schools.

Many of those at the meeting last May had worried that the Obama administration would reflect the general hostility of teachers' unions toward charters, publicly financed schools that are independently run and free to experiment in classrooms. But all doubts were dispelled when the image of Arne Duncan, the new education secretary, filled a large video screen from Washington. He pledged to combine "your ideas with our dollars" from the federal government. "What you have created," he said, "is a real movement."

That movement includes a crowded clique of alpha girls and boys, including New York hedge fund managers, a Hollywood agent or two and the singers John Legend and Sting, who performed at a fund-raiser for Harlem charter schools last Wednesday at Lincoln Center. Charters have also become a pet cause of what one education historian calls a billionaires' club of philanthropists, including Mr. Gates, Eli Broad of Los Angeles and the Walton family of Wal-Mart.

But for all their support and cultural cachet, the majority of the 5,000 or so charter schools nationwide appear to be no better, and in many cases worse, than local public schools when measured by achievement on standardized tests, according to experts citing years of research. Last year one of the most comprehensive studies, by researchers from Stanford University, found that fewer than one-fifth of charter schools nationally offered a better education than comparable local schools, almost half offered an equivalent education and more than a third, 37 percent, were "significantly worse."

Although "charter schools have become a rallying cry for education reformers," the report, by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes, warned, "this study reveals in unmistakable terms that, in the aggregate, charter students are not faring as well" as students in traditional schools.

Researchers for this study and others pointed to a successful minority of charter schools -- numbering perhaps in the hundreds -- and these are the ones around which celebrities and philanthropists rally, energized by their narrowing of the achievement gap between poor minority students and white students.

But with the Obama administration offering the most favorable climate yet for charter schools, the challenge of reproducing high-flying schools is giving even some advocates pause. Academically ambitious leaders of the school choice movement have come to a hard recognition: raising student achievement for poor urban children -- what the most fervent call a new civil rights campaign -- is enormously difficult and often expensive.

"I think many people settle and tend to let themselves off the hook," said Perry White, a former social worker who founded the Citizens' Academy charter school in Cleveland in 1999 -- naïvely, he now recognizes -- and has overseen its climb from an F on its state report card in 2003 to an A last year. "It took us a while to understand we needed a no-excuses culture," he said, one of "really sweating the small stuff."

Visits to half a dozen charter schools in Cleveland and New York State show that high- and low-performing schools often seem to take pages from the same playbook. They require student uniforms, a longer day and academic year, frequent testing to measure learning, and tutoring for students who fall behind. They imitate one another in superficial ways, too, like hanging inspirational banners: "This Is Where We're Headed. To College!" say posters in the hall of the Williamsburg Collegiate Charter School in Brooklyn, with campus scenes of a chemistry lab and big-time college sports.

But the differences in how schools are run, the way classes are taught and how school culture is nourished are striking. It is like watching two couples dance a tango, one with poise and precision, the other stumbling to execute the intricate footwork.

A High-Flying School

At Williamsburg Collegiate, whose middle school students annually outscore the district and city averages on state tests, Jason Skeeter stood before his math students the other day as tightly coiled as a drill sergeant. He issued instructions in a loud, slightly fearsome voice, without an extra word or gesture. "Five minutes on the clock," he told the 26 fifth graders, as they began a "Do Now" review sheet on least common denominators.

On the whiteboard, an agenda told students precisely what to expect for the 60-minute period. Mr. Skeeter placed his digital Teach Timer on an overhead projector so the countdown was visible to all. When the buzzer sounded, he announced, "Hold 'em up," and students raised their pencils.

"Clap if you're with me," he said, clapping twice to snap students to attention. The class responded with a ritual double-stomp of the feet and a hand clap.

Mr. Skeeter, 30, a stocky man in a dark blue shirt and tie, moved swiftly to a second timed exercise, the "Mad Minute," 60 multiplication problems in 60 seconds.

"Pencils down," he ordered after the minute was up. "Switch papers with your partner."

The teacher read aloud the 60 answers. "Hands on your head when you're done counting" correct answers, he told students. He started the timer again as he called students' names -- DeAndre, Alejandro, Nakeri, Lyric -- typing their scores into a laptop. He announced the class average: 37.86.

"Brian Leventer," he said, making what the school calls a cold call to one student rather than looking for a raised hand, "what does it round to?"

"Thirty-eight."

"Thirty-eight is correct," Mr. Skeeter said. The class had fallen two points shy of fifth graders in a rival class. "Close, close, close," the teacher said.

At Williamsburg Collegiate, everything is measured, everything is compared, graphed and displayed publicly. Besides academics, students compete for merit points for good behavior and receive demerits for absent homework or disrespect. The school drills students on posture and clear speaking, known as SLANT, shorthand for "Sit up straight. Listen. Ask and answer questions. Nod for understanding. Track the speaker," meaning follow with your eyes.

"I will give merits to the first group to stop what they're doing and track me," Mr. Skeeter said at one point.

A rigidly structured environment is part of the formula the school believes produces success. Another is "the use of data to inform everything we do," said Brett Peiser, the superintendent. If tests reveal that 70 percent of students do not know how to add fractions with like denominators, teachers reteach it. The curriculum is constantly adjusted.

Although half of Mr. Skeeter's fifth graders began the year, their first at the school, below grade level, his goal is for all to pass the state exam. It is a goal that eludes most schools statewide with populations like Williamsburg Collegiate's, which is 99 percent African-American and Hispanic, with 83 percent eligible for free or reduced-price lunches.

Yet last year all 78 of the school's fifth graders who took the math exam passed. "If our goal is to close the achievement gap and prepare students for college, obviously we're trending in the right direction," Mr. Peiser said.

A More Typical Case

In Ohio, the Cleveland Arts and Social Sciences Academy is not the kind of charter school that celebrities visit. It is, however, close to the norm for urban Ohio, where 60 percent of charter school students in the eight largest districts attend a school that earned a D or F on its last state report card, according to an analysis by Catalyst Ohio, an independent publication supporting school improvement.

Alison Ellis, who is 27 and in her second year of full-time teaching, had the advantage of a small class of 14 the other day to teach sixth-grade math, in preparation for the state tests on which the all-important school report cards are based.

"Yesterday we looked at the extended-responses part of your test," Ms. Ellis said, referring to practice exercises the students had done. "We had a rough day."

She passed out a work sheet reviewing similar material, starting with a word problem calling for basic arithmetic. "Jackie ate lunch at the Double D Diner," she read. "Her check is shown below."

The students bent to their work sheets, six girls and eight boys, the boys ranging in size from a student with a faint mustache and an untucked extra-large polo shirt to another seemingly half his size.

The Arts and Social Sciences Academy, which Ohio says is in a state of "academic emergency," might not strike a casual observer as a school that is failing its students, who are similar demographically to Williamsburg Collegiate's -- 98 percent African-American, 91 percent economically disadvantaged.

But the contrast with the Brooklyn school was apparent in many subtle ways. In Ms. Ellis's classroom, the whiteboard was empty except for the date -- no agenda to focus students. Although Ms. Ellis timed students on solving problems similar to those they would expect on the state test, she was imprecise about when time was up.

The pace was unhurried; there was little sense of the urgency to impart and absorb knowledge that lends an electricity to classrooms at Williamsburg Collegiate. At one point, a boy put his head on a desk and had to be wakened.

As fifth graders one year ago, only 20 percent of the school's students passed the state math exam, results that contributed to the school's overall grade of F. The principal, Debroah A. Mays, was disappointed by the results. She introduced a yearlong improvement plan that included Saturday tutoring and teacher training.

"We are determined to become a school of excellence," Mrs. Mays said.

Even though the school did worse on the Ohio math and English exams than the average Cleveland public school, families did not flee Arts and Social Sciences Academy. On the contrary, enrollment has doubled in each of the past two years. It is a phenomenon often seen in academically failing charter schools when parents perceive them as having better discipline than district schools.

"Families love the feeling of community; they walk in and say they feel safe," Mrs. Mays said. "They don't worry about bullying. My kids are just a bunch of marshmallows."

The Ideology

Since the first one opened in Minnesota in 1992, charter schools have captivated school reformers, originally on the political right but increasingly from the center-left. Largely an urban phenomenon, charter schools in some 72 cities now enroll 10 percent or more of public school students, up from 45 cities three years ago, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

Fifty-five percent of enrolled students nationwide are black or Hispanic, the alliance says, and more than a third qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, a common measure of poverty.

The movement sometimes makes for strange bedfellows. "When I first got into this, I thought everyone interested in educating poor black kids would be a good lefty," said Lyman Millard, director of development at Citizens' Academy in Cleveland and a Democrat. "We went to a state charter convention where they were debating which of two bumper stickers to have printed: 'Go With Bush' or 'God Wants Bush.' I thought, what did we get ourselves into?"

In 2007, President George W. Bush visited a Harlem charter, but President Obama has done him one better, pledging to use the Harlem Children's Zone, a network of charter schools and social services, as a model for high-poverty urban areas. The administration's Race to the Top competition, which waves the carrot of $4.3 billion in education aid to states that comply with administration goals, has prompted three so far -- Illinois, Louisiana and Tennessee -- to lift limits on the number of charter schools. Advocates say there has never been more political momentum from Washington in favor of charter schools.

The club of millionaires and billionaires who support them includes Mr. Gates; Mr. Broad, whose fortune is from home building and financial services; Michael Dell of Dell Computer; Doris Fisher, who, with her late husband, Donald, founded the Gap; and the Walton family.

Rather than starting their own schools, these philanthropists largely went looking for successful charters and provided money for expansion. Thus they can boast of mainly backing academic winners.

Celebrities who support charters have also picked carefully. In Los Angeles, a former writer for "L. A. Law," Roger Lowenstein, founded the Los Angeles Leadership Academy, which ranks in the top 10 percent of schools statewide with similar disadvantaged populations. He has cultivated as donors the screenwriter James L. Brooks and the television agent Rick Rosen, who represents Conan O'Brien.

In New York, Mr. Legend, the Grammy-winning soul singer, has used his visibility to debate political opponents of charter schools in the news media. "What these people are proving who are running excellent schools is that poor black and brown kids can be successful," he said in an interview. "Until recently a lot of Americans didn't even believe that was true, because they saw such persistent gaps in the education outcomes."

Mr. Legend is on an advisory board of Harlem Village Academies, three small schools that held a glittery fund-raiser at Lincoln Center last week. Katie Couric told the crowd that she was a mentor to students on Saturday mornings. Hugh Jackman, the host, announced a $500,000 gift from Rupert Murdoch.

Last year, 93 percent of eighth graders at the flagship Harlem Village Academy passed the state math, English, science and social studies exams, compared with 41 percent in its West Harlem school district, records show.

Some Have Doubts

Critics of charter schools, often teachers' unions and their political allies, say the schools rely on a corps of young teachers who are willing to work 60-hour weeks, but who burn out quickly. In addition, as the United Federation of Teachers reported in January, charters in New York City enroll a smaller share of special education students and those still learning English.

An independent study recently backed the claims to high achievement made by New York City charters, which have benefited from the strong support of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein. Devised to address criticism that charters skim off the most motivated students, the study compared the state test scores of students in charter schools with those who had wanted to enroll but were not picked in lotteries that charters hold when they have too many applicants.

The study concluded that charter students made better progress in math and English than their counterparts who ended up in traditional schools. In math, students in charters from kindergarten through eighth grade came close to equaling the achievements of suburban students, nearly closing what the study's lead author, Caroline M. Hoxby, a Stanford economist, called the "Scarsdale-Harlem" gap.

Ms. Hoxby's study, released in September, followed by three months the much broader investigation by a Stanford colleague, at the Center for Research on Education Outcomes, which showed discouraging results for charters nationally. Drawing on data from the District of Columbia and 15 states (but not New York), that study's finding that 83 percent of charter schools are doing no better than local public schools shocked many advocates, all the more so because its author, Margaret E. Raymond, is a fellow at the Hoover Institution, a bastion of libertarianism.

Ms. Hoxby, also a fellow at the Hoover Institution, where she is a member of a pro-charter task force, and Ms. Raymond engaged in a sharp online exchange over research methodologies -- an echo of years of arguments over charter school data. (Ms. Raymond's study did show that learning improved the longer students were in charters.)

What most experts can agree on is that charter school quality varies widely, and that it is often associated with the rigor of authorities that grant charters. New York, where oversight is strong, is known for higher performing schools. Ohio, Arizona and Texas, where accountability is minimal, showed up in Ms. Raymond's study with many poorly performing schools.

Perhaps the sharpest knock on charters -- one that even some proponents acknowledge -- is that mediocrity is widely tolerated. Authorities are reluctant to close poor schools. Some advocates concede that the intellectual premise behind school choice -- that in a free market for education, parents will remove students from bad schools in favor of good ones -- has not proved true.

"If you look at the hopes and dreams from 1992, it didn't pan out that quality would rise because of marketplace accountability," said James Merriman, chief executive of the New York City Charter School Center. "It turns out you need government accreditation to drive quality, and the human capital to make schools go. The hard lesson is, it is so dependent on human capital."

Can They Be Replicated?

Mr. Skeeter of Williamsburg Collegiate is what advocates mean when they talk of human capital. A former public school teacher in the Bronx, where he lives, he works from 7 a.m. to 5:30, nearly three hours longer than his public school day. The charter school says it pays teachers about 15 percent above union scale, though there is no tenure. "I have more say in what I teach and how I teach, which is important to me," Mr. Skeeter said, adding that in a traditional public school he felt "handcuffed" to the assigned curriculum.

As his students lined up after lunch outside his classroom, he popped questions before they could enter. "Kayson, what is two-fifths as a percent?" he asked. The boy hesitated before correctly answering 40. "Next time," Mr. Skeeter said, "quicker."

Mr. Peiser, who oversees Williamsburg Collegiate and nine other charter schools in Brooklyn for Uncommon Schools, a nonprofit management organization, frequently says "there's not one big thing" that his schools do differently that explains their success. "There are 100 1-percent solutions," he said.

Ninety-eight percent of some 1,000 students in grades three through eight in Uncommon Schools, almost all poor minority children, passed their New York State math exam last year, and 89 percent passed the English exam. "Higher in both cases than the white average," Mr. Peiser pointed out.

Such stellar results have attracted philanthropists, including those from the New Schools Venture Fund, which seeks to replicate top charter schools. Whether that is possible at a scale that could move the needle in American education may be the greatest challenge of all for the charter movement.

Nonprofit networks of charter operators with top-flight schools -- outfits like Uncommon, KIPP and Aspire Public Schools -- have created only about 350 in the past decade, and required $500 million in philanthropic support, according to Thomas Toch, author of a study last year on many of the groups underwritten by the New Schools Venture Fund. He questioned whether successful charters could be "scaled up" without sacrificing quality and without heavy subsidies from private donors.

"It's easy to open schools, but it's very hard to open and sustain and to grow networks of very good schools," said Mr. Toch, a founder of Education Sector, a research group.

The education historian Diane Ravitch offers a parallel critique. "Charters enroll 3 percent of the kids," she said. "The system that educates 97 percent, no one's paying any attention to."

In a new book, Ms. Ravitch describes her about-face from supporter of the school-choice movement as a member of the first Bush administration to a critic. In an interview, she pointed to the Obama administration's oft-stated goal of turning around 5,000 public schools -- the bottom 5 percent -- which it is leveraging through $4 billion in School Improvement Grants to states that adopt one of four strategies, including giving failing schools to charter operators. "What we're likely to get are lots of mediocre and very bad charters," Ms. Ravitch said.

Mr. Duncan, the education secretary, replied through a spokeswoman: "We do not favor one kind of school over another. We favor educational quality and accountability for all schools."

The teachers and principal at the Arts and Social Sciences Academy, which has 230 students in temporary buildings, do not want to remain in the category of failing charter. They hope to expunge the F on their school's report card with this year's state exams. "Soaring to Success!" a banner in the hallway read the other day, exhorting one and all. "There are 13 school days to the Ohio Achievement Assessment!!"

In Ms. Ellis's math class, she patiently demonstrated how to answer the word problem of Jackie and her lunch at the Double D Diner. As she reread the problem, one boy interrupted: "I thought it was a he," he said, meaning "Jackie."

"One thing I've noticed we get stuck on is names," Ms. Ellis said, gently correcting that Jackie is a she. "They have the wackiest names," she told students named Devonere, Aja, Danisha and Caz'mier, who might be unfamiliar with some of the references of standardized tests.

She assigned a more challenging problem, and as she went from desk to desk offering advice, students worked without the familiar distractions of a more crowded classroom -- hands raised for a bathroom pass, students wandering over to backpacks. Disengagement here was expressed passively: after most of the time allotted to complete the problem had passed, one boy had drawn only a line dividing the work space in half. At a bank of computers in the back, where other students were working, one had his head on the keyboard.

The computers ran a learning program, A-Plus, with problems geared to a student's abilities. A boy was working his way through simple math. "A glass of lemonade costs 25 cents," the computer screen told this sixth grader. "A hot dog costs 5 cents. How much will it cost to buy both?"

When he tapped the correct answer, the screen flashed, "Way to Go."

Clearly, this school still has work to do.

--
Gregory Elacqua
       --
Sub-director
Centro de Políticas Comparadas de Educación
Universidad Diego Portales
56-2-676-8535
56-09-6-206-5993
www.cpce.cl

En el primer artículo, el Mercurio entrevista a Marcelo Cabrol, el jefe de la División de Educación del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo sobre las lecciones de Katrina y de Hatia que se pueden aprovechar en Chile.      También adjunto dos columnas de JJ Brunner que analizan y critican la agenda de educación de Piñera post-terremoto.  

Gregory
www.cpce.cl

Reconstruir la educación:
Las lecciones de "Katrina" y de Haití que se pueden aprovechar en Chile

"El terremoto es una ocasión para pensar en el nuevo tipo de escuela que Chile quiere", asegura el jefe de la División de Educación del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, Marcelo Cabrol. 

Manuel Fernández Bolvarán

Las escuelas públicas de Nueva Orleans (EE.UU.) estaban en el suelo antes de que llegara el huracán "Katrina" en 2005, y las destruyera físicamente. De los 15 mil distritos escolares que hay en ese país, la ciudad estaba hundida entre los de peor desempeño.

En enero de este año, un terremoto destruyó el 60% de las escuelas de Haití. Un sistema que tampoco rendía: las empobrecidas familias gastaban un tercio de sus ingresos en educación (el 80% de las escuelas son privadas) y no obtenían un servicio de calidad.

Pero, en ambos casos, el desastre fue visto como una oportunidad para mejorar, afirma Marcelo Cabrol, jefe de la División de Educación del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), quien ha sido un actor directo del proceso de reconstrucción de ambos sistemas educativos. Por lo mismo vino a Santiago para reunirse con las autoridades del Ministerio de Educación y conversar sobre lo que han enseñando ambos casos. Su mensaje es claro: "El terremoto es una ocasión para pensar en el nuevo tipo de escuela que Chile quiere tener".

El caso de Nueva Orleans lo demuestra. Luego del huracán, las escuelas estuvieron cerradas un año. Cuando reabrieron, sus niños estaban en peores condiciones sociales que antes. Pese a ello, en cuatro años han pasado de ser uno de los peores distritos del país a estar por sobre el promedio.

¿Cómo lo hicieron? Cabrol lo atribuye a una serie de políticas tomadas por la ciudad y que han sido el marco de referencia de la labor que se está haciendo en Haití. La primera fue crear una institución enfocada 100% en la reconstrucción, aunque dependiente de la superintendencia escolar de Louisiana, el equivalente al Ministerio de Educación.

"La idea es sacar la emergencia del ministerio a través de esta agencia de carácter provisional, para que la autoridad central tenga espacio para planear lo que el país buscará en el mediano y largo plazo. En Haití, el ministro pasó 60 días en terreno tras el terremoto, lo que significa que no tuvo tiempo para pensar políticas de mediano y largo plazo". Esta agencia, además, se encarga de coordinar las ayudas provenientes del sector privado.

Al frente de ella quedó Paul Vallas, quien partió diseñando un plan de largo plazo y tratando luego de que las soluciones de corto plazo fueran coherentes con esa estrategia mayor. Y lo que vio fue que la ciudad tenía los recursos para reconstruir las escuelas, pero no tenía la capacidad de gestionarlas para obtener buenos resultados ni los recursos humanos necesarios. Pero esos "bienes" estaban disponibles. Sólo había que atraerlos.

Así que logró que proveedores de buenos profesores (como el programa Teach for America) se comprometieran a tener una oferta amplia para Nueva Orleans, y luego fue a redes de escuelas de buenos resultados y les planteó el desafío de que se hicieran cargo de estos nuevos colegios aplicando lo que ya sabían hacer. Creó un sistema de concesiones basado en contratos de desempeño.

"En Chile es mucho más simple pensar en la posibilidad de que esto llegue a hacerse. Chile tiene sostenedores exitosos y que perfectamente podrían querer llevar sus modelos de gestión a lugares verdaderamente desafiantes".

De hecho, Vallas exportó el método a Haití. Como en el país no había sostenedores muy destacados, están conversando con 60 universidades de Estados Unidos que se han interesado en hacerse cargo de las escuelas vía concesiones. "En Nueva Orleans, Haití y también en Chile, la tragedia es una oportunidad de capturar la buena voluntad del sector privado, de generar una alianza con él de largo plazo, en base a resultados. Esto es súper importante", afirma.

El esquema, sostiene, sería ideal para probar el funcionamiento de la nueva institucionalidad educativa (Superintendencia de Educación y Agencia de la Calidad), que podría usar el sistema de condiciones para ver cómo funcionan en Chile los contratos por desempeño.

"Todo esto está condicionado a tener maestros que trabajen de manera distinta. Las universidades que forman docentes debieran interesarse por esto, llevar a sus alumnos a trabajar a las zonas afectadas y probar nuevos métodos pedagógicos para mejorar sus planes de formación", puntualiza Cabrol.
 Nuevo enfoque

El BID tiene una cartera de 3 mil millones de dólares para educación. Un monto que puede ser invertido muy ineficientemente si no se avanza en los reales nudos críticos de la región. "Hemos agotado la frontera de resultados en cuanto a reformas si no nos preocupamos por los recursos humanos del sector", dice Cabrol.

Por ello, el banco cambió su enfoque. Ahora apoya iniciativas más pequeñas, pero focalizadas en mejorar la calidad de los docentes y directores.

----------------------
Una agenda educacional desencaminada
Lo que sabemos del plan para una educación de calidad parece apuntar hacia una oportunidad malograda.
por José Joaquín Brunner - La Tercera, 02/05/2010

En estos días ha comenzado a delinearse la agenda educacional del gobierno, dirigida -se dice- a mejorar la calidad de la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de los alumnos. Esto último es lo que importa, en definitiva. Sin embargo, las medidas esbozadas no prometen demasiado.

La primera buscaría aumentar la frecuencia con que los alumnos son evaluados mediante las pruebas Simce. Es más de lo mismo. Nada sustantivo cambiará por el hecho de reunir más antecedentes sobre el bajo desempeño de nuestros colegios. El uso asiduo del termómetro no ayuda a superar más rápido la fiebre.

Asimismo, se anuncia que el Presidente Piñera enviaría una carta a los padres explicándoles los resultados escolares de sus hijos y ofreciéndoles un mapa comparativo del rendimiento de los establecimientos de la comuna. Sin duda es necesario que el Ministerio de Educación simplifique y explique mejor la información que entrega a los padres y la comunidad. Mas tampoco esto contribuirá a mejorar los logros del aprendizaje. Facilitar la lectura del termómetro no nos llevará lejos.

Otra medida propuesta es dotar a los colegios que atienden alumnos vulnerables de más y mejores computadores y conexiones a internet, junto con entregarles -según se ha divulgado- mil pizarras electrónicas interactivas. El sentido común indica que esta medida, prolongación de aquellas anteriores que desde hace 15 años vienen implementándose para introducir la tecnología digital en los colegios, tiene sentido de equidad y ayuda a desarrollar competencias esenciales para el siglo XXI. Pero la evidencia prueba, con igual claridad, que no impacta positivamente sobre otros aprendizajes esenciales ni disminuye la brecha de resultados entre estudiantes de distintos estratos socioeconómicos y culturales. En cambio, obliga a destinar ingentes recursos y tiempo de los profesores (siempre escasos) para que ellos aprendan a usar estas tecnologías.

Por último, se insiste en que pronto se iniciará la formación de al menos 15 liceos altamente selectivos (llamados "de excelencia"), a imagen y semejanza del glorioso Instituto Nacional. Sin duda servirán para segmentar aun más los circuitos de escolarización de nuestros jóvenes, pero no para mejorar la calidad promedio de los liceos del país. Incluso, ésta podría afectarse negativamente, por el "descreme" que experimentarán los demás liceos de la ciudad, cuyos potenciales mejores alumnos irán a concentrarse todos en un mismo lugar.

En suma, los primeros lineamientos del plan gubernamental para una educación de calidad parecen apuntar hacia una oportunidad malograda. Arrancan del supuesto de que mejor infraestructura tecnológica, mayor y más intensa presión evaluativa sobre los alumnos y mejor información del rendimiento escolar para que los padres disconformes elijan otro establecimiento para sus hijos son los elementos esenciales para llevar adelante un plan de mejora exitoso.

Tal supuesto está descaminado. Deja de lado el núcleo de elementos más importantes: el clima afectivo y cognitivo del hogar, la atención y el cuidado temprano de los niños, la solidez y el desarrollo -en todos los aspectos- de la profesión docente, la gestión escolar y el liderazgo de sus directivos, la administración y responsabilidad de los sostenedores municipales, el aún dramáticamente insuficiente valor de la subvención escolar y la necesidad de una cultura que combine el espíritu de curiosidad con la ética personal del trabajo. Conviene discutir ampliamente la agenda que prepara el gobierno.


-----------
Reconstrucción: momento de encrucijadas
José Joaquín Brunner, El Mercurio, 27 abril 2010

Usar el régimen de concesiones para abordar al mismo tiempo un conjunto de problemas pendientes de nuestro sistema podría dar un nuevo impulso a la reforma educacional.

A punto ya de comenzar la etapa de reconstrucción -que implica volver a levantar de una manera definitiva la infraestructura escolar destruida por el terremoto y el maremoto- empieza también el debate sobre la mejor forma de abordar esta empresa.

Por ejemplo, algunos preguntan a quiénes deberá apoyar el Estado y beneficiar con sus inversiones. No es una cuestión trivial. Pues algunos parecieran entender que los principales afectados por el 27/F y, por ende, merecedores del subsidio fiscal, son los sostenedores; en particular, las municipalidades cuyos colegios están en el suelo o seriamente dañados.

A mi entender, es una visión equivocada. El foco hay que ponerlo en los niños y jóvenes y no en los sostenedores. Así, el Estado debe preocuparse por los estudiantes damnificados pertenecientes a los colegios del sistema público subvencionado, cualquiera sea su sostenedor y naturaleza jurídica. Es decir, debería adoptarse exactamente el mismo principio orientador que empleó el gobierno del Presidente Frei Ruiz-Tagle para financiar la jornada escolar completa durante la década pasada.

En seguida, se ha planteado que el Gobierno eche mano al régimen de concesiones para implementar la reconstrucción de los colegios. Si se trata nada más que de elegir un método eficiente para levantar edificios escolares y equiparlos de acuerdo a ciertos estándares fijados por la autoridad, debería ser relativamente fácil determinar si acaso conviene emplear este régimen. Siempre, claro está, que se lo corrija y adapte de manera tal que cumpla con las nuevas funciones.

Distinto, y más interesante, se vuelve el asunto si se vincula la reconstrucción vía concesiones con la futura gestión de los colegios o de algunos servicios que éstos requieren. En este caso se crearía un espacio potencial de innovación, algo que nuestro sistema educacional necesita perentoriamente para dar un salto adelante.

En efecto, para establecer ese vínculo, sería necesario abordar simultáneamente varios asuntos entrelazados. De partida, asegurar mayor autonomía de gestión a los establecimientos municipales. A continuación, modificar las rigideces y flexibilizar el estatuto docente (¡y no dar al traste con él, como algunos quisieran!) y reforzar el rol y la preparación de los directivos.

Luego, poner en marcha la Superintendencia de Educación (aún pendiente de aprobación en el Congreso) para fiscalizar el correcto uso de los cuantiosos recursos fiscales que deberán inyectarse al sistema escolar (en virtud de la reconstrucción, la subvención preferencial y el aumento de la subvención ordinaria comprometido por el Gobierno).

Finalmente, se necesitaría modernizar el Ministerio de Educación, de modo que, a partir del próximo año, pueda desempeñar eficazmente la compleja tarea de apoyar a los colegios de más bajo rendimiento -antiguos y reconstruidos- para desarrollar sus capacidades directivas, pedagógicas y de gestión y así poder mejorar los resultados de aprendizaje de sus alumnos, incluidos los más vulnerables.

Es de esperar que el Gobierno explicite prontamente sus planes sectoriales de reconstrucción e indique qué camino elegirá para el sector educacional: si business as usual en alianza con los empresas concesionarias de infraestructura o bien aquel otro que sirve para transformar el desastre causado por la naturaleza en una oportunidad de innovación para el sistema escolar en su conjunto. El régimen de concesiones, utilizado como pivote para abordar al mismo momento un conjunto de problemas pendientes de nuestra educación, podría dar un nuevo impulso a la reforma educacional y a la política gubernamental.

--
Gregory Elacqua
         --
Sub-director
Centro de Políticas Comparadas de Educación
Universidad Diego Portales
56-2-676-8535
56-09-6-206-5993
www.cpce.cl