Draft Decision Draft Report No. 43590-BR Different Paths to Student Learning Good Practices and Student Performance: Identifying Success from Municipal School Systems in Brazil June 04, 2008 Brazil Country Management Unit Human Development Unit Latin America and the Caribbean Region 1 2 CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS (Exchange Rate Effective: June 05, 2008) Currency Unit = Real R$1.00 = US$0.53 ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS CGU General-Controllership of the Union (Controladoria Gerald a União) CREDES Regional Education Centres (Centros Regionais de Educação) EJA Youth and Adults Education ENEM National Secondary Education Test (Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio) FNDE National Education Development Fund (Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Educação FPE State Participation Fund (Fundo de Participação Estadual) FPM Municipal Participation Fund (Fundo de Participação Municipal) FUNDEB Fund for the Improvement of Basic Education and for Enhancing the Value of the Education Profession FUNDEF Fund for the Improvement of Elementary Education and for Enhancing the Value of the Teaching Profession GDP Gross Domestic Product HDI Human Development Index IDEB Education Development Index IMRS Social Responsibility Index (Índice Mineiro de Responsabilidade Social –) INEP National Institute for Educational Studies and Research LDB National Educational Bases and Guidelines Law MEC Ministry of Education MPF Federal ‘Public Ministry‘ PAR Plan for Articulated Actions PDDE Money Directly to Schools Program (Programa Dinheiro Direto na Escola) PDE Education Development Plan PASEP Programa de Formação do Patrimônio do Servidor Público PISA International Program for Student Assessment PMDI Integrated Minas Gerais Development Plan PNAE National School Meals Program (Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar) PNATE National School Transport Support Program (Programa Nacional de Apoio ao Transporte do Escolar) SAEB National Basic Education Test (Sistema Nacional de Avaliação da Educação Básica) SEBRAE Brazilian Support Service for Medium and Small Enterprises SENAC National Service for Training in Commerce SESC National Social Service for Commercial Workers SESI National Social Service for Industrial Workers SEE State Secretariat for Education SMEs Brazil’s Municipal Education Secretariats TC Accounts Tribunals TCE State Accounts Tribunals TCM Municipal Accounts Tribunals 3 This report was prepared by the following: World Bank Suhas D. Parandekar, Task team Leader Isabel de Assis Ribeiro de Oliveira Maria Madalena Rodriguez dos Santos Érica Amorim Kathy Lindert Andrea Welsh Carla Zardo Marize de Fátima Santos Fabiana Rezende Imperatriz MEC/Inep: Fabiana de Felício Ana Cristina Schneider Roberta Biondi Rafael Terra de Menezes Carolina Zoghbi Rafaela Cabral Jaqueline Silva Field Researchers: Marcelo Emanuel dos Santos, Gehysa Lago, Roberta Guedes, Rafael Leão, Raphael Nascimento, Miriam Virginia Ramos Rosa, Ana Silvia Pires, Ana Lucia Amado, Ângela Ansiliero, Mauricio Fronzaglia, Rosana Allatta, Regina Conrado Melo Regional Vice President Pamela Cox Country Director John Briscoe Country Economist Deborah Wetzel Sector Director Evangeline Javier Sector Manager Eduardo Velez Acting Sector Leader Maria Madalena Santos The authors would like to acknowledge and thank the Brazilian authorities at the federal and state level, as well the many representatives of private sector, civil society, and the education sector who contributed ideas, information, and provided feedback through the research process and elaboration of successive drafts. 4 Prepared in Partnership with: Ministry of Education (MEC) National Institute for Education Studies and Research (INEP) Team members Marcelo Emanuel dos Santos Fabiana de Felício Ana Cristina Schneider Roberta Biondi Rafael Terra de Menezes Carolina Zoghbi Rafaela Cabral Jaqueline Silva 5 Different Paths to Student Learning Good Practices and Student Performance: Identifying Success from Municipal School Systems in Brazil 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 6 2. Rationale .............................................................................................................. 11 3. Defining the Study Sample and Field Research Instruments ......................... 14 3.1. Defining the Study Sample ................................................................................... 14 3.2. Field Research Instruments .................................................................................... 21 4. Factors associated with good performance in municipal school systems... 24 4.1 Leadership by the Municipal Education Secretaries ............................................... 27 4.2. Vision and Planning ............................................................................................... 36 4.2.1. Vision: Understanding Objectives and Goals to be Reached.......................... 36 4.2.2 Planning............................................................................................................ 42 4.3 Federal, State and Municipal Education Programs ................................................. 44 4.4 Characteristics of the Municipal Education Secretariat (SME) ............................. 51 4.4.1 The SME Core Team........................................................................................ 51 4.4.2. Municipal Education Financing ...................................................................... 57 4.5. School Support and Supervision ............................................................................ 61 4.6 School Administration............................................................................................ 62 4.6.1. Pedagogical Plan ............................................................................................. 68 4.7 Teachers: qualified, engaged and committed to education quality ......................... 70 4.8. Links between the Community, the Education Secretary and Schools.................. 75 5. Good Practices and Student Learning Results: 12 Success Stories ............ 80 5.1 Balneário Camboriú – Santa Catarina..................................................................... 80 5.2. Brusque – Santa Catarina ....................................................................................... 85 5.3. Santa Cruz do Capibaribe – Pernambuco.............................................................. 87 5.4 Tramandaí – Rio Grande do Sul ............................................................................. 96 5.5. Campo Bom – Rio Grande do Sul........................................................................ 100 5.6. Novo Hamburgo – Rio Grande do Sul ................................................................ 103 5.7. Parobé – Rio Grande do Sul................................................................................ 109 5.8. Goiana – Pernambuco – Zona da Mata Norte ...................................................... 110 5.9 Alto Alegre do Pindaré – Maranhão ..................................................................... 114 5.10. São Pedro da Aldeia – Rio de Janeiro ................................................................ 118 5.11. Aparecida – São Paulo ....................................................................................... 125 5.12. Joinville – Santa Catarina................................................................................... 131 6. 6. Final Considerations ..................................................................................... 136 7. References .......................................................................................................... 138 8. Annexes .............................................................................................................. 141 8.1. Annex I: Profiles of the Municipalities Studied................................................... 141 8.2. Annex II: Model ................................................................................................... 152 8.3. Annex III: Field Research Instruments ................................................................ 155 6 Introduction The importance of education to the socioeconomic and political development of nations is widely discussed in the education policy literature. Numerous studies describe the negative effects a weak education system can have on populations and societies. A weak education system can influence everything from the individual’s ability to enter the workforce to the economic growth potential of a nation. In Brazil, empirical studies have shown that each additional year of schooling correlates to higher worker salaries,1 increased job tenure and decreased informality in the job market. A well educated population can also facilitate the adoption of capital-intensive technologies and highly specialized work, in turn facilitating the process of productive change and increasing productivity without generating high levels of unemployment. In summary, a general improvement in education conditions can be highly influential in stimulating economic growth. The education policy literature shows that many factors act as determinants of student performance in school: the quality of teachers; the socioeconomic profile of students; the education level of parents; school infrastructure; hours spent in the classroom; and the age at which a child enters the school system, among other factors.2 (Franco, 2002; Barros et al, 2001; Carusi, 2007; Menezes, 2007). Given the preponderance of socioeconomic factors in the list, it is not surprising that socioeconomic background is often cited as the main reason for the poor performance of students in Brazil. The student comes from a poor family, the argument goes, and the parents have achieved a low level of education, and consequently the child does not receive adequate stimulus at home and fails to achieve the desired learning results. This line of reasoning is unsatisfactory for 1 According to Barros and Mendonça (1995) each additional year of schooling corresponds to a 15% increase in average salary. The authors also find that a worker who has completed secondary or tertiary education may gain even more than 15% with each added year of school. They conclude that Brazilian wages are exceptionally sensitive to education levels in the work force. 2 The literature also points to other factors that influence the academic performance of students, including the skin color of students and/or family members, age-grade distortion, (reprovação prévia?), number of books in the home, presence of computer in the home, among others (MENEZES, 2007). 7 two main reasons: first, one of the basic purposes of education is precisely to halt the vicious circle of intergenerational poverty. Attending school should allow the student to overcome any disadvantages in the social or family environment and develop new skills and abilities, ultimately building a better life than the parents. The second and more pragmatic reason this line of reasoning is unsatisfactory also happens to be the motivating force behind this study. Against all odds, some children from poor families perform well on school tests. This may occur for many reasons: some students may try harder, or receive more attention from parents, or receive better quality education services from the state. It is this last factor – the quality of education services – that is the focus of this study. This study seeks to identify the good policies and practices that lead students in some municipal school systems in Brazil to obtain better results than would be expected based purely on socioeconomic factors. What are these particular school systems doing that is helping students to learn? Specifically, what are the factors associated with education policy that allow some school systems to produce better results than others despite having similar resources and attributes? This research is part of a series of collaborative studies developed by the Ministry of Education (MEC) to promote the use of Prova Brasil,3 the first census-level test of student learning in Brazil’s fundamental education cycle, which includes two four-year education cycles covering grades 1-8. Prova Brasil tests 4th-grade and 8th-grade students in Portuguese and mathematics every three years. Another study in this series, published by MEC and UNICEF in December 2006, focused on the performance of individual schools in Brazil.4 The present study focuses on the policies and administrative performance of municipal school systems. 3 For more information on the Prova Brasil test, including results by state, municipality and school, visit: http://www.inep.gov.br/basica/saeb/prova_brasil/default.htm. 4 The Aprova Brasil study carried out by MEC and UNICEF, is available at: http://www.inep.gov.br/download/imprensa/2006/aprova_brasil.pdf 8 Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used in this study. First, to identify successful municipal school systems, we carried out a regression analysis of the Prova Brasil data together with data on socioeconomic variables. Next, to learn about the policies and practices of municipal school systems, we conducted a qualitative field study that consisted of in-depth interviews with the officials responsible for these school systems. To establish a relationship between good test results and good policies and practices, we needed to determine whether municipalities with stronger test results were using different policies and practices than municipalities with weaker results. Therefore, when we went to the field, we investigated policies and practices in municipalities with strong Prova Brasil results and compared them to policies and practices in two control groups – municipalities with average and weak results. These two distinct control groups were needed so that we could examine the possibility that certain “bad” policies and practices were negatively influencing municipalities with poor results. It is important to point out that the notions of “good” and “bad” performance employed in this study are relative and not absolute concepts. On the one hand, all school systems do some things well. On the other, even those schools and municipal school systems that are producing relatively strong results still have much work to do to continue to improve student learning. In the quantitative phase of the study, we first conducted a regression analysis of the mean Portuguese and mathematics test scores of 4th-grade students in municipal schools systems. Next we calculated the estimated value of the regression equation and subtracted that value from the actual value (of the mean test score) obtained by each municipality. We did this to arrive at a residual value for each municipal school system. According to our hypothesis, the effects of education policy and practices would be reflected in this residual value. Next, we divided the municipal school systems into three groups based on their residual values. The “good” or “positive deviant” municipalities – those with positive residual values – produced better scores on the Prova Brasil test than would have been expected based on their socioeconomic characteristics. The “average” or Control group 1 municipalities – those with near-zero residual values – performed as would be expected. Finally the “negative deviant” or Control group 2 municipalities – those with 9 negative residual values – performed less well on Prova Brasil than other municipalities with similar characteristics. These three groups are labeled “B,” “C1” and “C2,” respectively, in tables throughout this report. For the qualitative phase of the research, we purposively selected a small sample of municipalities from each of the three groups. The objective was to have a broad national representation for qualitative study without laying any claim to statistical representativeness. We selected municipalities from 10 states in each of Brazil’s five regions: (i) Bahia, Pernambuco and Maranhão in the Northeast; (ii) São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais in the Southeast; (iii) Pará in the North; (iv) Goiás in the Center-West; (v) and Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina in the South.5 To analyze the residuals, or learning differentials – the difference in test results that could not be attributed to socioeconomic factors – for these municipalities, we focused on Brazil’s Municipal Education Secretariats (SMEs), the municipal bodies responsible for education policies adopted at the municipal level. Specifically, we gathered information about municipal education policies and practices through a series of interviews with the people responsible for those policies and practices in each municipal school system. This process was focused around in-depth interviews with the municipal education secretaries, the leaders of the SMEs. By obtaining information directly from the people responsible for the system at the SME, we sought to identify, among other things, the local actors and institutions in the education sector and the patterns of relationships and interactions among them that helped students achieve better-than- expected results. Municipalities hold a central and privileged position in the implementation of education policies in Brazil’s fundamental education cycle. Municipal governments acquired great importance with the decentralization of the fundamental education cycle in Brazil.6 5 For more information, see the Technical Note for the Study of Positive Deviants by MEC/INEP and the World Bank. 6 The legal framework for the decentralization process was established with the 1988 Constitution and further elaborated in the 1990s, particularly after 1996 with the creation of the FUNDEF program. 10 Currently, it is through municipal efforts, and more specifically through SME efforts, that a large part of federal funds and policy guidance get translated into concrete policy mechanisms and incentives to improve education quality. We will repeatedly stress throughout this analysis that we sought to identify education policies and practices that appeared to be significant to learning results – independent of the availability of material resources. Moving the focus away from material resources brought two fundamental factors to the center of our analysis: creativity on the part of leaders and proactive engagement by all actors. First, we recognized that developing long-term policies and facing day-to-day problems are dynamic and creative human processes. For this reason, we sought to observe the policies and practices of the municipal system in action instead of doing a more static type of analysis that would fail to capture the subjective perspective of the main actors. Second, the study validated the premise that the main actors in the education community – parents, students, teachers, administrators – are free agents who participate in the processes of teaching and learning in a variety of ways. As a result, we concluded that well-designed government policies can create incentives that will encourage the various actors to participate in improving education quality and outcomes. This report is divided into four sections following this introduction. The next section, Section 2, explains in detail the rationale and motivation for the study. Section 3 explains the conceptual framework for the qualitative field research. It provides a succinct but detailed explanation of the methodology used, elaborating on issues such as the definition of study samples and the design of the field research instruments. Section 4 presents the main results of the analysis and identifies the principal education policy factors that appeared to help some municipal school systems obtain better-than-expected Prova Brasil results. Section 5 presents 12 municipal “success stories” in a loose FUNDEF introduced mechanisms that encouraged municipalities to specifically focus on the fundamental education cycle: federal fund transfers were linked to the number of students enrolled, generating two consequences: 1) it provided an incentive for municipalities and SMEs to increase efforts to enroll students, and 2) it provided an incentive for municipalities to take on fundamental cycle students for whom state governments were providing education services. The more students municipalities enrolled, the more funds they received. 11 narrative format. These narratives serve as examples of how different combinations of good practices can translate into results in a variety of actual situations. Lastly, we offer some final considerations in closing. Before delving into the study, we must emphasize that we do not intend to recommend any one single “recipe” of good policies and practices that must always be adopted and will always automatically produce good results. Quite to the contrary, it will become evident in the analysis that there are many possible good practices and many ways in which good practices can be combined to produce positive results. Far from arguing for a one-size-fits-all solution, this study aims to show that results emerge from a dynamic process. It is not enough to understand “what works” and “what does not work” in one environment; rather we must understand how a whole set of rules interacts with a complex set of local circumstances. The interaction between these elements is just as important as the elements themselves; thus we must not only identify the elements, we must try to understand how and why they interact as they do. While good practices are dynamic and the municipal environments in which they operate are complex, this study aims to show that lessons can be learned by observing and identifying specific good practices adopted by “positive deviant” municipal systems – those that performed better than expected given circumstances. However, to achieve this performance, a great deal of involvement is required on the part of local actors, both at the municipal and at the school level. Special attention must also be paid to the continuity and results of policy implementation through the ongoing monitoring and evaluation of policy effects. Rationale As stated, our aim in this study was to identify the good policies and practices that contributed to strong test results by students in certain municipal school systems. But in the process of actually identifying those practices, we encountered a problem we will call “granularity.” When we observe an object, our perception depends on many factors, including the size of the object, our proximity to it and our ability to perceive finer 12 details by using instruments of magnification. If the object is large enough, we can observe it from a distance. But as we move closer, we start to observe more and finer details; we begin to perceive the parts that make up the object. To briefly illustrate this point, imagine you are aloft in a helicopter looking down at a beach. At first, the beach appears as a uniform blanket with few variations, but as the helicopter descends, you start to see shifting patterns of color and texture. When the helicopter lands and you step out on the beach, you see that it is actually made up of tiny grains of sand, dotted with gravel and shells. As you bend down to touch the sand, you realize that the individual grains are not uniform at all but instead exhibit various colors and shapes. When you grab a handful of sand and look at it through a magnifying glass, you realize there are hundreds of different types of grains. At first you were unable to see and describe the beach in great detail, but you now realize this was because your point of reference was so removed. We encountered a similar situation in this study. We visited each of the selected municipalities armed with a large set of pre-formulated questions, thinking the more detailed the questionnaire, the greater our chances of perceiving important differences in policies and practices. However, our data collection process was limited, in particular by one arbitrary restriction: the amount of time a researcher could spend in a municipality was typically only two days. Obviously, we would perceive only some policies and practices and only some of their details and characteristics. For example, classes were taught by teachers in schools and schools had principals in all municipalities studied. Obviously, these uniform conditions could not be determinant factors of the strong or weak performance of a particular school system. But what if we looked more closely and considered the political process for choosing school principals? Were they chosen by the local community, or by the SME? And what if we stopped to consider whether there were financial incentives for teachers to pursue professional development? We found these types of more detailed practices in positive deviant, negative deviant and average municipalities, and it was precisely in these areas that we think our study became more interesting. 13 A municipal school system, even a relatively small one with 10 schools and 2,000 students, is a complex adaptive system. This means the system is constantly changing to adapt to changes in its environment and that the different parts of the system interact in various ways.7 Most important of all, a municipal school system is comprised of human beings – students, families, community members, teachers, school administrators and municipal employees, government officials and suppliers of goods and services. Thus as we tried to discover patterns and common attributes among the positive deviant municipalities, we had to remind ourselves of the complexity of the system to avoid reaching overly simple conclusions. Ultimately, it was precisely our recognition of the complexity of these municipal school systems – coupled with the fact that Brazil has more than 5,000 municipalities – that that led us to choose this approach as an important way to enhance our understanding of how policy and practices influence learning. As explained in the introduction, we chose as the main focus of the study the Municipal Education Secretariats, or SMEs. Who are the people responsible for leading the SMEs and, by extension, the municipal school systems? How did they come to occupy these jobs? What are their qualifications and preparations for assuming leadership of municipal education policy? Under what conditions do they carry out their work? A detailed description of the municipal school systems, starting with a dialogue with the people responsible for the SMEs, seemed the best strategy for identifying the wide variety of approaches to delivering municipal education services. Each field researcher carried a guide, a questionnaire and an objective for standardizing results, as will be seen below. While we sought to identify certain specific good practices, we also wanted to draw attention to the wide variety of good practices in Brazil’s municipal school system. Municipalities that scored well on the Prova Brasil test most likely did so because of a constellation of factors, the interactions among them, a certain harmony between these factors and the local environment, and the accumulation of these effects over time. Good 7 For more on Complex Adaptive System (CAS), see Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity; Editorial Perseus, 1995. 14 practices were found in all the school systems we studied – in the positive deviant municipalities and in both control groups. What makes good practices lead to a better result in one municipality could be simply a larger quantity of good practices and a confluence of other factors. Similarly, the perspective of this study is that all the different levels of government – federal, state and municipal – can join with and contribute to local schools and communities. The different levels of government should not be evaluated only according to which offers the greatest “comparative advantage,” the concept widely used in the decentralization literature.8 The federal and state levels of government can complement municipal efforts in important ways – for example by systematizing information to help identify positive deviant municipalities and by stimulating the flow of information among municipalities. Regional municipal associations and other organizations can also contribute a great deal in this regard. Defining the Study Sample and Field Research Instruments 3.1. DEFINING THE STUDY SAMPLE The Prova Brasil test was administered in schools across Brazil with 30 or more students enrolled. The Prova Brasil dataset contains the test results for 4th-grade students from 3,952 municipalities, representing more than 85% of the students in municipal public schools in Brazil. The universe from which the municipal school districts in our study were selected was defined as: municipalities with at least 10 but no more than 60 fundamental-cycle schools and which participated in the Prova Brasil test. Figure 1 shows the relationship between the average grades obtained in Portuguese (by grade 4 students) and gross domestic product per capita for each municipality. 8 This more dynamic vision of government is explained by Tendler (1998). 15 It is evident from this graph that there is a positive correlation between GDP per capita and the test scores obtained by students in a municipality. That is, the higher a municipality’s GDP per capita, the higher the test score it produces. Traditionally, studies of “production function” problems such as this one focus on carrying out regression analysis to determine the slope or surface of this curve – as well as the coefficients of other determinant variables.9 We carried out similar regression analyses for this study; however, instead of investigating and analyzing coefficients, we turned our attention to the actual location of the municipalities along the vertical axis, as shown in Figure 1. Separate regression analyses were carried out for each of Brazil’s five regions. In these regressions, the dependent variable was the mean municipal test score obtained by 4th- grade students in Portuguese and mathematics. The main source of additional information was a questionnaire given to 4th-grade students with the Prova Brasil test. We also included in our analysis variables reflecting the socioeconomic characteristics of the municipalities, culled from the 2000 Census carried out by Brazil’s Institute of 9 See MENEZES, Naércio A (2007). Determinantes do Desempenho Escolar no Brasil. São Paulo: Instituto Futuro Brasil. Available online at: http://www.ifb.com.br/estudos; FERNANDES, Reynaldo; NATEZON, Paulo E. (2006). O impacto do FUNDEF na alocação de recursos para a Educação Básica. Brasília: IPEA, Pesquisa e Planejamento Econômico – PPE, v.36, n.1; MENEZES, Naércio A.; PAZZELO, Eliane T (2004). Os efeitos do FUNDEF sobre os Salários dos Professores e a Proficiência dos Alunos. In: Anais do XXVI Encontro da Sociedade Brasileira de Econometria – SBE. João Pessoa: XXVI Encontro da Sociedade Brasileira de Econometria – SBE; BARROS, Ricardo Paes de; MENDONÇA, Rosane; QUINTAES, Giovani; SANTOS, Daniel (2001). Determinantes do Desempenho Educacional no Brasil. Brasília: IPEA, Pesquisa e Planejamento Econômico – PPE, v.31, n.1; among others. 16 Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The independent variables were divided into five groups as follows:10 (i) Demographic variables: (a) Percentage of students who are male; (b) Percentage of students who self-identify as ethnically “white;” (c) Average age of students; (ii) Socioeconomic status of student’s family: (a) Family does/does not participate in Bolsa Família program (b) Home does/does not have electric power (c) Number of rooms in the home (d) Family does/does not have an automobile (iii) Family background, including education level of mother: (a) Number of household members (b) Student lives/does not live with mother (c) Years of school completed by mother (less than 4 years) (d) Years of school completed by mother (5 to 8 years) (e) Years of school completed by mother (more than 8 years, but did not finish 8-year fundamental cycle) (f) Years of school completed by mother (more than 11 years, but did not finish 8-year fundamental cycle plus 3-year secondary cycle) (g) Years of school completed by mother (finished 8-year fundamental cycle and 3-year secondary education cycle) (iv) Educational environment at home: (a) Presence/absence of book shelf with at least 20 books in the home 10 The model used for the regression analyses is detailed in Annex 2. 17 (b) Presence/absence of a computer in the home (c) Student does/does not perform domestic chores in the home (d) Student does/does not work outside the home (e) Student does/does not watch more than 1 hour of television (f) Parents do/do not give incentives for completing homework (v) Productive and economic characteristics of the municipality: (a) Municipal population, year 2000 (b) Percentage of municipal population living in urbanized areas (c) Percentage of active labor force working in industry (d) Per capita family income (e) Percentage of economically active population that has completed the fundamental and secondary education cycles (f) Years of school completed by persons 25 years and older Next, starting with the regression equation, we calculated an estimated value for each municipality based on its socioeconomic attributes and then subtracted that value from the actual value achieved by the municipality. We used this technique to calculate a residual value – representing the difference between the municipality’s estimated and actual performance – which, in theory, should reflect any positive or negative effects of education policy and administration. Based on these residual values, we divided the municipal school districts into three groups: the positive deviants, or those that performed better than expected; control group 1, or those that performed more or less as expected; and control group 2, or those that performed worse than expected based on socioeconomic attributes. Finally, we selected a group of municipalities for further comparison and study from the following states in each of Brazil’s five regions: (i) Bahia, Pernambuco and Maranhão in the Northeast, (ii) São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais in the Southeast, (iii) Pará in the North, (iv) Goiás in the Center-West, and (v) Rio 18 Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina in the South. Within each state, we chose two positive deviant municipalities, one control group 1 municipality and one control group 2, or negative deviant, municipality. For purely practical reasons, we selected municipalities located near state capitals. All had school systems with at least 10 but no more than 60 individual schools. Over the course of the study, 10 more municipalities were added to the study, but only for the qualitative analysis. Table 1a presents the positive deviant municipal school systems. 19 A municipal school system that performs better than expected must logically do so because of some combination of two basic reasons. Either: (a) some schools in the system obtained better-than-predicted results, lifting the whole school system’s average score, or (b) average scores were better than expected across the school system – meaning the system’s overall score did not result primarily from the strong performance 20 of just a few schools. Good practices identified in systems where most schools are positive deviants may differ from the good practices of systems with just a few outstanding schools. As it turns out, the data show that the positive deviant municipalities, in general, had a large proportion of schools that performed better than predicted. This is a good indication that the positive deviant municipalities are doing something differently system-wide. (See Table 1a). Table 1b lists the Control Group 1 municipal school systems. The difference between the estimated score and the actual score obtained by these systems was not precisely zero, but it was generally close. In this group of systems, less than half the schools in these systems were positive deviants. Table 1c lists municipal school systems in Control Group 2. It should be emphasized that these municipal systems did not necessarily perform poorly. They merely performed less well on the 4th–grade Prova Brasil test than would be predicted for municipalities with similar socioeconomic attributes. On average, this group’s score was 8 points below the score predicted by the regression equation. In general, the negative deviant school systems had few positive deviant schools – just as the positive deviant school systems had relatively few negative deviant schools. 21 In summary, municipalities were selected for this study and divided into three groups to facilitate identification of factors influencing the performance of municipal school systems. Field researchers subsequently visited each of the municipalities we selected to collect information and conduct interviews. In the following subsection, we describe the instruments developed for this field research. 3.2. FIELD RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS The Municipal Education Secretariats, or SMEs, were chosen as the focus of this study because we aimed to identify good policies and practices by studying in-depth their attributes, responsibilities, organizational structures and other characteristics. For this reason, the research instruments designed and used were closely related to these authorities. Even parts of the field instrument used to collect information from other actors – mainly school principals and teachers – were designed to collect information on these outside actors’ perceptions of the SME. As stated, it is through the SMEs that education policies are implemented, and it is through their efforts that a large part of federal policy guidance and funding is translated into support and incentives for improving education quality – in the fundamental cycle and also at the pre-school level. 22 To describe what we found in as much detail possible, we will present our results in two ways. First, we present tables that systematically show the frequency with which various attributes appeared in the municipal school systems. Our objective is not to suggest these results are statistically reprentative – they are not – but rather to offer a broad overview of the SMEs and the school systems and to sketch a overall portrait of the fundamental education system’s main characteristics.11 Second, we present a series of loosely structured narratives to desribe in detail those situations that seemed to offer particularly useful insights into how municipal school systems and their leaders solve day-to-day problems. Our objective was to analyze in depth how the SMEs are organized and how their leaders, the municipal education secretaries, operate. In theory, understanding how the SMEs manage material and symbolic resources – establishing channels of communication with schools and partnerships with civil society groups – is in itself an important step in learning to develop education policies better suited to the realities of the municipal environment. An important ancillary objective of this study was to demonstrate the benefits of systematically studying and discussing municipal education policies and practices in depth. The instruments used in the field study are described below:12 A. The Municipal Education Secretariat Two complementary instruments were used to collect information from the municipal education secretaries of the SMEs: a questionnaire and a set of guidelines for conducting an interview. Both instruments covered 12 themes, but the questionnaire used close- ended questions for five of the 12. The two instruments were designed to complement one another: the questionnaire was designed to collect precise information on themes of specific interest, while the in-depth interview allowed the SME to talk freely, elaborating on issues that may not have been explored in depth in the study design. 11 We emphasize that this part of the study is qualitative in nature. The numbers in the tables are not statistically represenatative of the education system as a whole. These data are presented to suggest themes of interest and to offer a broad context to enhance understanding of the detailed descriptive analysis. 12 The questionnaires and interview guidelines are presented in full in Annex 3. 23 24 B. Schools: B.1. Interview guidelines for school principals and/or teachers: The objective of this set of guidelines was to identify and describe how school principals and teachers perceived the municipality’s education policy. Specifically, we sought to gauge perceptions of how much support was received from the SME in resolving problems with school administration. Even more specifically, the script sought to determine as exactly as possible what portion of the school’s problems were resolved by the SME. The “portion of problems resolved” was estimated using a scale from 0 to 5, where 0 meant the SME resolved none of the school’s problems and 5 meant the SME resolved all of the school’s problems. The dual perspectives captured by interviewing the SMEs and school-level actors allowed us to gather information about the role and attributes of the SMEs and about the ways in which the SMEs interacted with schools on day-to-day matters. In the questionnaire for the schools, we were able to examine to what extent SME support went beyond formal, or routine, practices to include concrete day-to-day assistance to schools. Again, we must emphasize that the numbers presented in these qualitative studies are not statistically representative of Brazilian municipal school systems as a whole. These numbers should be analyzed with caution and viewed only as general indicators of the presence of certain tendencies and characteristics. This is yet another reason why we do not seek to recommend a single “recipe” of practices or suggest that certain ingredients will always automatically produce successful learning in a school system that uses them. Rather, we aim to show that certain practices associated with certain education policies can contribute to producing better performance by students attending school systems in the Brazilian municipal environment. Factors associated with good performance in municipal school systems 25 This section describes some of the municipal-level policies and practices that were identified in our field study and which contributed to the better-than-expected performance of positive deviant municipal school systems (given their socioeconomic attributes). Again, our field study emphasized the identification of factors that were associated with education policies and which contributed to student learning. Here we must take a moment to elaborate on the point that there is no “magic recipe” of good practices that will automatically make a school system achieve greater success the moment the ingredients are mixed. We have already stated that a large number of factors come together and interact to produce a complex result such as student learning. We must also recognize that each municipality is a complex environment of its own where yet another large set of factors comes together and interacts. Thus the weight of a given policy or practice can vary according to the context in which it is applied, and even if the recipe that produced good results in one municipality could somehow be re-created and mixed in another municipality, the results in the end could be quite distinct. Our intuition in this study was to identify success stories where the ingredients were mixed well. This may contribute to a greater understanding of the general process of designing and implementating successful recipes. We recognize the singularity of each of the municipalities we studied. Each has its own unique historic, political and economic trajectory, and the uniqueness of each environment influenced the combination of factors developed there as much as the results ultimately obtained. In our view, municipal education systems are complex systems and it is important to understand the way in which they adapt – or not – to the environment in which they operate. To achieve this, we must understand the role of feedback, which can come as the result of policy reforms or specific interventions in the education system. By obtaining feedback as to whether a policy is successful, it is possible to decide to continue along the same path or propose modifications to the policy. Thus it is possible that studying examples of positive deviant municipalities can teach us lessons that can be adapted to similar environments, and thus contribute to the quality of public education in Brazil. 26 Again, this study does not seek to establish definitive causal or deterministic relationships between the factors identified. This means none of the factors identified are necessary conditions for producing successful student learning; nor are the combinations of factors identified sufficient conditions that will always produce to successful learning. In practice, we found evidence of various combinations of the factors identified, with the weight of each differentiated according to the municipal context in which it was inserted. And just as the factors appeared in different combinations, so did the sub-characteristics of these factors. This was expected given the tremendous range of details present in a municipal education system. Given more time, we could identify policy details at an even finer level of granularity. It would be impossible, whether through qualitative or a quantitative analysis, to identify every single policy, practice and other factor involved in the processes of school administration and student learning. (See Diagram 1 below). We found municipal school systems where the SME made a point of centralizing all decision-making processes; and we found other municipal school systems where the SME deliberately avoided getting involved in the budget process because it tended to be 27 an area of fierce conflict. We found schools where principals were elected by teachers, students and community members – essentially all the local actors involved in education; and we found schools where school principals were appointed individually by the SME. These are just a few examples of the wide variety of practices and combinations of practices we found in the field. Again, we are not proposing that the same practices should be followed by everyone. Instead, we are proposing that we can and should learn lessons by analyzing which practices have been successful in different environments. These lessons may suggest useful avenues for pursuing improvements in education quality. The remainder of this section describes the main characteristics of the main factors identified in the course of the qualitative field research, presented in five sub-sections. In presenting these results, we attempt to call as much attention as possible to the diversity of practices and combinations of practices found during these visits to the field. 4.1 LEADERSHIP BY THE MUNICIPAL EDUCATION SECRETARIES In the early 1990s, the main agenda of Brazil’s national education policy was to expand the coverage of the fundamental education cycle. In 1992, the net enrollment rate in the fundamental education cycle was 62%, meaning that 38% of Brazilians between 7 and 22 years old were not enrolled, and 17% of Brazilians over 15 lacked basic literacy skills. In 1998, as the expansion of fundamental education coverage accelerated following the creation of FUNDEF, the policy agenda was broadened to include quality as well as coverage in education. While access to fundamental education has become nearly universal, student tests such as SAEB and PISA show a deterioration in the quality of learning. Clearly, the increase in inclusiveness and equality in the fundamental cycle was not accompanied by improvements in the quality of education offered in public schools. The expansion of education coverage is a desirable end its own right, but in Brazil, the process was not accompanied by policies that allowed for the prioritization of education quality. It is not enough to put kids in school or to make them stay there longer; we must 28 also ensure they are learning. Education studies show that policies to expand coverage are often accompanied by a decline in overall student learning, mainly because of the initial enrollment of students previously not in school. Studies also show a strong relationship between the quality of education and the equity of coverage and permanence of students in school.13 Poor students often do not have books and other factors in the home that can compensate for a lack of quality instruction in school. These students do not do well on tests, and they tend to have high grade repetition rates, and in many cases, high drop-out rates. To ensure education increases equity and improves the overall education level of the population, it is essential to emphasize quality, and particularly the quality of instruction offered to students from the lower quintiles of the income distribution curve. To paraphrase Oliveira and Araújo (2005), following the universalization of access, Brazil’s next great challenge in ensuring the right to education is to guarantee that the quality of education does not reproduce existing mechanisms of social differentiation and exclusion. Brazil’s current agenda for the fundamental education cycle is directly focused on efforts to improve the quality of public instruction. But the direction fundamental education takes is often determined at the municipal level by what municipal education leaders envision a quality education to be. Studies by Franco, Albernaz and Ferreira (2002) and by Soares and Alves (2003) use the results of 8th-grade students on the 2001 SAEB test to show that teachers’ recognition of local education leadership is associated with school effectiveness. Other studies emphasize the importance of education leaders’ commitment as a contributing factor to school performance. In general, the presence or absence of leaders capable of promoting changes in teaching and learning – and the presence or absence of a guiding vision of what quality education should be – both seem to be associated with the municipal education secretary, the leader of the SME. In this 13 See PARANDEKAR, Suhas D. (1999). “School Attainment in a Developing Country: The Role of School Quality – Three Essays in the Economics of Education in a Developing Country”, PhD Dissertation, Tulane University, New Orleans; HERRÁN, Carlos; UYTHEM, Bart Van (2001). “Why do youngsters drop out of school in Argentina and what can be done against it”. Inter-American Development Bank Working Paper, 2001. 29 subsection, we analyze education leadership as one of the factors associated with the good performance of students. In the next section, we emphasize the importance of vision and planning by education leaders. At least in theory, education background and previous work experience would seem to be the basic prerequisites for successful performance in a leadership role. In our universe of municipal education secretaries, 33 held a university degree but only six studied at the graduate level. With regard to work experience, 22 had previous experience in public administration. The next most common type of previous work experience was experience as a teacher or school principal. (See Tables 3a and 3b). Thus we can say that, in our universe, the municipal education secretaries were generally well qualified for the job in terms of education and prior work experience. We cannot establish definitive causal links between education background, prior work experience and performance as an education secretary based on this study, and so we cannot conclude that certain background characteristics will always lead to good 30 leadership. On the other hand, these numbers do offer interesting insights as to the presence of certain characteristic. For example, a graduate degree does not guarantee good leadership, but it is interesting to note that the positive deviant school systems had five of the six secretaries who pursued post-graduate studies, while the control group systems had only one. We can also say, based on our interviews with the municipal education secretaries, that in general a graduate degree was an indication of the individual’s ambition and energy to pursue personal and professional goals. We are not suggesting that selecting education secretaries based on professional and/or education background criteria will definitively make municipal education policy more efficient. That cannot be concluded from this study. But what we can say is that it may be important for the mayor, in evaluating and choosing an education secretary, to consider why a given candidate earned, or did not earn, a master’s or doctorate degree. For example, if a candidate had previous education administration experience and wanted to return to the university to strengthen his or her theoretical knowledge, this may indicate enthusiasm and ambition. On the other hand, merely possessing a graduate degree does not necessarily indicate that an individual is well qualified to competently perform the job of education secretary. This was seen in our study: in general, there was no direct relationship between the secretary’s education level and the success of a municipal school system, but there was a subtle correlation between the secretary’s education level and his or her previous experience. We further elaborate on this point below. When we specifically examined the education secretaries’ previous experience as school principals, we found secretaries with this experience in all three groups of municipalities. However, the nature of the previous experience – specifically the capacity to face adverse situations as school principal — did seem to have an effect on current performance. We identified a number of cases where previous experience had shaped the management style of the secretaries. These experiences included running schools in churches or bars or other places where there was no formal school building; running schools in dilapidated buildings in marginal neighborhoods; and running schools where 31 there was a great deal of internal conflict or a general lack of attention to the learning process. All these experiences seemed to contribute strongly to the way the secretaries made decisions and confronted crises in the municipal school systems while leading the SME. Thus previous experience in school leadership, and specifically as a school principal, seemed to serve as a good basis for learning to lead the SME. But, again, it may be important to delve deeper to try to understand how and why prior experience as a principal helped the person become a leader. Based on information from the interviews, we observed that experience as a principal contributed in some cases to: (i) the idea that a successful organization has a vision about where it is headed; (ii) the idea that an organization needs qualified and motivated employees to deliver results; (iii) a belief in the importance of building a group identity aligned with the organization’s vision; (iv) a belief in importance of empathy and human contact in the day-to-day functioning of an organization; and (v) an emphasis on forging an alliance between the municipal government and the local community. 32 Box 1 reform process, once begun, did result in Leaders’ Experience and Education and some personnel changes, but because all Good Performance of the School System parties had been heard and had the opportunity to present their points of view, Novo Hamburgo (Rio Grande do Sul) the changes had the general support of her entire team. Municipal Education Secretary Maristela had 4 years of experience as a teacher and Balneário Camboriú (Santa Catarina) 14 years as the principal of a school that she herself helped create – starting from a Municipal Education Secretary Silvia de humble infrastructure lacking even basic Mello had served as a school principal for resources. Her previous experience as a several years and was trained in teaching leader in the school community is noteable, and school administration. Thus she but even more striking is what she has done managed to very successfully combine her since becoming education secretary. In professional training and work experiences 2002, Maristela took a leave of absence to assume the responsibilities of running the from her job as principal to advance her SME. personal and professional development by completing a Master’s degree in Special Silvia started her career as a teacher, and she Education. Afterwards, she took a job in the taught every grade from pre-primary SME’s Special Education department – this through secondary school. Later she moved experience, though brief, gave her an to a job in school administration and served understanding of the internal politics and as the principal of a municipal school for 8 operations of the SME – which would later years. Her school was located in a poor area, prove quite useful. and had many of the problems that typically accompany poverty and crime. But she was When she became municipal education driven by the desire to transform the role of secretary, there were rumors there would be the school in the community and to have layoffs. So Maristela decided to take a school make a difference in the lives of proactive approach, handing out surveys to community members, starting with her own 80 SME employees, 50 school principals students. Silvia wanted to make the school a and 1,500 teachers, to ask their opinions on institution that would change the lives of various topics related to education. In this students and also the wider commnity. way she obtained priceless information about problems in the school system and The challenges she faced in making these also suggestions and proposals for how she changes, the help she received from parents should carry out her own responsibilities. and the lessons she learned in overcoming She came to be seen as a leader who listens, the odds to solve tough problems were who is capable of organizing a variety of crucial to the development of her current opinions and inputs into guidelines for ideas and views about teaching, establishing education reform policies, duly administration and education policies. discussed with all interested parties. The 33 At the same time, the way in which the municipal education secretary engages and interacts with the main agents in the education sector depends on more than just his or her qualifications and experience. Many other factors contribute to successful leadership and to the impact successful leadership has on the performance of municipal school systems. Outstanding among these factors was involvement with local actors and decision makers, especially the mayor, and involvement with the school environment. Some of the municipal education secretaries we interviewed emphasized their personal ties with the mayor (including political affinities). Almost all emphasized that their experience in the education field was recognized in the school community and in the political sphere, and that merit was the main basis for the hiring decision – though not all used the word merit. The management style of the education secretaries also varied from municipality to municipality. Two styles in particular deserve special mention. The first was a top-down, rational and technical management style where power was concentrated in the hands of the education secretary. The second was a bottom-up, participatory style that emphasized shared political commitment among the various actors in the education environment. Both styles were typical and both delivered good results in terms of student performance. If both these management styles delivered good results in education quality, it is important to stress that in both cases education secretaries made effective use of teacher training programs. Training in education planning was provided only in school systems using the top-down, centralized management style. But teachers in the participatory-style school systems could more easily influence training content, that is, they could obtain additional training in the areas they considered most necessary. What the analysis of these two management styles suggests is that it does not make sense for the federal government to impose a single, mandatory approach for running municipal school systems. The participatory model in particular operates best where there is a shared ideological commitment to education – something that cannot be produced by federal mandate. As Smith and Rowley (2005) argue, bureaucratic control can actually 34 diminish the personal commitment of the teacher to his or her students. Thus the question of which management style to adopt is an issue that should be handled with great care. 35 Box 2 Opposite but Equal Management Styles Timbó (Santa Catarina) Vigia (Pará) The Timbó municipal school system is managed in a top-down, centralized fashion. In Vigia, strong political engagement and Budget resources are not parceled out to the the active involvement of various actors in schools, and there is not a great amount of decision-making has pointed the way to community involvement in the school efficient avenues for improving the environment. The professional development performance of the school system. The of teachers is pursued through strict municipal education secretary controls adherence to technical standards for results spending and is active in everything related evaluation. The process involves the to the budget process. rationalized use of administrative resources and the centralization of power in the hands Vigia has a participatory process for of the municipal education secretary, who is developing the municipal budget, and the currently serving his second term. entire urban and rural community gets involved in discussing the Municipal Plan. As the person making all the spending According to the municipal education decisions in a regime where responsibility is secretary, the teachers’ union was surprised shared with the mayor, the municipal to be invited to participate in the education secretary relies on the technical development of the Municipal Education expertise of an accountant in developing the Plan and the negotiation of teacher salaries. municipal education budget. Funds are The municipal government also has a strong allocated based on the priorities spelled out relationship with the current state in the PPA (multi-year plan) and there is administration. This is important because the always a budget reserve set aside for municipal government manages only the emergencies. first half of the fundamental education cycle – grades 1 through 4 – and not the second When asked to describe what example half – grades 5 through 8. Timbó sets for other municipalities in the area of education, the secretary gave an The focus of education policy in Vigia is the answer in three parts. First, she said Timbó integration of school and the community, has strong political will and efficient with an emphasis on family participation in administrative practices. Second, it invests education. The education secretary said he in continuous professional development for takes an eclectic approach, selecting what’s teachers and in equipment for schools. best from each perspective and trying to Third, Timbó offers extra-curricular adapt it to the municipal environment. His activities to students. The secretary also overall approach to the education sector mentioned the importance of carrying out includes the participation and contribution specific policy interventions in schools of all the different actors, in a process that where students face difficulty learning. builds consensus around the practices of the school system. 36 4.2. VISION AND PLANNING 4.2.1. Vision: Understanding Objectives and Goals to be Reached Like other public functions that affect much of the population, education is often identified as an area for priority action, not only by municipal governments but also by federal and state governments. Thus it came as no surprise when three-quarters of the municipal education secretaries interviewed for this study stated that education is central to their mayor’s policy agenda.14 However, because “education” can so often mean different things to different people, the fact that municipal secretaries attributed priority status to education does not necessarily reveal much about the subject. As mentioned in the subsection on education leadership, the specific structures and forms taken by the fundamental education cycle are, in many cases, determined by the municipal leaders’ vision of what a quality education should be. It would be an arduous task to try to define in clear conceptual terms exactly what constitutes a “quality” education. No matter how many elements were included, the definition would never be complete. Therefore, we do not attempt in this study to offer some new definition of “quality” in education. Instead, we turn our efforts to contributing to a better understanding and description of how education leaders themselves view the process of improving quality. This is an extremely relevant issue, particularly because it is the goal of this study to identify practices associated with education policies that may help school systems perform better than expected. The ideas and perspectives of education leaders are important tools in this process because their understanding of 14 By way of example, the education secretary of Timbó (SC) said in the interview that: “The government was elected on a platform with three main pillars: education, health and employment.” It is worth emphasizing that in seven school systems education was not central to the mayor’s agenda. In these cases the SME seemed to direct its efforts toward issues related to disciplinary content and the quality of materials – for example, better school maintenance, strict control of school nutrition, etc. – rather than student learning. 37 quality will guide decisions and actions, which come together with other factors to affect the performance of the municipal school system. This makes education leaders’ ideas about quality important objects for analysis. As Oliveira and Araújo stress, there are three co-existing meanings of quality education in Brazil. “The first was defined by the limited supply of education opportunities; the second, related to the idea of flows, was defined as the number of students that progressed, or failed to progress, through a specific education cycle; and finally the third is the idea of quality associated with the evaluation of performance via large-scale standardized tests.” (2005, p.08) The mean score of students on the Prova Brasil test was one of the main criteria for identifying positive deviant municipalities in this study. Prova Brasil establishes a clear standard for defining education quality: mastery of the basic lesson content of Portuguese and mathematics. However, we encountered a number of other ideas about quality in verbal comments as well as written mission statements. In one of the municipalities that adopted the Ayrton Senna Institute’s Rede Vencer program for improving quality, the definition of education quality was identical to that proposed by the Ayrton Senna Institute: “that which guarantees the access, permanence in school and success of the student.” The municipality of Caraguatatuba (SP) identifies a social role for the school in its definition of quality education, and Caxias (MA) places an emphasis on children’s basic needs, stating that “serving breakfast and a nutritious school meal is an absolute minimum requirement for providing a good education in line with local realities.” The breakdown of traditional family structures was cited more than once as a dominant factor in the failure of schools. The municipal education secretary of Pedreiras (MA) said schools are having to take the place of parents and that this is causing them to lose some of their principal characteristics. For the education secretary of Itapecuru Mirim (MA), “teachers are education, teachers who are committed and well prepared, who are responsible and who work hard, not just for the salary.” She observed that in poor 38 municipalities people often become teachers for the pay rather than professional passion. The importance of teachers to quality was a frequently cited theme. In the eyes of the municipal education secretary of Timbó (SC), a quality education is “an education that guarantees not just access, but access, permanence and learning for all students in urban and rural areas [...] it is access for all under equal conditions.” The education secretary for the state of Pará described his idea of a quality education as “well-equipped schools, professional teachers and other well-qualified employees, reasonable salaries, education planning and follow-through, and family or community access to and participation in the structure of education.” In the school systems studied, education was understood mainly as the process through which the state carries out its responsibility to develop moral and ethical citizens capable of functioning in society. Education was also understood to be a process or tool capable of breaking the vicious circle of social inequality and intergenerational poverty. In a sense, this idea approximates José Murilo de Carvalho’s (2002) defintion of education’s role. In this view, education is much more than just a social right; it has been historically verified to be a pre-condition for the expansion of other (civil and political) rights.15 The lack of an educated population has been posited as one of the main obstacles to constructing civil and political citizenship. The definition of education is quite clear in Article 16 of the Municipal Plan of Balneário Camboriú (SC): “Education should be understood as a process that is grounded in family life, in social interactions, in work, in teaching and study, in entrepreneurship, in civil society organization and in cultural demonstrations; it should be founded on the principles of liberty, cultural and territorial pursuits, and human solidarity; it should have 15 Murilo de Carvalho (2002) divides citizen rights into three categories, or stages: civil rights, or equality before the law, which guarantees life in society; political rights, which guarantee the ability to participate in political processes; and social rights, which guarantee participation in collective activities such as education, work, labor organization, etc. For Murilo de Carvalho, Brazil is unlike other societies in that citizens acquired social rights first, then political rights and are still in the process of acquiring civil rights – the opposite of of the typical order. 39 as its aim the full development of citizens in matters of ethics, citizenship and professional preparation.” In general, the field research shows that municipal education leaders invoke a wide variety of themes in their notions of quality. While many of these themes were intrinsically related to increasing the efficiency of the school system, notions of quality were not restricted to the quality of the school system per se. Particularly in the positive deviant municipal school systems, quality education is understood as something that goes well beyond the bounds of student performance. The good performance of school systems seemed to be related to SME leaders having a clear vision of education quality that extended beyond standardized test results, as well as clear objectives and goals. The variation in visions of quality was further corroborated when we asked education secretaries about their future priorities for the education sector. Table 4 provides evidence of the wide variety of perspectives on this issue – regardless of the type of school system – and illustrates the lack of consensus on this question. It is interesting to note briefly that education secretaries are clearly no longer prioritize the strictly physical dimension of school buildings as central to education quality. Even in places where we noted school buildings were in disrepair – mainly in Northern and Northeastern Brazil – infrastructure was not the central issue when education secretaries talked about where they would like to see their school systems in the short term. This is a good sign, especially if we consider the history of Brazilian politicians to pursue infrastructure projects to win votes. 40 Overall the response to this question would seem to suggest that student performance as measured by the Prova Brasil test simply does not figure in the identification of priorities for the education sector. The table above demonstrates that municipal education leaders explicitly mentioned the question of cognitive abilities – which is being posited as central to education results – only in a few instances. The information gathered in the field study demonstrates that, in particular in positive deviant municipalities, notions about what constitutes a quality education goes well beyond the relatively simple notion of improving student learning in the basic disciplines as measured by standardized tests such as Prova Brasil and the SAEB (representative only at the state level). At the other extreme, however, many municipal education secretaries were not aware of their Prova Brasil results. Even knowing a few days ahead of time that they would be visited by researchers studying the topic, some did not seek out information on the performance of their school system. This does not mean the Prova Brasil results are not being used by some school systems to produce specific policy orientations. Timbó (SC) 41 used the results to develop specific policies targeting schools that performed unsatisfactorily on the test. In Mineiros (GO), the education secretary announced that the results would be used to motivate local school administrative teams, in addition to subsidizing the development of new education initiatives. However, it is certainly worth noting that 11 of the 41 municipalities studied were not aware of their Prova Brasil results. In Alegre do Pindaré (MA), one school principal said he did not have access to the results and expressed interest in obtaining them, while on the walls outside the classroom there were posters and graphs referring to the test results. Another worrisome situation was encountered in Bahia, where three of the four municipalities visited (Gandu, Entre Rios e Rio Real) had not accessed their test results. Beyond the general lack of information about Prova Brasil in the schools, we also observed a lack of understanding of information presented graphically. Based on these findings, we note that policies to evaluate learning results must be supported by policies to raise awareness of new procedures as well as the development of tools adapted to their use. In many cases we found that direct links between the national Ministry of Education and schools helped overcome this difficulty: we observed cases where school principals brought their Prova Brasil test results to the attention of the local SME. 42 4.2.2 Planning We have discussed how municipal education secretaries’ leadership abilities and their ideas and visions of quality may contribute to the better performance of students. In this subsection we introduce the role of education policy planning as another factor that may exert a positive influence on student performance in municipal school systems. Municipal education secretaries must not only have a clear vision of quality, they must impart this vision to other actors involved in the school system, in such a way that they are inspired to advance together toward improving quality. The idea of conveying and communicating a vision of leadership in such a way that it will be recognized and adopted by everyone involved in the education process, and using material resources to do so, goes to the very heart of a dynamic planning vision.16 Beyond being able to communicate ideas, the leader must be able to respond effectively to the needs of those under his or her leadership. A well-planned education policy is a reflection not only of the importance attributed to education but also of a rational approach to the problem. Planning requires the identification of objectives (initially called diagnoses in the education context), the articulation of goals and the definition of criteria for evaluating efforts. According to Padilha (2001), “planning is a process of seeking equilibrium between means and ends, between resources and objectives [...] it is always a process of reflection, of making decisions about actions; a process of anticipating needs and rationalizing the use of available means (materials) and resources (humans), while striving toward objectives over fixed time periods and in defined stages, beginning with the results of evaluation.” We sought to identify the different levels of policy planning used, including the federal Education Ministry’s Multi-year Plan (PPA), the SME’s Municipal Education Plan (PME) and the Government Plan developed by the local government. In general, the PPA was the education planning instrument most commonly used by the 41 school systems in our sample. However, it is not possible to say with absolute certainty how many school 16 See WELCH, Jack (2005). Paixão para Vencer. São Paulo: Editora Campus; HEIFETZ, Ronald (1994). Leadership without Easy Answers. 43 systems used the PME as their exclusive education sector planning instrument because 14 of the secretaries refererred to the PPA and the PME plans interchangebly. This conflation was relatively more frequent in the control group municipalities. Overall, of the 41 school systems, 29 had a PPA multi-year plan, 18 had a PME municipal education plan and 14 used some combination of the PPA and PME.17 (See Table 5). One particular bit of data in Table 5 jumps out: one of the postive deviant municipalities, Guandu (BA), did not have any formal planning mechanism in place. According to the education secretary of Guandu, the PME was being revised and there was also some confusion about the plans: the PME was confused with the school-level Pedagogical Pilot Project, the PPP. The PME is a broad document that presents general education policy guidelines and a history of education in the municipality. The PPP is a document that is prepared for every school in the municipal system to describe school-level identity, objectives and mission. Overall, the proportion of municipalities with municipal education plans was relatively low. We did not have access to all existing PMEs, but most of those we did analyze included an excessive number of goals linked to rather generic guidelines and objectives. This would likely impede the implementation and monitoring of education policy initiatives. Thus it is not surprising that there seemed to be only a weak correlation 17 As some school systems did not differentiate between the PPA and PME, it was effectively impossible for the researchers to say which systems used the PME exclusively. It is also worrth mentioning that, while Municipal Government Plans were not formalized in general, the municipalities in Pará state and also one in Maranhão state did have explicit education guidelines in the Municipal Government Plan. 44 between the use of formal education planning instruments and positive results on the Prova Brasil test. The total number of control group municipalities using a PME, 10, was not much different from the number of positive deviant municipalities using a PME. In Alto Alegre do Pindaré (MA), there was no written document articulating the government plan, nor was a multi-year PPA in use. According to the municipal education secretary, “writing documents and laws is not what matters, putting things in practice is.” Beyond this, there were no regular procedures for evaluating municipal system policies besides school performance. What seems more important is that in the positive deviant school systems there was an idea or a vision of the educaton goals to be reached – a vision that included quality and equity. In some cases, this vision was translated into a plan, but not simply a formal plan with a long-term perspective. Where there was vision and leadersip – typically in the positive deviant school systems – there was some kind of operating plan in use, although in some cases was not even called a plan. In effect, the positive results of some school systems seemed to be associated with the existence of programs directed toward education – regardless of whether or not those programs originated in a formal plan. In the next subsection, we analyze our findings on factors related to the implementation of education programs – whether offered by federal and state governments or by municipal education leaders, with or without the support of of private companies and civil society organizations. 4.3 FEDERAL, STATE AND MUNICIPAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS Brazil has ample experience implementing social programs aimed directly or indirectly at improving education conditions for children. Just in the last two decades, programs like Bolsa Escola and Bolsa Família exemplify the range and extent of approaches 45 implemented.18 Today a wide variety of programs and policies target the education sector, both interventions to compensate for specific shortcomings and broad structural reforms to address the overall functioning of the sector. In our sample municipalities, we found a large number of programs funded by federal and state governemnts but implemented locally by the municipality itself. Among federal programs, Education for Youth and Adults (EJA) occupied a prominent position, with 34 of the 41 school systems studies implementing EJA programs. (See Table 6). Several other federal programs implemented by the SMEs deserve mention. Foremost among these are Fundescola (Fundo de Fortalecimento da Escola) and related programs, including Escola Ativa, Gestar, PDE and other programs, directed toward urban and rural students in the North, Northeast and Center-West regions. In our sample, all school systems in the Northeast (Bahia, Pernambuco e Maranhão) implemented Fundescola, 18 Social programs targeting education in Brazil aim to encourage poor families with children to keep their kids in school to avoid having them drop-out and enter the labor force at too young an age. 46 accompanied by three school systems in the North (Pará) and one school system in the Center-West (Goiás), in the municipality of Itaberaí. Overall, Fundescola and related programs figured as the most important education intervention programs for the school systems in the North, Northeast and the Center-West. With respect to federal programs implemented at the municipal level, findings from our sample showed they tended to be interventions designed as a corrective measures to address shortcomings in municipal school systems and students. If we consider the most representative federal programs (EJA, Brasil Alfabetizado, Alfabetização Solidária and the Aceleração da Aprendizagem e Correção de Fluxo program), it is clear these programs are meant to address illiteracy, grade repetition and other types of problems that result from failures in the education system. (See Table 6). With respect to state programs implemented at the municipal level, Table 7 illustrates that there were four main themes developed by these programs: literacy training, municipal school administration, teacher training, and evaluation of curriculur content and instruction methods. 47 All municipal school systems in Goiás and two school systems in Pernambuco had state education programs that addressed literacy: Projeto Aprender and Alfabetização com Sucesso. In Bahia, a state EJA program (Educação de Jovens e Adultos) was implemented by only three municipal school systems. In São Paulo, the majority of state education programs offered content related to teacher training: the Projeto Letra e Vida teacher training program and the Agentes literacy instructor program, which was implemented by all five school systems in our sample. In the four municipal school systems we studied in Minas Gerais, state education interventions targeted curriculum development and the evaluation of instruction methods and didactic materials. In these cases, teacher training was oriented toward improving curriculum development. Finally, state education programs aiming to improve and strengthen school administration were implemented mainly by three school systems in Goiás and one in Rio Grande do Sul. Many municipalities also implemented their own education programs. In general, these programs either did not add significantly to spending, or the secretary took the initiative to obtain additional resources to fund them. Due to the large number of programs – and to their significant diversity – we grouped them into thematic categories. We identified 18 thematic categories, as illustrated in the table below. 48 In analyzing this data, we were able to establish an association between the number of programs adopted and the quality of the municipal school system. Especially in the best school systems, the main education programs targeting improved learning tended to focus on: reading, with an emphasis on the value of literature and interpretation of texts; creativity and the construction of imaginative contexts; and awareness of and respect for the environment. All these abilities require at least a basic capacity for abstract thinking. Programs aimed at improving education quality included ongoing in-service teacher training, training for education administrators and in general ongoing professional development for education sector professionals. The Importance Of Early Childhood Education The consensus among specialists is that early childhood education strongly favors the development of learning capacity because cognitive and affective structures develop during this stage, establishing a framework for developing the capacity to operate in a 49 symbolic environment. This early opportunity can be missed if the child does not encounter trained and well-qualified teachers. Empirical studies provide evidence of the benefits of early childhood education. Using data from the 2003 SAEB test, Menezes (2007) showed that students who attended pre-school performed better than students who entered school at the first-grade level. This would seem to indicate that public investments in early childhood education have significant potential to exert a positive influence on student performance. FUNDEB, which replaced the original FUNDEF program and added pre-school and secondary education in 2007, may encourage an increase in the supply of early childhood education. The mechanism for distributing resources remains linked to the number of students enrolled, and this creates an incentive for mayors and municipal education secretaries to expand coverage for early childhood education. In addition, the Education Development Plan (PDE) approved in 2007 includes among its actions the Pro-infância program, whose purpose is to increase early childhood education infrastructure in municipalities where it is needed. From 2007 to 2010, the federal government plans to invest about R$800 million to expand and improve pre-school infrastructure in municipalities and in the Federal District of Brasília. In one low-performing municipality, the mayor referred to weak results on the Prova Brasil test as stemming from the “lack of kindergarten facilities.” Existing daycare facilities in that municipality fall under the jurisdiction of the social assistance secretariat, and so daycare personnel do not have to comply with norms stipulated by the SME. In general, few of the SMEs we visited were implementing early childhood education programs of their own, but all municipal education secretaries were aware of the pre- school issue. The municipal education secretaries stressed the difficulty in developing early childhood education programs given the lack of resources. Even the education secretary of Pedreiras (SP), who adopted pre-school as one of the pillars of local education policy, described scarcity of funds as one of the main challenges “despite the good will” of municipal administrators. Pedreiras was among the municipalities that obtained better-than-expected Prova Brasil results. 50 In Votuporanga (SP), a new municipal education secretary found only three pre-schools operating and about 700 children on a waiting list for one opening in the local daycare facilities when he assumed leadership of the SME. He hired 10 people to guarantee personnel for this crucial stage of the education process. Since then the municipality has expanded one facility and built six new facilities, and today the demand for early childhood education is fully met. The SME also partnered with the state government and civil society organizations to implement a project called “Criando Asas” in its schools. The program targets children with disabilities from zero to six years old, offering them psychological support. In summary, analyzing the education programs implemented by the 41 SMEs in our sample raises some interesting points. The federal programs selected by the SMEs as part of municipal education planning were generally corrective or compensatory in nature, which is to say, they were interventions that sought to ameliorate the negative results of a weak, or in some cases absent, learning and literacy process. This finding suggests that the federal Ministry of Education is achieving some success in its role of offering technical support for the implementation of compensatory policies. On the other hand, state government programs adopted by the SMEs focused on improving the quality of education supply, through the adoption of administrative procedures and strategic actions across the school system, as well as teacher training. The municipal education programs implemented by the SMEs were aimed at achieving a better balance between the quality of education supply and demand, while programs of a corrective or compensatory nature were carried out with support from the federal or state governments. 51 4.4 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MUNICIPAL EDUCATION SECRETARIAT (SME) 4.4.1 The SME Core Team Having a motivated leader with experience, skills and broad vision is not alone a sufficient condition to guarantee good learning results. Another fundamental factor that can be associated with the success or failure of a municipal school system is the core team of the municipal education secretariat, or SME. In most cases these core teams are small, made up of teachers who have passed a municipal government employment exam (concurso) and who are qualified to offer training to school administrators and other teachers. Santa Cruz do Capibaribe (PE) is an example of a positive deviant municipality with a core SME team where the criteria for selecting members and the quality of the team itself appeared directly related to its leadership. What caught our attention in Santa Cruz do Capibaribe was the core team’s motivation and its sharp attunement to the particular requirements of teamwork. Support for the schools was provided by a Technical Team, which managed the planning and implementation of activities directly targeting teachers and students. Their objective was to make school a more “pleasurable” experience and to combat the culture of grade repetition. The core team worked directly with supervisors in the schools, using regular encounters and continuous monitoring to evaluate problems and identify solutions for every education-related situation. The SME in Santa Cruz do Capibaribe employed an ongoing monitoring and evaluation system encompassing the following elements: (i) adjustment and fine-tuning of the school pedagogical plan, or curriculum plan; (ii) pre-service teacher training; (iii) school infrastructure; and (iv) student learning indicators. The main agents of this monitoring system were: (i) a supervisory team composed of representatives from the SME; (ii) study groups composed of representatives from the individual school; and (iii) the School Council, also composed of reprentatives from the individual school. 52 In general, SME teams seemed to divide their time between administrative functions and education-related functions in a balanced manner; an equal division of hours between the two responsibilities was the most frequent pattern we came across. Only in rare cases did we observe radical changes in the core team membership, which would likely create problems for new SME leaders. One of the main difficulties we detected was related to team members’ limited preparation in public administration. In some cases team members had no formal preparation at all, although some municipalities held training sessions for the team. An important recommendation from this study is to invest in training and capacity building to increase the productivity of these teams. Trainings in public administration, and particularly in information technology, would give greater range of action to these teams and, consequently, to SME leaders. In Caraguatatuba (SP), the municipal education secretary says training for the core team is of central importance to her administration. In example she cited the city’s First Education Congress, which sought better training approaches than those of the previous administration – which she described as courses and lectures with “self-help” type content. The education secretary’s concern with training extended to teachers and other education agents, including all SME personnel. A training project was carried out in partnership with CENPEC (The Center for Studies and Research in Education, Culture and Community Action), and customer service-style training courses were held on how to better attend citizen’s needs. The education secretary consistently demonstrated an interest in using a business management model to run SME activities. Another training exercise in archiving and information technology was held, through an agreement with IBM. The value of continuity in the SME core team is exemplified by the case of Brusque (SC). Brusque’s current education policy (political-pedagogical plan, or PPP) began with the administration that took charge in 2001. But when the municipal education secretary elected by the Municipal Council departed, the SME director for early childhood education assumed leadership. Only a few adjustments were made to the SME’s core 53 team, and so the change in leadership did not cause a full break with the past. The education policy begun in 2001 has continued to the present day, with only minor adjustments to address changes that have emerged since its adoption. Obviously, continuity is not necessarily a good thing, particularly where the core team has not performed well. But for Brusque continuity meant not just keeping the same people, but also maintaining existing policies and programs – and the insitutional processes to implement them. The continuity of certain key actors helped this process along, but only as part of a larger program that was by nature complex. From the perspective of developing a set of policy guidelines, it is important to go beyond the idea that continuity should always be encouraged. It would be more accurate to say there are certain conditions under which continuity can be one of multiple factors associated with good government. In the case of Brusque, continuity seemed to contribute to the superior performance of students – even through a change in leadership. We collected a wealth of information in field research that unfortunately cannot be fully elaborated here. We will discuss only a few factors that we determined to be fundamental. The first involved what the municipal education secretaries perceived to be the SME’s main challenges and/or shortcomings. In the questionnaire, we asked the secretaries to rank from 1 to 9 the dimensions of municipal education most in need of improvement. The analysis showed that municipal education secretaries overall considered supervision to be the area most in need of improvement. This was also true when we analyzed just the positive deviant municipalities and when we analyzed just the negative deviant municipalities. However, the Control group 1, or average municipalities, most frequenly mentioned funding and pedagogical support as the SME’s weakest areas. Planning was the area most commonly identified as low priority across groups. The second factor we analyzed was the role of the SME team in school supervision. We present information on SME supervision of school and student performance, on the 54 schools supervised, and on the frequency of visits, among other factors. The results revealed that roughly half of SMEs had programs for monitoring school and student performance and about half did not. Monitoring programs ranged from informal conversations during visits (Bezerros, PE) to questionnaires filled out by schools (Dom Pedro, MA) to daily observation by the SME supervisor (Sapiranga, RS). Most of the positive deviant municipal systems had established programs for monitoring the performance of schools. The number of schools assigned to each supervisor is a good parameter for measuring supervisors’ capacity to oversee school effort effectively. Table 9 below shows that the number of schools per supervisor varied independently of whether the school system was categorized as positive deviant, negative deviant or average. The frequency of supervisory visits is also important to the monitoring process. Most municipal education secretaries in our sample reported that visits occurred weekly. As Table 10 shows, there was no significant correlation between the frequency of visits and our classification system based on Prova Brasil scores. 55 Table 11 illustrates our findings on the prevalence of training for school supervisors, and Table 12 presents our findings on the content of training. The data show that the vast majority of the municipal school systems (36 of 41) do offer training for supervisors. But again, there was no significant correlation between our classification of the school system’s performance and the presence or content of training. In Farroupilha (RS), one of the strongest performing municipalities according to our analysis, training for supervisors and teachers occured bi-monthly or even less often. School supervision can involve oversight of administrative tasks and/or oversight of the education process itself. In principle, it can be assumed that schools with the freedom to adopt their own pedagogical approach (i.e., the method best adapted to student charactersitics), are better able to offer quality instruction than schools tied to a pedagogical plan defined by the SME. At the same time, if the municipal education secretary knows the school system well, she has more resources at her disposal to train 56 SME supervisors than any one school. Thus the SME can prepare supervisors to oversee the education process and help principals solve school-level administrative problems.19 Table 12 shows the great diversity we encountered in the content of training programs, with no significant differentiation between the three types of municipalities. Given that the early childhood and fundamental cycles are the priorities for municipalities, the concentration of training programs on fundamental education and literacy skills would seem to reflect municipal responsibilities. The results also showed that, at least in our sample, the SMEs were the main institutions responsible for providing training courses and programs. The SMEs were responsible for training in 29 of the 41 municipalities studied. Universities were responsible for training in 16 municipalities, and State Education Secretariats (SEEs) were responsible for training in 10 municipalities (See Table 13). It is worth noting the much greater responsibiliy of universities for training in the negative deviant municipalities. 19 The adaptation of the pedagogical plan to local characteristics is of critical importance. If what the child learns in school is unrelated to what she sees outside the classroom, she may reject what she perceives to be the fantasy world of the school. (Wrobel, 1999). 57 One unexpected observation, which was not foreseen in the design of the field research instruments but which did prove relevant to good education practices, was that supervision could be associated with two different functions: pedagogical and administrative support. In many positive deviant municipal education systems, pedagogical support was provided continuously by one or two specialists working inside the school. The presence of these specialists produced a significant difference in learning, since they used “report cards” to oversee the progress and struggles of each student. This made them well informed in discussions and helped them work cooperatively with teachers to design individual strategies for each student. An ongoing evaluation process brings benefits, principally to those students who need extra or special attention. It also creates a working environment within the school where evaluation and student learning assume a central place in all activities. 4.4.2. Municipal Education Financing One of the hypotheses brought to this study was that a municipal education secretariat, or SME, with strong leadership and independence from political influence and control should manage spending for the municipal school system. Data from the field show that slightly more than half of the municipalities analyzed – or 23 of the 41 – managed their own education spending (See Table 14). The assumption 58 going into this study was that the financial autonomy of the SME would be linked to favorable conditions for developing good policies and practices. The results of our analysis did not permit a thorough evaluation of this assumption. We clearly identified positive deviant municipalities where power over spending decisions was not deemed important to successful administration. One education secretary from a positive deviant municipality (working under an extremely hands-on mayor) said he liked not having to waste his time on financial administration. Another secretary from a positive deviant municipality agreed, emphasizing repeatedly that her biggest work- related worry was managing the payroll for teachers. As it turned out, the payroll in her municipality was divided into three pay grades and teachers did not know to which group they belonged – a situation that generated considerable tension between teachers, the union and the SME. This example illustrates that control over financial administration does not necessarily equal control over financial decisions – nor does it necessarily ensure rational accounting. This same education secretary said she makes purchases first in emergencies and “worries about paying the bill” later because everyone knows everyone else in her town. We also explored the composition of the SME budget, that is, how much revenue came from federal, state, municipal and other sources. One observation worth noting was that the municipal education secretaries interviewed in Northeastern Brazil generally did not possess information about the basic composition of their education budget. None of the four municipal education secretaries interviewed in the state of Maranhão could detail the revenue structure of the SME. In Imbaúba (PE), the SME did not provide this data to 59 our team; in Maragogipe (BA), this line was left blank on the questionnaire for lack of data. Among the municipalities in the region that did provide data on budget composition, the SME in Bezerros (PE) declared that about 70% of municipal education revenue came from the federal government. In comparison, in the municipality of Joinville (SC) in Southern Brazil, the main source of education revenue was the municipal government itself. Our results also suggested that individual schools enjoyed limited autonomy. The majority of the SMEs we interviewed either did not distribute revenue to schools or were unable to say whether revenue was distributed to schools. Within our universe of municipal school systems, 15 distributed revenue to the school, 13 did not, and another 12 did not have information one way or the other. The distribution of revenue to schools was more common in positive deviant municipalities than in the two control groups; lack of information about the issue was more common in the control groups. Our study demonstrated the relative importance of available material resources as compared with symbolic resources, which provide alternative ways to improve teaching. In other words, creativity can favor student learning even when money is lacking. We do not mean to minimize the importance of material resources. We merely wish to point out that the limitation imposed by material scarcity is relative. In one very poor municipal school system20 (with weaker-than-expected test results), the education secretary observed that about 10% of students had extreme difficulty with reading in a universe of 18,000 children. Therefore, he took the initiative to partner with the literature department of the local university to develop a special after-school project. University students were trained to monitor 32 children, 16 at a time, for two hours a day, five days a week, for a period of 90 days. At the end of the period, 70% of the children showed an improvement in the learning process. One important variable related to school administration is the process of systematic planning and evaluation. Campo Bom (RG) offers a notable example of this planning 20 Cf. Relatório de Pesquisa de Miriam V.R. Rosa, cit. 60 approach in its application of Programa Gestão Nota 10, supported by the Ayrton Sena Foundation. Programa Gestão is active in 35 municipalities across Brazil, including Sapiranga (RS), another municipality in this study. With the support of Programa Gestão, Campo Bom established its goals, to be evaluated by tracking the following seven indicators: (i) student attendence; (ii) teacher attendence; (iii) number of school days; (iv) first-grade literacy rate; (v) graduation rate from the Grade 1-4 series; (vi) graduation rate from the Grade 5-8 series; and (vii) overall age-grade distortion rate. The data are collected and analyzed for each grade and each school across the municipal school system. Report cards are prepared monthly, and the SME and the schools organize meetings to discuss progress, identify problems, propose solutions and generally give ongoing support to the program. One of the most interesting aspects of the process is literacy training in the first and second grades. Two written tests in Portuguese and mathematics are administered, twice a year, to first- and second-grade students, with goals tied to the processes of reading, writing and comprehension. Starting with individual student report cards, the teachers create report cards for each grade cohort, with the information standardized according to the level of the school and school system. Goals are evaluated monthly for three learning activities: (i) reading, (ii) writing, and (iii) composition. The quality and quantity of information collected about the learning process is impressive. For example, absolute numbers and percentages are recorded to measure how many students read by sounding out syllables and words and how many read fluently. Number of books read per month is also recorded. The comparative information helps to identfy problems by making it possible to pinpoint which schools and grade cohorts are exhibiting skills above or below municipal averages. This information helps the pedagogical team acquire appropriate materials (for example, library books), to identify the need for teacher training and classroom supervision, to provide teacher training and classroom supervision, and finally, to help define goals for the next year. The highly professional implementation of this program appears equal to what would be delivered by any international company using modern management tools efficiently and effectively. 61 4.5. SCHOOL SUPPORT AND SUPERVISION The manner in which the SME is organized is a good indicator for how much effort it makes to accompany the schools for which it is responsible. The SME in Cabo Frio (RJ) developed a special student support department, which offered guidance in areas such as nutrition, school health, social programs and information technology for education. The SME’s technical-pedagogical department has a supervisory team for each education level – including special education and EJA youth-and-adult programs – and the department in turn is overseen by a guidance and inspection team. In Parobé (RS), the SME has a highly qualified team of pedagogy specialists, which carries out a comprehensive annual evaluation of student performance in each school. The team uses a process it calls “pedagogical triage,” a marathon full-day meeting between teachers, school employees and team members – including specialists in student evaluation and special education. Each teacher is called in to meet with the school principal, the pedagogy coordinator and the SME supervisor. Together they analyze the history of each student with each professor, emphasizing issues of age-grade distortion and the capacity of the student to keep up with the curriculum. The objective is to identify students who need special attention and determine what can be done to help. Parobé students with the weakest performance receive additional attention in an effort to correct shortcomings identified in the “pedagogical triage” process. Typically weaker students come from poor families or suffer some type of socioeconomic disadvantage, although this is not always the case. The degree of each student’s need for special attention is discussed in the meeting with teachers and specialists. In most cases, the teacher’s own strategy for corrective action is judged to be suffcient, typically including extra attention from the teacher with a detailed report going to parents. In other cases, the team decides the student needs special attention and identifies what type of attention is needed. For example, the teacher may need support from a psychologist, a speech pathologist or some other type of specialist. The conclusions are recorded for subsequent 62 follow up. In extreme cases, periodic special evaluations are deemed necessary, with the participation of parents and even medical specialists as needed. We also observed the usefulness of dedicated efforts to support students facing the risk of grade repetition, often with after-hours classes where the teacher can give students more individualized attention. We found this to be a widely used practice. In the Escola Nossa Senhora do Ó in Ipojuca (PE), we were surprised to find that the school principal herself stayed after hours to offer “education reinforcement” classes for struggling students. She was helped by the SME supervisor, who was based in the school during the week. This case clearly demonstrates how school autonomy can allow for the growth of highly relevant education practices targeted to the enhancement of student learning – even in the absence of incentives from the SME. Once schools reach a certain size, a large part of the responsibility for student performance falls to the pedagogical coordinators in each school. Even without data on state-run school systems – but always keeping in mind the small size of our sample – we can ascertain that dedicated pedagogical coordinators, supporting and guiding teachers and students in their respectives tasks, contribute significantly to education quality. Pedagogical supervision can be an invaluable resource to teachers, especially in the early education cycles where teachers, many of them young and new to the classroom, face the difficult task of teaching literacy skills. 4.6 SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION It would be difficult, if not impossible, to clearly define all the factors that make up the process of school administration. When we speak of school administration we are not talking about just one specific organization or even about the straighforward standardization of school functions in order to achieve specific results. Therefore, to begin our discussion of school administration, we offer the following approximate defintion of what the term means, based on the explanation of Lück (1991). “[School administration...] constitutes a dimension and a sphere of action whose objective is to 63 promote the organization, mobilization and articulation of all material and human resources needed to ensure the advancement of the socio-educational processes of learning institutions, always aiming for the effective promotion of learning in order to equip students to face the challenges of a globalized society and a knowledge-driven economy.... [School administration] is a means and not an end in itself, since its ultimate objective is effective and meaningful student learning.” In this sense, the structuring and administration of the school context can be understood as an intervening variable between the policies of the SME and the actual instruction that takes place in the classroom. Thus school administration gains prominence within the school context. The school principal, the pedagogical coordinator, the school secretary and other support staff come together to create a climate that, to a greater or a lesser degree, favors the delivery of a quality education. These agents and their actions significantly influence the make-up of the school environment. When a teacher is well received in the school where he starts his career, when he knows he can count on the support and understanding of the administrative team, and when he has room to influence the practice of education, he will be much more inclined to do his job well. School autonomy should not be understood as the complete independence of a school from the institutional system that surrounds it. School autonomy, more precisely, means respect for the initiative and self-determination of the school administration. It means the school is not expected to simply obey a set of norms that eclipse its authority, but rather it receives needed support for the attention it seeks to give each of its students. It means the school is given the authority to adapt the pedagogical plan to the needs of its students and the community. Autonomy also resides in the authority given to the school to distribute didactic materials, to receive timely repairs to infrastructure, and to control the inputs needed to prepare nutritious school meals or to offer proper technical-pedagogical support. Our analysis emphasizes four of the main characteristics of school administration: 1) Types of school administration 64 2) School principals: background qualifications and selection criteria 3) School counsellors: selection criteria and role in school 4) Pedagogical plans The first characteristic we analyzed was the type of school administration and how these types were distributed across our sample of school systems. In some cases, schools were administered solely by a school principal; in other cases, schools were run by an administrative team or by an administrative structure linked to a number of students. To analyze administrative type we investigated the presence or absence of an administrative team (i.e., school principal, pedagogical coordinator, school secretary, etc.); the education background of school officials and also the method of selecting the administrative team or school principal. The results are depicted in Tables 15-17. Table 15 presents data on the type of school administration. We can immediately observe that most schools were run by an administrative team and/or a school principal. Even looking specifically at the positive deviant municipalities, a roughly equal number of school systems were administered by school principals and by administrative teams. Instead, the difference between the positive deviant and control group systems seemed to manifest itself in the specific tasks assigned to the administrative teams. Administrative teams in the positive deviant school systems exhibited a strong focus on pedagogical support; pedagogical coordinators worked together with the teachers and the school principal to improve instruction practices in the classroom. 65 In Balneário Camboriú (SC) we observed a relationship between the SME, the school supervisors and the school administrative teams that we will refer to as a network relationship.21 Interactions were not defined by a heirarchical or radial structure but instead they occurred on multiple levels. The crucial role of maintaining this organizational structure, which clearly enhanced education quality, fell to the pedagogical support figure or figures. The pedagogical support figure can take many forms: she can be an SME or state supervisor overseeing a large number of schools or an in-school pedagogical coordinator closely tied to teachers and the school administrative team. Because of the crucial importance of this figure, we suggest that the role of the pedagogical support figure(s) should be analyzed in greater depth in a study designed specifically for that purpose. Next we examined the education and training background of school principals. Tables 16 and 17 present our findings on the pre-service education and training completed by school principals and also the criteria used for hiring them 21 The term network is used to refer to the administrative system of municipal authorities responsible for education policy who are integrated with state and federal authorities and with the school administrative team. See Marques (2006) for a more detailed explanation of this concept and its use in urban policy analysis. 66 A university degree was a pre-requisite for the job of school principal in three-quarters of the municipal school systems in our sample. The data showed no significant differences between the positive deviant and the two control group municipal school systems with respect to the background qualifications of school principals (See Table 16). Neither were there significant differences among the three types of school systems in the process used for selecting school principals – a function that can be important for establishing school autonomy from the mayor and the SME. Most school principals were chosen by political appointment or by the community, in roughly similar proportions in all of our three groups of school systems. A smaller number of principals were chosen by passing a qualifying exam in a public competition (concurso), or by passing a qualifying exam and also facing an election process, or through some other type of process (See Table 17). Political appointment was, without question, the most commonly used process for selecting school principals. It was not possible to distinguish between political appointments in the derogatory sense – those based on purely political criteria – and political appointments in the neutral sense, where qualified candidates are reviewed and selected based on merit in a process that just happens to be carried out by public officials. We can say that political appointments of the latter, more neutral type took place in many of the school systems we studied. We also observed some discomfort with the political appointment process on the part of many education officials, thus we can anticipate there may be changes to this process of choosing school administrators. 67 When the municipal education secretary in Novo Hamburgo (RS) came to office, she noticed that local school principals had their jobs for a variety of different reasons. Appointments were based on everything from political sponsorship, political affiliation and personal relationships, to professional competence and demonstration of group leadership. The education secretary also noticed that school principals had adopted a variety of different postures toward their jobs. Some sought quality in education, and respected the opinions of teachers, pedagogical coordinators and the community; others acted with authoritarianism and disrespect, demonstrated no commitment to education quality and promoted mutual back-scratching among colleagues. These observations led the new education secretary to begin a consultation process with the local education community and to initiate radical changes in the school adminstrative teams. Elections were carried out for 10 schools in 10 days: each school chose three candidates for principal, and each candidate was asked to prepare a proposal for running the school and scheduled for an interview with the education secretary a few days later. Those candidates who were involved with and committed to education should be able to articulate their points of view in a formal proposal on short notice. Thus the approach employed both democratic methods as well as technical criteria for measuring knowledge and professional capacity. We also observed many cases where the education community selected school principals, although it should be noted this process does not always guarantee quality will be enhanced. In the case of Bezerros (PE), we witnessed some of the surprisingly good outcomes that can occur when an education system grants autonomy to its schools. The education secretary of Bezerros says teachers, principals and the community all take education seriously in the municipality. The teachers’ union is highly engaged and the community participates actively in education – even though there are no formal school councils. Funding is distributed to schools once a year, and local teachers earn as much as or more than teachers working for State-run schools. All Bezerros teachers qualified by passing the exam in a public competition (concurso); more than half hold university degrees and a significant number have completed graduate study. The municipal 68 education secretary has a policy of allowing teachers to take leave to pursue graduate study, and as much as 10% of the workforce can do so at a time. Interestingly, teachers tend to stay in the same schools, creating a team spirit that enhances school autonomy. Finally, each school takes responsibility for developing its own pedagogical plan. This allows schools to create plans that are tailored to the social and cultural experiences of children and to include music and art projects. Another interesting aspect of school administration – across all municipalities in our sample – was the presence and scope of action of school councils. All but five of the 41 municipalities we visited reported having school councils. These councils are generally made up of teachers, parents and community members. With the single exception of Santa Helena (GO), all municipalities with school councils said council members were not appointed by the SME. Of the five municipalities without councils, three fell into the positive deviant group, one fell into each of the control groups. Thus the results did not indicate an association between the presence of school councils and the relative performance of school systems as measured by student test scores. However, it was interesting to note that more functions were devolved to school control by the positive deviant municipal school systems, and even the average school systems, as compared to the negative deviant systems. This finding suggests it is possible that council members enjoy a wider scope of action in the better performing school systems. However, this conclusion is very preliminary. Information on the school councils’ scope of action must be analyzed with caution since it was reported by the SME and not directly by the schools. The councils likely exercise a range of functions, principally in the larger school systems. 4.6.1. Pedagogical Plan Less than half of the municipalities studied had a pedagogical plan that was shared by the entire municipal school system. Such a plan was completely absent – which is to say, not even being drafted or conceived – in 25% of the negative deviant school systems, 69 those in Control group 2. The majority of the pedagogical plans in use were developed by the SME. The interviews revealed a wide variety of concepts and notions about pedagogy and not much clarity about the purpose and importance of a pedagogical plan. Brusque (SC) is a municipality where the pedagogical plan seemed to be responsible in good part for the strong results achieved on the Prova Brasil test. One of the first characteristics we noted in Brusque was the longevity of the SME team; the core team had been running the SME in a participatory fashion for the last six years. In that time, Brusque’s overall political-pedagogical plan (PPP) had undergone a continuous process of change, but it always maintained a “network relationship” structure rather than a radial or hierarchical structure. School administrators interact among themselves and also with the SME. Regular interactions take place through the Pedagogical Exchange for Municipal Schools, and successful experiences are shared by all. Brusque also has a virtual forum, the AVAA (Ambiente Virtual de Apoio a Aprendizagem), where teachers can exchange ideas one-to-one or in larger groups. In-service teacher training, which is offered regularly based on demand, avoids theoretical models and takes a pragmatic approach, using laboratories and other types of interaction to address problems faced by teachers day-to-day in the classroom. It should be noted that even those municipal school systems that did not have a formal pedagogical plan did mention pedagogical approaches. Most notable among these were constructivism, the Piaget method and a Paulo Freire focus. In the words of one secretary, “[we] take the best from each approach, from each thinker, and adapt it to the (municipal) environment.” On the other hand, we also observed the following apparently similar statement, which was made on behalf of a negative deviant school system in Northern Brazil: “A practice is worth more than a written document.” At least on the surface, the sentiment appears to be quite similar. However, in this particular school system, teachers had refused to comply with a request from the MEC to develop a political-pedagogical plan because they were unable to do so on “short notice.” The request had been made with the passage of the Lei Diretrizes Basica. 70 Briefly, the topics most frequently emphasized in the plans we did analyze were in- service training for education professionals and effective teaching of curriculum content. One secretary said the most important theme in her school system’s plan was “not just pushing students on from one grade to the next.” Only one SME emphasized family participation in the school environment in the development of its PPP. Professionals or firms specialized in developing political-pedagogical plans were used in only three of the 41 school systems studied. 4.7 TEACHERS: QUALIFIED, ENGAGED AND COMMITTED TO EDUCATION QUALITY One of the best ways to demonstrate that a service or practice is highly valued is to pay well for its provision. Roughly three-quarters of the municipal school systems in our sample had a well established Career Plan for teachers. By linking teacher pay to job qualifications, the Career Plan constitutes an important mechanism for demonstrating that quality is highly valued in teaching. The data are presented in Table 18 below. The municipality of Tramandaí (RS) has a career plan that establishes a formal evaluation process and a generous base salary for teachers. Municipal teachers who work 30 hours per week (24 in the classroom and 6 preparing classes) can receive a generous base salary of R$ 1,600 per month, well above Brazil’s average salary. Tramandaí is one 71 of the two municipalities offering the highest teacher pay in the coastal region of Rio Grande do Sul.22 The municipal education secretary of Tramandaí estimated that approximately 90% of the education budget goes to teacher pay. In the education literature, a figure this high is generally taken to indicate poor choices in the allocation of resources among the various education inputs. Be that as it may, the strategy is obviously delivering results in Tramandaí, which ranked solidly among the positive deviant municipalities in its performance on the Prova Brasil test. Overall, the teacher career plans we collected were quite heterogeneous and featured a wide range of criteria. We chose to highlight just some of the most common criteria used as a basis for teacher promotion. Table 19 below shows the frequency with which these criteria appeared in the career plans in our three different groups of municipal school systems. Again, Tramandaí illustrates the relationship between formal career plans and established criteria for teacher promotion. The Tramandaí teacher career plan establishes 7 overall grades for promotion, with 3 levels within each grade. Progress up this career ladder 22 Interestingly in Balneário de Camboriú, a positive deviant municipality with a similar economy in Southern Brazil, even a teacher with post-graduate studies receives a monthly base salary no higher than R$1050 for 30 hours. Future quantitative studies should investigate in more detail the issue of teacher pay in Brazilian municipalities as related to performance measures such as the Prova Brasil test. 72 depends on a combination of merit and experience, which is measured by minimum required time in the classroom. In our sample, one of the most salient features of the career plans was the strong emphasis they placed on professional qualification. As we will see, all the municipal school systems in our study were concerned with their team of teachers, and establishing job qualification criteria was an objective for almost all municipal education policies. Length of time in teaching service also featured as an important consideration. While some job turnover is healthy for the constant renewal and modernization of instruction, stability within the teacher workforce is also important, especially within the individual school, because it fosters loyalty within in the school community. (SMITH & ROWLEY, 2005). Generous pay is not the only way to reward teachers and teaching. In some cities, education is intrinsically valued, regardless of whether it increases the individual’s capacity to find well-paid work. The same occurs with education agents, who can be dedicated to their profession because of what they see as their “calling” rather than being primarily motivated by pay. This is where in-service training enters the picture. By offering in-service training, the SME recognizes the individual teacher’s potential and demonstrates its confidence in the possibility of improving the teaching team. All but two of the municipal school systems we visited offered in-service teacher training, as shown by the data in Table 20 below. 73 We identified an example of this in the municipality of Gandu (BA). Gandu has placed teacher training and professional development at the center of its education policy, and the SME uses federal, state and municipal revenue to finance related activities. Bi-weekly planning of activities is essential to teacher training and professional development and also to the implementation of regular school activities. The municipal education secretary has been able to use a group of varied but integrated programs to contribute to improved student learning. The "Projeto de Ciranda de Leitores” stands out among Guandu’s teacher training programs. This project consists of guided readings of didactic and para-didactic literature and, while it primarily targets teachers, students can also participate. Following readings, teachers are given incentives to reflect on the pedagogical and personal usefulness of the material. Later, they are asked to present the material to teachers and students from other schools. This program reinforces the importance of the habits of reading and interpretation and has generated excellent results. Many teachers in the municipal school system have also participated in two other programs – “Proformação” and “Proinfantil” – which have contributed substantially to teacher preparation. In-service teacher training can be analyzed in many ways. We can analyze the frequency with which in-service training programs are offered, and also the quality of the institutions responsible for the training. Tables 21 and 22 below show there is a weak but discernible association between the frequency of training, the institution responsible for the training and school system performance in our sample of municipalities. 74 Finally, we must consider the evaluation systems used by the municipal school systems. The data in Table 23 clearly demonstrate that the practice of evaluation needs to be reinforced. Only about half the municipal systems reported having an evaluation system, and even when evaluations did take place, they were rarely carried out in a formalized manner. The education literature emphasizes the critical importance of evaluating the results of learning activities to develop quality in education (Desimone et al, 2002). In one study evaluating a federal U.S. program, Desimone et al. found that only 20% of U.S. school districts did NOT carry out evaluations, although many of the evaluations that were carried out were informal. This contrasts sharply with our sample, where only half of municipal school systems had evaluation systems. While our sample is not representative of Brazil as a whole, we make this comparison to draw attention to the urgent need for results evaluation as an indispensable procedure for better formulating government policies. 75 4.8. LINKS BETWEEN THE COMMUNITY, THE EDUCATION SECRETARY AND SCHOOLS We observed various levels and types of interaction between the education sector and the community in our sample municipalities. These ranged from direct citizen access to the municipal education secretary and the mayor (in some cases we were told there was no need for an ombudsman since everyone knew everyone else in town) to formally established community councils with sectoral representation. We found it interesting to observe that community-school ties were also often created, or strengthened, through intramural, inter-school or even municipality-wide sports or arts education programs. Such programs not only developed the abilities of children and adolescents but also strengthened perceptions of a broader education community. They were encountered most frequently in positive deviant municipalities. Balneário Camboriú (SC) particularly caught our attention for its high level of community involvement in municipal education. The notion of community involvement seemed to be rooted in all aspects of public policy in this municipality: the community was intimately and dynamically involved in the process of producing education services. Some community participation takes place through formal channels: there is a municipal education council, a council for FUNDEF (now FUNDEB), and also a school nutrition council. Community participation also takes place through informal channels, including informal public participation in developing the municipal budget. But the most striking example of community involvement with schools was seen in sports and physical education activities. The SME provides sports equipment and uniforms to the municipal schools, and adults from the community participate in guided sports activities.23 The SME offers a pedagogical rationale for supporting these activities: it believes students should develop “multiple types” of intelligence – linguistic, naturalistic, musical, athletic, intrapersonal and interpersonal. 23 Equipment is acquired through a public bidding process, just as teachers are hired through a public recruitment process, exemplifying how good government practices are not isolated. 76 The most unique example of mutual commitment between schools and community – and one which illustrates the town’s vision that education can transform social conditions – is the school system’s “Escolinha de Surf.” Balneário Camboriú is a popular tourist destination for domestic and international visitors. It has many beaches, with mountains rising up in the background, and it has become a famous spot for surfing. In general, surfing is considered a pastime for rich kids and adults. High costs – including pricey surf boards and neoprene wetsuits, the opportunity cost of time invested, and the direct cost of surf lessons – put the activity out of reach for most kids from poor families. The SME decided to give public school children the opportunity to learn how to surf as an extracurricular activity. It invested in equipment and teachers, with the number of surf classes to be determined by demand. Great attention was paid to little details, an important characteristic of policies in this municipality. We observed another example of this eye for detail when educators decided public school volleyball teams should not have to feel inferior to private teams with children from affluent families. So, in addition to uniforms and equipment, they gave public school children bottles of mineral water, just like the other kids. The value of the bottle of water in contributing to school spirit and the well being of students went well beyond its cost as just another input into the education production function. In our sample of municipalities, school nutrition councils and FUNDEF councils were among the most widespread formal, institutionalized community links, and they were generally positively evaluated. However this was not true of Municipal Education Councils, or CMEs, which were frequently said to exist but in fact only rarely functioned. It has already been observed by Azevedo (2002) that Brazilian municipalities try to ensure the formal existence of municipal education councils to comply with legal norms for collecting FUNDEF resources. This may help explain the frequency with which we were told the municipal education council was undergoing a process of reform. Our results corroborate the interdependency of SMEs and mayors: most school systems in our sample had a CME, and more than half of these were formall instituted. However, in only in a few cases was the CME considered fairly relevant, as reported by the SME. 77 One of these rare cases was Igarapé (MG), where the municipal education council evaluated the results of education policy and even participated in executive decisions. The municipalities where the CMEs were most active and appeared to exert influence on municipal education policy were: Três Rios, Piedade, Aparecida, Farroupilha and Sapiranga. Having an acting CME is considered a positive factor because, at least in theory, the CME provides a space where education community representatives, civil society leaders and publicly elected officials can articulate their opinions. Discussion among these parties should lead to consensus on education priorities, goals, and evaluation systems to promote accountability. However, perhaps because of Brazil’s low rate of political association and the general weakness of Municipal Legislative Councils (Vereadores), many CMEs exist in name only. This often seemed to be the case in the municipalities in our sample. In many cases the CMEs were created by the executive branch of municipal government and remained dependent on the Executive for their functioning, becoming one more knot in the institutional tangle rather than a public forum for education policy support. This is a topic that merits special attention in future studies. Another interesting type of link between schools and the community was established in some municipalities with professors at public or private universities. Some municipal school systems made extensive use of university professors for in-service training, and these ties tended to foster closer connections between the municipal education sector and universities located nearby or in the state capital. We also noted that some municipalities established regular channels of communication among themselves, in order to share experiences, disseminate practices and organize to pressure state and federal government officials to meet their demands. Through this type of articulation, municipalities managed to reduce costs and pursue public projects that might be unwieldy for one municipality but perfectly reasonable for a group. 78 Special attention should be given to UNDIME, the National Municipal Education Leaders Union, which has decisively influenced the significance attributed to the decentralization of the fundamental education cycle (Azevedo, 2001). The municipal education secretary of Sta. Cruz de Capibaribe, among others, stressed the important public role of UNDIME in stimulating debate on education topics of national relevance, in facilitating the sharing of experiences among municipal education secretaries and in providing a permanent forum of support for municipal education. This role is highly relevant because association between SMEs may be the best guarantee of quality in education autonomy. The more decentralized education becomes, the more important it is for education providers to share and reflect on their experiences. The most interesting cases of municipalities working together we observed were in the Vale do Rio dos Sinos (RS), the Região dos Lagos (RJ) and the Agreste Pernambucano (PE). We also observed partnerships between municipal school systems and civil society and private sector organizations. According to the IBGE’s 2002 Profile of Brazilian Municipalities, partnerships between the SME and civil society institutions exist in about 10% of municipalities. These partnerships can help lower costs for teacher training, help facilitate the procurement of pedagogical materials and facilitate the procurement of maintenance materials, among other things. In our sample we observed a number of partnerships with the S-system, an extensive network of publicly funded professional and social organizations linked to industry, small business, agriculture and other sectors. The main S-System partnerships we observed were with industry, small business and commercial organizations (SEBRAE, SESI, SENAC and SESC). They prioritized workforce training and assistance for students returning to school past the appropriate age for their grade level. There appears to be a correlation between the establishment of accords – whether with public or private sector entities – and the size of municipalities. Specifically, the larger a municipality was, the greater the number of accords it was likely to have. As an example of a private sector partnership, the SME teamed up with oil company Petrobrás to develop the “Paixão de Ler” project in Cabo Frio (RJ). The project brings together 79 students, educators, family members and community members interested in participating more actively in school life. Reading rooms are set up and activities are developed to stimulate creativity, sharpen critical thinking skills and encourage reflection. In general, partnerships and associations were just as common with private entities as with public entities. However, the field research instrument we developed did not allow for a more thorough analysis of the conditions favoring partnerships or their effect on student learning. 80 Good Practices and Student Learning Results: 12 Success Stories 5.1 BALNEÁRIO CAMBORIÚ – SANTA CATARINA Leadership. Silvia de Mello, the Municipal Education Secretary of Balneário Camboriú, has an extremely interesting career profile. With training in pedagogy and school administration and many years as a school principal, she has matched her professional credentials with matching life experience. Silvia started her career as a teacher, working at all grade levels from pre-school through secondary education. Later she moved to a job in school administration and then she served as the principal of a municipal school for 8 years. The school where she was principal was located in a poor area, and it faced all the typical problems that come with poverty and crime. Her experience as principal was transformative in many ways. She had come from a school where things seemed to operate by inertia, and little effort was made to change the future of students. She wanted to transform the school where she was principal into an institution that would make a difference in the lives of community members – starting with the students themselves. The difficulties she faced in making changes, the help she received from parents, and the experience she gained solving problems and surmounting obstacles were nothing short of transformational. The experience enhanced to Silvia’s leadership qualifications and broadened her views of management, pedagogy and education policy. Silvia’s experience as a school principal clearly contributed to her ideas about her current role at the head of the SME, including the following strong convictions: (i) the idea that a successful organization holds a transformational vision of where it wants to go; (ii) the idea that an organization must attract and retain qualified and motivated employees to deliver results; (iii) the importance of having a group identity aligned with the organization’s vision; (iv) the crucial role of empathy and human contact for an organization’s day-to-day functioning; and (v) the importance of forming an alliance between the municipal government and the local community. Vision and Purpose. The SME under Silvia has a very clear vision of its purpose. Its objective is to keep the municipal school system functioning well – schools opening their doors, teachers and students attending classes and education inputs distributed to schools according to available resources. These goals may seem basic but they require a significant level of administrative competence and are not easy to achieve. These goals are also subject to the same persistent correlation with socioeconomic background as student performance on tests – the education system only reproduces or even widens social disparities. In Balneário Camboriú, in contrast, Silva has instilled a transformational vision, where the education system is trusted to carry out an ambitious plan to stimulate greater social equity. More than just rhetoric, the idea exists as a guiding vision that emphasizes the 81 equitable distribution of resources and education policies and programs with special attention to the needs of the most vulnerable. SME officials see themselves as a cushion against what is perceived to be deteriorating social values – for example, the phrase “extinction of the family” was used to mean a key piece of the social structure responsible for transmitting cultural values to the next generation, which helped to identify and maintain a societal cohesion. The Governing Plan of the municipality, which was under legislative debate at the time of the field study, explains the vision for education clearly. Many municipalities have a written statement expressing noble sentiments, but in Balneário, the written declaration merely provides a summary of activities in progress. “Article 16: Education should be understood as a process that is instituted in family life, in the exercise of social interactions, in work, research and study institutions, in entrepreneurial activities, in civil society organizations and in cultural displays. It should be founded on the principles of liberty, cultural and territorial freedom and human solidarity, with its ultimate aim the full development of citizens in ethics, citizenship and professional qualification.” This goes well beyond the simple notion of improving student learning in basic disciplines as measured by standardized tests. This vision cannot be described adequately in a few paragraphs, but it can be illustrated by the pride Silvia expressed upon visiting a neighborhood where she had been school principal for a decade. She proudly discussed crime was lower than it had been and explained the important role of the school in bringing civic values to the community through education. The dedication of funds for school nutrition programs and arts and sports programs is another key indicator of this vision of education. This is not to say pedagogical concerns related to teaching and learning are not important. In fact, they are equally in evidence through well-developed curricular plans, student evaluation procedures, funding for didactic materials, trainingand so forth. Providing instruction in Portuguese and mathematics – the subjects tested by Prova Brasil – is just one of a number of objectives, all linked to the vision that education can be a compensatory mechanism for overcoming social inequality. Importance of the Community. The idea that the community must be intimately involved in producing education services seems to be rooted in all aspects of public policy in this municipality. It happens through formal channels such as the municipal education council, the FUNDEF council, the school nutrition council and through a partcipatory process for developing the municipal budget. The best example of community involvement with schools was manifest in the attention to physical education. The SME provides schools with equipment and uniforms, and community adults participate in a culture of guided sports activitites. Investments are also made in dance and music-related activities, and often involve students putting on shows for the community. The pedagogical logic cited by the SME for supporting these activities is the idea that children should develop multiple types of intelligence – linguistic, naturalistic, musical, athletic, intrapersonal and interpersonal. 82 The best example of mutual commitment between schools and community – and one that illustrates the vision that education can transform – is the municipal school system’s “Escolinha de Surf,” or little surf school. Balneário Camboriú is a popular destination for domestic and international visitors. It has many beaches, where the mountains meet the sea – and it is a famous spot for surfing. In general, surfing is seen as a pastime for rich kids (or adults). Its high costs – equipment like surf boards and neoprene wetsuits, the opportunity cost of time invested, and the direct cost of learning – put surfing out of reach for most kids from poor families. Until the SME had the idea of giving public school children the chance to learn to surf as an extracurricular activity. It invested in equipment and teachers, with the number of classes linked to demand. Close attention is paid to little details, an important characteristic of municipal policy implementation in physical and curricular activities. For another example, the idea that school volleyball teams should not have to feel inferior to private teams of kids from affluent families, led the SME to provide public school children with equipment, uniforms – and bottled mineral water, just like the private club kids. The value of that mineral water in contributing to school spirit and student well-being went well beyond the value of just any input into the production function for education. Inclusive Education for Students with special needs. Inclusive education for students with special needs is an important part of education policy in Balneário Camboriú, which has 384 special-needs students of a total of approximately 15,000. The municipal vision is that all children share the right to a quality education and it is the responsibility of the state to provide it. There are many collateral benefits to this policy – beyond compliance with national education laws and philosophy – which would seem to justify the funds spent. Investments in equipment (voice-activated Braile printers and computers) and in ensuring access to school buildings are less costly than investments in personnel and training. Since the objective is to offer special education, whether through special classes or inclusive regular classes, the emphasis is on training teachers to work with children who are physically or intellectually challenged. In some cases, children’s disabilities are minor but would not be addressed without special treatment. The SME has pedagogical and psychological specialists in its own special education department and also highly qualified professionals familiar with the development of special needs children and trained to deal with specific issues, such as hearing or motor-skill difficulties. In some cases the SME may also permanently assign specialists to schools to work with education professionals directly observing special-needs children. At least three benefits stem from this attention to inclusive education: (i) having children with special needs in regular schools demonstrates the values of respect and human dignity to other students – the SME views the concrete, daily demonstration of these values as an important didactic role; (ii) the systems and procedures required to identify and track special-needs students help strengthen the overall evaluation system (for example, children who are marginal in terms of needing special attention may benefit as teachers learn to monitor the progress of special-needs students); and (iii) for teachers, administrators, SME employees and parents, the focus on special education reinforces the vision of education as a intervention to increase social equity. These three collateral 83 benefits – for other children, for systemic monitoriong and evaluation, and for teachers and adults in the system, can be seen as similar to value of particular species of animals, can be seen as a gauge of the health of the entire system – the social benefits of care and conservation of all outweighs the individual interest of any one species. Surf’s Up: Education Secretary founds innovative little surf school (27/01/2006) Words like crowd, aerial, and swell entered the vocabulary of local students in early 2006. That is because the municipal education secretary decided to offer public school students surf lessons starting in March of that year. The expectation was that children would already be in the water trying to master their first moves by mid-March, after interested students enrolled and parents granted approval. The municipal education secretary acquired 20 surf boards for the surf classes. All the other necessary equipment – neoprene wetsuits, lycra shirts, plastic fins and cords to tie surf boards to students’ wrists – was also acquired. The “little surf school,” as the project is known, was to be based at the town’s Central Beach. Groups no larger than 15 students would take one-hour classes once a week during hours when they were free from regular classes. The total number of classes would depend on demand. Each class would have three instructors, two in the water and one on the beach, overseeing the progress of students. According to Municipal Education Secretary Sílvia de Mello, the decision to establish a surf school for the school system’s 20 schools emerged because surfing is rooted in the local culture. “Balneário Camboriú has trained athletes of national and international stature in this sport. Nothing could be more natural, and we have the perfect spot for it – the beach – just waiting to be used,” said Sílvia. For more information contact Municipal Education Secretary Sílvia de Mello 3363-7144 84 Schools Open Enrollment for Surf Lessons (Notice posted 06/03/2006) In the municipal education system of Balneário Camboriú, students can already enroll in the Little Surf School by contacting administrators in the school where they study. Starting this semester, the municipal education secretary is offering this new option to promote the participation of students in one of the most popular sports in this beachside municipality. Surf instructors expect to teach about 720 students this year. The open enrollment period for the Little Surf School starts Monday the 6th and continues until Monday, the 13th. Students should contact administrators at the school where they study to enroll. To participate in surf classes, the student must be at least 10 years old, must know how to swim and must have permission from parents. There are 360 spaces available this semester and another 360 spaces next semester. Enrollment will take place on a first-come, first-served basis. After the first 360 students sign up, names will go onto a waiting list. Surf lessons will begin March 23 at 9 a.m. Students should gather near the lifeguard stand on Central Beach, between avenues 1001 and 1101, in Balneário Camboriú. Each class will have a maximum of 12 students and will meet once a week for an hour outside regular class hours. Three instructors will teach students the theory and practice of surf. Students will warm-up before entering the water and stretch before class comes to an end. One of the local architects of the project, Professor Juliano Laghi Pagnoncelli, said the idea of establishing a local surf school originally started with the municipal education secretary. “Balneário Camboriú is one of the first cities in Santa Catarina to establish a project like this,” he said. Balneário Camboriú’s SME has already purchased 20 surf boards and other equipment required to practice the sport. This includes lycra shirts, neoprene wetsuits, plastic fins and cords to attach surf boards to students’ wrists. The project will be announced to local students on Friday the 3rd and Monday the 6th. Little Surf School surf instructors will visit schools in the local education system to hand out printed materials and talk with students about the program. For more information call (47) 3363.7144 between 8 a.m. and noon or from 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. 85 5.2. BRUSQUE – SANTA CATARINA Continuity of the SME Team: The continuity of the SME’s core team over the past 6 years is impressive, although it was supported by the fact that the mayor was re-elected to a second term. The idea in Brusque is that the processes of education reform requires time to mature, but that developing consensus among key stakeholders works better than a top-down approach. Implementation under this approach requires a period of collaboration and corrective action, with appropriate adjustments being made to the initial project. The preparation of Brusque’s Political-Pedagogical Project (PPP), for example, was started in 2001, with process of ongoing feedback between schools and municipal officials. When the municipal education secretary during the Zancanaro administration (2001-2004) was elected to the municipal council, the SME’s technical and operational directors remained in place. Meantime, the SME director for pre-school education took over the job of municipal education secretary. Brusque is currently of updating its PPP for a new 4-year period, which will also extend through a change in administrations. The collaborative approach to planning helps maintain continuity, since the main education programs do not necessarily depend on the specific people who initiated them. Obviously having employees stay in their jobs for a long time is not always a good thing – especially if they are weak performers. But Brusque has managed to keep the focus on the continuity of policies and programs, and on the institutional processes needed to implement them, rather than on the personalities themselves. The stability of certain key employees has supported this process, but only as one factor in a complex reform program. It seems that with a participative process in the right place, continuity can be a result of successful performance, as well as a means of producing success. From the perspective of developing policy orientations, the important lesson seems to be not to encourage continuity for its own sake, but rather to strive for overall conditions under which continuity would be just one factor associated with good government. In the case of Brusque, this also translated into superior test performance by students. Close Monitoring of Schools and Professional Development for Teachers. Another notable practice in Brusque – and one that is intimately linked to the presence of a clear process for pedagogical planning and an evaluation system to monitor student progress – is the manner in which professional development is carried out. A team of pedagogical support specialists works as professional contacts between the SME and the schools, since each school has its own team for pedagogical support. Brusque’s attention to building and institutionalizing pedagogical relationships between schools is truly exceptional. The approach is quite different from the hierarchical or radial organizational structure between the SME and schools that is more typical in Brazil. A specialized program being implemented, the Municipal School Pedagogical Exchange, or INPEM, allows schools to exhibit their most successful projects so other shcools can learn from their experiences.24 The SME has regular meetings with teachers and pedagogical support 86 teams in each school to discuss their projects – as well as the school’s Political- Pedagogical Project and any problems with project implementation or with identifying sources of funds for materials and training. An online forum provides a space where teachers can discuss particular matters one-on-one or publicly. The forum is called the Virtual Environment for Support for Learning (AVAA). One of the most notable aspects of Brusque is its demand-based approach to training, where SME technical specialists work with school authorities to attend to the core teaching-learning process. Training needs are based on actual events, identified in regular meetings between the SME and schools or through communications from school-based SME employees. From the SME’s point of view, the major weakness of traditional training programs is their tendency to emphasize theoretical orientation over practical assistance with day-to-day student learning problems, often with particular concepts, for example, teaching fractions in 4th-grade. One way trainings are organized is through workshops addressing particular pedagogical problems. These take place when a critical mass of teachers identifies a problem and it is observed that external assistance is needed. The SME works with local universities and with other levels of government to identify specialists who can be brought in to lead a particular workshop, where an open format allows for feedback and discussion. It is hard to imagine how this approach to training could be replicated by municipalities without the kind of regular and institutionalized participative process that exists in Brusque. Still, it is a decidedly impressive way to increase teacher skills. Information Technology in the Pedagogical Process. The current trend in the education literature is to take a skeptical view of the use of Information Technology, or IT, as an integral part of the pedagogical process. This skepticism stems from the idea that computers and the internet cannot replace human interaction, and that, in fact, IT tools can distract from the task of developing cognitive abilities for reading, writing and mathematics – all of which can be developed effectively without expensive IT equipment. This skepticism is fundamentally conservative, and it contrasts starkly with the unbridled enthusiasm of policymakers all over the world for technology and its seductive promises of progress. In this context, Brusque has managed to develop a direct and practical application of IT targeting pedagogical objectives, which in some ways sidesteps the endless debate between politicians and technocrats. Computers and the internet are viewed in Brusque as tools that are capable of multiplying the effects of existing pedagogical support policies for classroom instruction. The internet can aid and amplify the possibilities for collaboration between members of Brusque’s education community, and throughout the world, through Web sites and virtual discussion groups. Even with Bruque’s reasonably robust municipal budgets, there are efforts to ally with local firms and volunteer groups to equip schoools with computers and internet connections. The SME has a long-term program called Virtual Pedagogical Space, or ESPIN, which aims to provide human inputs to supplement computer hardware and connectivity. Technical instructors in IT collaborate with teachers to develop activities where computers and the internet can be used to intensify student learning experiences, essentially a multi-disciplinary path toward learning. Successful 87 collaborations can be shared with other teachers and other schools, given the existing communication network. The SME also provides monthly training sesssions for teachers to develop IT abilities since many lack a strong IT background. Ultimately, the use of IT promotes collaboration among municipal actors, and this serves as an important pedagogical input for student development of cognitive skills and other abilities. 5.3. SANTA CRUZ DO CAPIBARIBE – PERNAMBUCO Political Commitment and administrative continuity. Executive, legislative and judicial leaders in Santa Cruz do Capibaribe demonstrate great enthusiasm for and political commitment to municipal education, which is considered an important instrument for municipal competitiveness and growth. However, the municipal education secretary believes it is mainly the political will of the mayor that has made current results in the education sector possible. The mayor, who describes education as a basic lever for increasing competitiveness and growth, made education a priority for the municipality and has sought partners to expand education efforts. The continuity of the administrative team is another element that helps explain Santa Cruz do Capibaribe’s strong education results. The mayor is in his second term and this has allowed ongoing education sector activities to advance and education supply to increase. The mayor has supported education with determination and focus, with a clear vision of the municipality’s needs. His most outstanding efforts have included: (a) establishing daycare centers to support working mothers who need childcare facilities staffed by competent specialists; (b) supporting computer training in schools to improve access to international information and the commercialization of local products; and (c) ensuring that the full fundamental education cycle is available, even in rural areas, to help integrate rural and otherwise marginalized groups into the municipal economy. Unfortunately, the political commitment to education demonstrated by the mayor and by legistlative and judicial leaders is not fully shared by municipal council members (vereadores), who for partisan reasons do not always support activities of the current administration. However, with recent changes at the state government level, a new political pact between municipal council members and the mayor is pending, including approval of the municipal education plan by the council members. Education vision of the municipality. The SME has a clear vision of its role in municipal education. Its plan has two priority aims: to offer greater learning opportunities during the mandatory schooling period; and to ensure that children achieve higher levels of learning after starting formal education earlier in their career.The SME expects to support schools to ensure teaching is of a high standard and based on modern pedagogical methods. In this regard, the municipality has pioneered various innovations in education administration and pedagogical methods, including the extension of the fundamental education cycle to nine years, in line with national trends. 88 Every child in Santa Cruz do Capibaribe is in school. Total enrollment - 9477 students distributed across 17 schools, 14 in urban areas and 3 in rural areas. The vision of the SME plan is summarized by the following chart: OBJECTIVE: GOAL: HOW TO GET THERE? Create learning Universalize Expand the supply of space opportunities coverage in schools New schools Expansion of schools Combat grade repetition HOW TO GET THERE? OBJECTIVE: GOAL: Higher levels of Better quality Teacher training and education Education Incentive Programs Ongoing In-Service Incentives to Stay in School Training • Knowledge Olympics • School Games for • Concurso de Redação • Segundo-Tempo Program Teachers • TCA • Computer Literacy/Training • Marching Bands • EJA in all neighborhoods Municipal Education Plan – the town’s previously education plan is being revised and will be presented to municipal council members for approval. The municipal education secretary expects municipal council members to approve the revised plan – unlike the original – as their relationship with the mayor has improved considerably. The revised plan is the fruit of a shared, participatory process involving various segments of the population, from the education sector and the wider community. The plan was also assessed by the Federal University of Pernambuco, which helped with the collective development of the plan during a two-year effort. Municipal Education Council - The municipal education secretary and her team think the Municipal Eduation Council functions poorly and does not give the necessary support to municipal education. They did not elaborate on what they expect from the Council or on what might be done to improve its functioning. 89 Leadership in Education – The municipal education secretary, Maria do Socorro Ferreira Maia, has a number of years of experience in education. She most recently served as Director of Schools in the State-level Education Secretary. She accepted her current job as municipal education secretary – a function she had also held in a previous administration – at the request of the SME personnel. She has received numerous awards for her performance in the education sector throughout her career. In 2004, national magazine Isto E (no. 1789) reported a 71.97% popular approval rating for the Municipal Public Education System of Santa Cruz do Capibaribe, the highest percentage across Pernambuco’s Agreste region. “There are many reasons behind this success,” Secretary Maria do Socorro told the magazine, specifically naming “ongoing in-service teacher training, expanding available space in pre-school and fundamental cycle schools, increasing the fundamental cycle to nine years, establishing a system of learning cycles to replace grade levels, and the favorable posture toward school-community interaction. But the true results of all this work can only be fully perceived in the future, since she believes that this “broadening of citizenship” will be directly reflected by changes in our society.” Teamwork and its importance to the SME’s work - The strong leadership of Secretary Maria do Socorro is quite visible, but it is more her style to praise teamwork. She makes a point of bringing the entire team to the interview, mentioning repetedly that nothing would get done without the team that advises and supports her. This sentiment was echoed by SME employees who accompanied us during the field visit to schools. Each team member was able to describe and explain activities in great detail, demonstrating a profound understanding of the tasks or projects being developed without ever losing sight of the larger constellation of SME activities. The SME’s core team- the SME’s cabinet, or core team, seemed highly motivated and demonstrated a strong sense of team work. According to Secretary Maria do Socorro, support for schools is carried out by a Technical Team that oversees the planning and implementation of activities directly targeting teachers and students with the objective of making school more “pleasant” and combatting the culture of grade repetition. The technical team works directly with school supervisors, each of which is responsible for eight cohorts. Supervisors are supported by ongoing monitoring and regular meetings to evaluate problems and identify solutions for each situation in school. Training of the SME’s Technical Team. The SME’s technical team regularly attends in-service training sessions to keep up with innovations in education and the emerging needs of students and teachers. Some members of the technical team were selected to join a group of teachers participating in a two-year graduate-level Evaluation Program offered by the Federal University of Pernambuco, in the state capital Recife. The SME supported efforts to grant leaves of absence for the selected teachers and technical experts. Monitoring and Evaluation System – The SME uses an institutionalized monitoring and evaluation system comprising the following elements: (i) Fine-tuning of the pedagogical plan; (ii) In-service teacher training; (iii) School infrastructure; (iv) Learning 90 indicators. The agents of the monitoring system are (i) the supervisory team (representatives from the SME); (ii) study groups (representatives from the individual school ); and (iii) the school council (representatives from the individual school). Pedagogical plan and the Organization of the school system - The SME wanted to encourage municipal school system students to develop an entrepreneurial spirit and a tendency toward social engagement and organization from an early age. To promote this, the SME incorporated coursework in Cooperativist Philosophy into the fundamental education cycle curricular framework. The results are already noticeable in the day-to- day activities of local families as young students take on supporting roles in family businesses. The SME also adopted the system of Learning Cycles in the organization of the school system. The basic idea was to replace yearly advancement, grade by grade, with learning cycle stages that last at least two years and have fixed learning objectives. Teachers are trained to orient children and facilitate their progress through this system. The fundamental education cycles are organized in the following manner: a) 1st CYCLE: Children aged 6 to 8 (learning Grades 1-2) b) 2nd CYCLE: Children aged 9 to10 ( learning Grades 3-4) c) 3rd CYCLE: Children aged 11 to 12 (learning Grades 5-6) d) 4th CYCLE: Children aged 13 to 14 (learning Grades 7-8) Teachers Recruitment, selection and development of teachers- The recruitment and selection of teachers is carried out through concursos, public competitions where a number of candidates who pass a test qualify for openings. The last competition was held in 2003 and the SME means to hold another in the short-term, once all previously approved candidates are hired. The best ranked candidates are sent to teach in rural areas, but they receive added pay and transportation to the rural schools where they are assigned. In accordance with MEC’s National Quality Guidelines for Pre-School Education in Brazilian Education Systems, the SME of Santa Cruz do Capibaribe offers full scholarships to all pre-school education professionals in the school system who have not received formal training in pre-school education education at the university level. The SME also uses MEC policy as a basis for quality guidelines for Pre-School Education, not only as a reference for monitoring and evaluation, but also as an instrument for adopting quality improvement measures at the pre-school level. Beyond offering scholarships to Pre-School teachers, all professionals teaching the fundamental cycle who have not yet earned university degrees – about 10% of local teachers – can enroll in a program with a full scholarship. Through these agreements, 52 professionals teaching in the Pre-School and Fundamental cycles are pursuing degrees. Teachers in rural areas also receive assistance for food and travel expenses. Teacher training. The SME has instituted a mandatory monthly training system. Training is carried out by supervisors, the technical team or the university. However the 91 maandatory nature of the training is being challenged by the Public Ministry (Public Attorney’s Office) on behalf of some segments of the teachers’ workforce. Main programs developed by the SME- Currently there are more than 15 programs and projects developed by the SME. These programs have directly benefited more than 20,000 people living in urban and rural areas, and they continue to bring indirect benefits to the entire municipal population by increasing overall levels of education. Among the programs deserving special mention are : (i) the Pre-School Education program; (ii) the program to expand the capacity and quality of the fundamental education cycle; (iii) the program to include socially marginalized students and offer computer training and access; and (iv) the program to support university preparation for students. The municipality also implements projects like Fundescola and Connect and Accelerate, these last supported by the state education secretariat and the Ayrton Senna Foundation. Pre-School Education Program- Santa Cruz do Capibaribe attaches great importance to pre-school education. This is because this age group is important from an education perspective and also because it is extremely important for the municipality to support mothers who work in the local textile industry. The mayor anticipated the approval of FUNDEB with great excitement because it would give a big push to efforts to universalize pre-school education in the municipality. Available space for children in pre- school grew 92.5% in four years. There are two daycare centers located strategically in the areas where they are most needed, and, now, with pre-school included in federal funding for the fundamental cycle, all families should be able to enroll their children in school earlier. The daycare center visited is an example of the the municipality’s intended pre-school model. Despite being simple, the building provided all required services and attends children from 0 to 3 years and also pre-school children with teachers trained in Early Education. The graph below shows the evolution of Early Childhood Education in Santa Cruz do Capibaribe. Ofertas de vagas na Educação Infantil 2500 1931 2000 1500 1000 857 500 0 1 2000 2 2001 3 2002 4 2003 5 2004 6 2005 Program to support improved coverage and quality of Fundamental Education– Enrollment in the fundamental education cycle has become effectively universal, with the 92 capacity of the system increasing 50% over the last several years. All schools in the municipality offer the full fundamental cycle, including schools located in rural areas. Sixty new classrooms were built to satisfy the increase in demand that accompanied the universalization of the cycle. Five new schools were also added in the last four years of the current government, three built from scratch and two rehabilitated from existing structures. All schools in the municipal education system have been renovated and expanded. The productivity of students has also increased, stimulated by an inter- disciplinary approach and the integration of school with daily life. The SME carried out a demonstration of a project called “Our School is a Co-operative Enterprise” with students from all schools in the municipal system. The initiative was praised by the president of the Organization of Brazilian Cooperative Enterprises for Pernambuco state. Work to change the “culture of grade repetition” – Efforts carried out by the Technical Team to combat the culture of grade repetition have started to show results. Grade repetition rates have declined, owing to these efforts and no doubt also owing to a constellation of activities developed by the SME. 40 32% 30 26% 20% 20 10% 10 0 2002 2003 2004 2005 Programs for Inclusion of Special-needs Children and Computer literacy – The municiplaity constructed a special building to educate children with special needs, acquiring a vehicle to transport the children and equipment to meet their education needs. Complementary physical education and curricular activites offered outside class hours ensure these students stay in school, preventing special-needs children from being marginalized in early childhood and helping keep them in school longer. The Bolsa Família program benefits needy families, favoring the education of children. Highlights of the Social Inclusiveness and Education for All programs are: (i) offering the complete fundamental education cycle in all neighborhoods; (ii) equivalency program for grades 5- 8 in all neighborhoods, offered in partnership with SESI, the National Industry confederation’s social services arm; (iii) Education programs for young people and adults (EJA and Se Liga e Acelera) in all neighborhoods; (iv) Literacy programs (Alfabetização Solidária and Brasil Alfabetizado) in all neighborhoods; (v) school transportation serving students and teachers in all neighborhoods, including rural areas; and (vi) the AABB Comunidade program; (vii) SEGUNDO TEMPO program; and (viii) Bolsa Família program. 93 To offer computer training and access to all children: an information technology laboratory was installed in the Virgilina Pereira Special School; an existing IT laboratory in the Professora Sevy Ferreira Barros Municipal School was renovated; and, in partnership with the federal government, an Inclusive Computer Learning Center was installed, open to all students and teachers in the municipality and offering everything from basic computer literacy courses to more advanced information technology learning. The municipality is also partnering with the federal government to acquire a mobile technology center to offer computer and information technology courses across every neighborhood in Santa Cruz do Capibaribe. Program to support preparation for university entrance. It is the state government’s responsibility to provide secondary education, but since 2002, the SME has offered free courses for graduates of the local education system to prepare for the national university entrance exam through a project called “We create the future.” The acceptance rate of students taking these courses is 37% for state and federal universities in Pernambuco and neighboring Paraíba. That is, for every three students enrolled in these prep courses, one gains admissions. These courses have already graduated 1,600 young people, and another 400 students are currently enrolled. There is a waiting list of 300 names. The “We create the future” project also offers practice university entrance exams, review courses covering the general content tested, and workshops with professionals from different areas as well as vocational orientations and even psychological consultations. Sports Program – Athletic activities are viewed as an important part of learning and socialization. In 2005, the SME in Santa Cruz do Capibaribe presented all public schools with uniforms for their athletic teams participated in JESCC athletic games. The SME promoted a championship in which rural communities participated with their teams. In 2006, food was collected during the championship games to be distributed to needy families in the rural areas. Cultural Programs – The culture and traditions of the municipality are always in evidence in the festivities developed by the SME. A school marching band program is among the various cultural programs supported by the SME. Students have the opportunity to participate in a band summit in Recife, where some students see the ocean for the first time. Santa Cruz do Capibaribe’s rendition of the São João Festival – a national celebration – is one of the largest and loveliest in the region. The SME gives special emphasis to all activities and cultural and social dates marked on the school calendar. Thus the school system celebrates Children’s Week by distributing toys, staging plays for young people, showing films for children and teens and organizing outings to historical landmarks in Pernambuco. During Homeland Week, the recently formed Júlia Oliveira School marching band performed, with new uniforms and musical instruments. Teachers are also a focus for attention and celebration. To thank teachers, the SME awarded them trips to historical sites in Pernambuco and cultural events during Teacher’s Day week. 94 The Municipal Olympics of General Knowledge (OMCG)- The municipal olympics of general knowledge (OMCG) is an annual event founded to engage students in the municipal education system of Santa Cruz do Capibaribe. The two events held so far were well attended by students and schools across the municipality. The games take place Saturdays in the Emídio Eduardo Municipal Theater. The competitive categories are: Fundamental Education Cycle I, Fundamental Education Cycle II, and Youth and Adult Education. The champions of the first olympics, in 2005, won an all-expenses-paid trip to the Ilha de Itamaracá, where they visited the Center for Aquatic Mammals, the Peixe Boi Project (Amazon River manatee), and the ruins of Orange Fortress commemorating the seventeenth-century Dutch invasion of Pernambuco. The champions of the second olympics in 2006 will win a trip to the Science Space in Olinda, where they can attend presentations and workshops on Environmental Education Projects. The students will share what they have learned when they return to class, bringing full circle the Environmental Education policies implemented by the SME. When the first olympic games of general knowledge was held, students from rural schools did exceptionally well, outperforming in all categories and winning a number of competitions. The strong results of rural students was attributed in part to the rural placement of the best teachers Partnerships to Support Municipal Education – Another characteristic of this SME is its numerous partnerships with local and state bodies. The (Conselho Tutelar?) helped the SME in enrolling students who had dropped out of school. SESI and SESC, both part of the S-System linked to the National Industry Confederation, are partners in professional and workforce training for youths and adults. SESI also helps with a program to address age-grade distortion among students in grades 5-8, helping these students complete the course of study in two years. The SME also partners with the State Education Secretariat on a number of programs. A preliminary analysis of the municipal education system of Santa Cruz do Capibaribe allows us to identify some factors that might be responsible for the strong results obtained on the Prova Brasil test: a) Political Commitment – strong political commitment and respect for the value of education by the mayor and other important municipal authorities is evident in the SME’s actions and in its definition of a modern vision for the education sector b) Leadership – the leadership style of the SME exhibits knowledge and experience with the education sector, and the dedication, political will and technical expertise to implement education innovations in municipal system schools. The municipal education secretary has taken measures that do not coddle teachers – such as the requirement that they continually pursue in-service training – which she believes are important to improving the quality of municipal education. The results show. c) Administration of the system uses: merit-based criteria in the selection of teachers and education professionals through public competitions; onoing in- 95 service training of teachers and SME technical specialists; incentives and support for teachers through municipal education forums and meetings, through study groups for different areas of knowledge and through workshops in pedagogical approaches. In addition, the SME uses distinct partnerships with state public and private sector entities to improve the quality of instruction and to increase the offer of the best education opportunities. d) Use of a monitoring and evaluation system – the SME uses a system to monitor and evaluate the activities of the school system with a focus on the following elements: (i) the way in which the pedagogical plan adopted fits with the needs of the student and his or her growth objectives in the community, (ii) the process of teacher training and development, (iii) school infrastructure, and (iv) tracking of learning indicators. e) Community Participation- this was the item least observed during the visit to the municipality, or in any case, least emphasized by the education authorities. Still, strong community participation, mainly by the School Council, was in evidence in the information collected by the research instruments. The Council participates actively in school decisions, including those of study groups on the process of monitoring and evaluating the pedagogical activities in schools. 96 5.4 TRAMANDAÍ – RIO GRANDE DO SUL Municipal Education Secretary’s Personal Commitment to Education. It is difficult to describe in analytical terms the life experiences that influence a person’s behavior or “governing style” as a public official. But it would be impossible to understand the municipal education system of Tramandaí, in Rio Grande do Sul, without describing the personal qualities of Anderson Hoffmeister, the municipal education secretary and second-in-command under the mayor. With a population of 37,000, Tramandaí has 11 schools serving 6,000 primary-level students and 5 pre-schools serving 700 children. The Secretary is proud to be the fourth generation in a family tradition of teaching that started with his great-grandfather, who was one of the first formally trained teachers in this region. He speaks proudly of the influence of German traditions in Rio Grande do Sul, which emphasize hard work, cleanliness, punctuality and other teutonic virtues that he believes are an important ingredient in Brazil’s melting pot of cultures. He has several decades of experience working as a teacher in the state education system, and he has held administrative posts in the education sector. He has also run his own business and says developing the values of honest administration in a private enterprise taught him the notion of service and many other skills and abilities that apply well to public service. The education secretary’s personal experiences have influenced his thinking about education policies and administration, in particular his belief in the need to have a personal commiment to the education profession and a desire to teach. Hoffmeister believes that a student who admires his teacher is more apt to learn quickly, making a good teacher as important as a student’s own mother or father. Beyond knowledge of content and technique, he believes a teacher should have personal affection for his students so he can see which teaching techniques are most effective for the individual aptitudes and learning style of each student. Hoffmeister believes every student can learn, and that this conviction should be engraved into the mind of teachers during training. Despite their differences, every child has the desire to learn and become a better person, and teachers must realize this to find the correct path for each student. Teacher Pay and Training Policies. In an education system led by someone as convinced as Mr. Hoffmeister is about the importance of personal commitment to teaching, it is interesting to note that teacher pay and training policies do not rely on teacher motivation alone. It is also possible that traditional measures related to teacher pay and training are essential to attracting teachers who are already highly motivated and to providing them with the resources they need to carry out their personal calling in practical and concrete terms. Fortunately, Tramandaí is a port city that receives steady revenue from oil tankers that dock here and pump oil into pipelines that connect to the Petrobrás refinery in the adjacent town of Canoas. These tankers pay royalties to the municipal government, providing 10 months of revenue during the off-season when traditional tourism revenue is low. It would be fascinating to 97 study how various municipalities spend reliable outside revenue streams. In the case of Tramandaí, the funds are earmarked to pay high teacher salaries. Teachers in Tramandaí work 30 hours per week, 24 in the classroom and 6 preparing for class. They can receive a healthy base pay of R$ 1,600 per month, well above the average salary in Brazil. Tramandaí is among the two municipalities paying teachers the highest teacher salaries in the coastal region of Rio Grande do Sul. The municipal education secretary estimates approximately 90% of the education budget goes to pay teacher salaries, a percentage that is generally cited in the literature as suggestive of error in the allocation of resources to education inputs. But in the case of Tramandaí, the strategy has obviously produced results. On top of base salary, teachers receive additional pay for working with special-needs students or areas with difficult access. Teacher recruitment takes place through a public competition, with established procedures and norms to guarantee selection of the best candidates. A Career Plan. maps out 7 grades for promotion, each sub-divided into 3 levels. Promotions depend on a combination of merit and experience based on time in the classroom. It is gratifying to see the close attention to procedures for evaluating teacher performance. The terms of reference for hiring teachers specifically mention the importance of the learning process. This is to encourage teachers to evaluate the different needs of students and to guarantee they take full advantage of resources and participate in a variety of planning and extra-curricular activities beyond presence in the classroom. Each teacher promotion is reviewed by an evaluation committee of SME members plus one member of the Municipal Education Council, one member of the pedagogical support team, and one representative chosen by the teacher. A number of factors are considered to reflect merit: efficiency in performing job functions, dedication, punctuality, responsibility, initiation and completion of special projects and tasks, and completion of professional development courses to keep up with knowledge in the field. Each school has a pedagogical coordinator who works with the teacher to develop a records system for tracking each student’s personal progress, and the records are also used in teacher evaluation. The notion of individulaized monitoring of student performance was seen in a number of municipalities. In Tramandaí, this process is linked to the formal process of teacher evaluation and, in turn, to teacher pay. It is significant that municipal authorities collaborated with other municipalities to create economies of scale for teacher training and also used the services of local universities and the state and federal governments. Teachers were given time to develop professional activities through a teacher-substitution policy and were encouraged to engage in learning on the job, with the help of other agencies. A training program in math and science seemed to be popular with teachers – the program links workshops outside school hours with classroom activities, and the training coordinator works with groups of teacher colleagues. As with other activities, the practice of training incorporates the definition of specific objectives and the documentation of progress made by each teacher, in a way that reflects what each needs to do with his or her own students. It should be noted through which evaluation process the teacher comes to training – whether voluntarily driven by interest and curiosity or by professional or personal recognition, in terms of 98 salary and other benefits. Training also includes a distinctive evaluation process – the process speaks for itself in the nature of the education result. “Main Evaluation Instrument: the Records Notebook” - Each teacher should have a notebook for making personal notes, for recording the outcome of activities, for documenting the synthesis of discussions, for formulating unanswered questions to be explored in future sessions, and in this way, for building a record of training throughout the course. - The pedagogical aim of the Records Notebook is to have the teacher reflect on what is being discussed, review concepts and plan new learning, in addition to creating a method for organization and the concretization of lived experience. Holding Elections for School Principals: Policies addressing teacher recruitment, professional development, professional support for the teaching-learning process, and a strict evaluation process – these factors have without question helped Tramandaí offer students a better quality education. At the same time, for the system to operate at maximum capacity, it is vital to have effective leadership at the level of the individual school. Since 1990, school principals in Tramandaí have been elected by the community with the promise of improving local commitment and responsibility. According to education secretary Hoffmeister, the election of principals should be handled just as carefully as any other electoral process. The principal is elected from among other teachers in the school. Unlike other election policies, where the losing candidate continues along his own path, in the school election, losing candidates and their supporters remain employees of the school and must actively collaborate with the winner following election. If the election is marked by tough campaigning or political interference, then there is grave risk that the school environment will be demoralized following the election. Some Brazilian municipalities use a “List of Three” process where the school gives the SME a list of three potential candidates, in no particular order, and the SME makes a final choice based on interviews and other means of evaluation. (This practice occured in Novo Hamburgo, in Rio Grande do Sul). In Tramandaí, principal selection was more of a consensus reached within a mature democratic process, according to secretary Hoffmeister. Principals are elected for short three-year terms. Those who perform well can be re-elected; those who perform poorly can be replaced, opening the way for other candidates. During a recent election for the 2007-2009 period, six of the eight candidates were elected without opposition; five were re-elected to the same office. The electoral processes is rigorous and transparent and close attention is paid to outcomes. Serious matters related to school leadership are discussed throughout the campaign, minimizing the politicization of the electoral process. This policy is implemented with strict limits on campaign spending and strict rules for campaign behavior. Meetings are regulated and campaign rules are enforced by an electoral commission established in each school, with a formal appeals process in case of problems. The entire process was completed in a period of two months. 99 Inclusive Education for Children with Special Needs. Tramandaí is recognized for its efforts to ensure education is inclusive for all children with special needs, a topic discussed in detail in the section on Balneário Camboriú. Tramandaí introduced its own innovation in this area in the way it has ensured access to special services for all chlidren in the area, including those attending state schools or private schools. In the town center of Tramandaí, the municipal education system offers special services to all students who may need them, through a project known as CAPE, described in detail below. PROJETO CAPE – Center for Preventive Service to the Student C.A.P.E. provides services to students with special education needs. It is located in an old municipal school building called the Culture and Leisure Center, where there are four classrooms that provide special education services to children in early childhood education or the first four years of the fundamental cycle enrolled in municipal, state or private schools. The program has specialists in pedagogy, special education, psychology and speech and hearing. CAPE’s work focuses on children with visual deficiencies, speech and hearing difficulties, learning dysphasia, behavior problems and social interaction problems. It also offers projects to address motivation and self-esteem for students and teachers and workshops and seminars to encourage shared reflection among teachers and support their work. General Objectives of the Project: o to provide service to any child with special physical, psychological, social, cultural or emotional needs; o to preserve family, school and community ties; o to offer personalized service to individuals and groups; o to promote measures that will favor learning results and acceptance of the child by family; o to increase the chances of maintaining special-needs children in their schools of origin; o to seek the integration of parents, teachers and other responsible adults into activities developed by CAPE; o to stimulate, starting with an educational pedagogical plan, the regular, ongoing and progressive participation in CAPE activities o to prevent or minimize difficulties with communication and hearing. Beneficiaries of the Project: A total of 470 children receive services from CAPE each month, all students from municipal, state and private schools in Tramandaí. Specialists who work in the Center also visit schools through projects that involve attending the school community on site. 100 5.5. Campo Bom – Rio Grande do Sul Systematic Process for Obtaining Results in the Field. The single most important practice in Campo Bom is the implementation of one program: the Programa Gestão Nota 10, sponsored by the Ayrton Senna Foundation. This initiative is being implemented in 35 municipalities across Brazil, and its execution in Campo Bom has become a spectacular example of results-based management. This is the kind of management multinational corporations seek when they implement initiatives such as that advanced by management thinker Peter Senge and his idea of organizational learning (www.solonline.org), or the now famous “six sigma” approach originally proposed by Jack Welch and now applied by hundreds of organizations around the world (http://www.isixsigma.com/sixsigma/six_sigma.asp). An impact evaluation of Gestão Nota 10 in all the municipalities where it is being applied would be an invaluable study. One of the key elements of the program is the careful and systematic monitoring of a limited group of indicators (annual results are esablished and periodic checks are done), involving the parties whose behavior is expected to be influenced by the systematic search for results. Perhaps it is no coincidence that one of the famous quotes of Paulo Freire at the Education Secretariat was: “A successful action is always the result of a creative idea strongly desired by the people involved.” The monitoring process seeks to provide the knowledge and resources needed to resolve the problems and reach the objectives. It seems that a competitive processes of initiatives does not necessarily stimulate performance – the existing Career Plan and professional recognition were typical of municipalities in the region and there was no special program to reward excellent teachers. Just the opposite, it seems there was a direct approach to the basic facts of the problem—we need to improve education quality a we do this by applying the available resources in the most efficient way possible. Seven basic indicators are used, with data collected and analyzed periodically – student attendance, teacher attendance, number of days in the classroom, first-year literacy, completion rate for grades 1-4, completion rate for grades 5-8, and age-grade distortion rate. There are also a number of sub-indicators associated with these these indicators. For example, first-year literacy is monitored through a system that registers class by class, or teacher by teacher, the reading proficiency of at different reading levels – sounding out words, pausing between words, reading fluenty – and also for reading comprehension and writing. The program is accompanied by a system that provides relatively inexpensive reading material as libraries for each class. One of the less well-known indicators is the number of books read by each child per month. A standardized test for proficiency in Portuguese and Mathematics is administered to all students in grades 1 and 2 twice a year, which can validate the teacher’s own evaluation. It is also important to note that teacher evaluations are not done independently. Each teacher is assisted by a support team of specialists from the school and the SME. The strength of the system is in the availability of data on the dissemination of an indicator at various levels. For example, grade 2 reading performance can be compared to determine at a glance where attention is needed. Below is an example of an indicator of 101 the school-level report from October 2006, number of children reading fluently. This is just a small part of the data available. School Grade Cohort Total Students Reading Fluency Reading Fluency (Number) (Percentage) 431001 1 12 9 81.8% 431002 3 73 56 76.7% 431003 - 2 49 44 89.8% 431004 2 42 29 69.0% 431005 2 47 41 87.2% 431006 3 54 41 85.4% 431007 1 25 18 72.0% 431008 1 27 24 88.9% 431009 / 2 56 26 46.4% 431010 2 54 41 75.9% 431011 2 54 48 88.9% 431012 2 57 48 85.7% 431013 / 2 52 28 56.0% 431014 4 90 67 78.8% 431015 - 2 42 38 92.7% 431016 2 48 36 83.7% 431017 1 6 6 100.0% 431018 / 1 20 11 55.0% 431019 3 77 64 83.1% Total 38 885 675 78.1% At a glance you can see there are problems in schools 9, 13 and 18 and that schools 3 and 15 are doing well. (The only school to reach the 100% mark is an exceptional case because it had only 6 students in grade 2.) The report allows the municipal secretary to immediately focus on what is happening in the schools with weak performance, and immediately identify the schools with the strongest performance to see who or what is working well. The monthly monitoring of indicators offers constant feedback on the efficacy of the measure being used, and there are similar systems comparing classes and teachers within schools and students within classrooms. Knowledge about the health of the system develops in a systematic fashion, and corrective action is put in practice through meetings involving teachers and the pedagogical support team. Obviously this system cannot be put in practice in all municipalities since it is fairly intensive and demands effort and awareness on the part of teachers. All the same, it offers an excellent example of what can be done. It is interesting to note that the available information on education spending do not indicate in any way that llarge expenditures are being made in Campo Bom. According to data from the National Treasury, average spending was $R 908 per student in 2003. That compared with average spending per student of $R 702 per year in the sample of positive deviant municipalities we visited for this study. The Treasury data is probably somewhat overstated and patterns of spending may have changed in the last three years – this is yet another reason for more studies to be done on the cost efficiency of the program being implemented in Campo Bom. 102 Continuing Professional Development for Teachers and School Principals Monitoring and evaluation mean little if they are not accompanied by efforts to improve performance. In part, improved performance depends on material resources, for an example, children’s books,. However Campo Bom is a relatively wealthy municipality with philanthropic organizations and parent’s associations, and schools appear to have a large stock of existing materials. The main policy intervention in the municipality seems to be use of available resources for the continuing professional development of teachers. As in some other municipalities we visited, this system functions under a system of group support and training on an as-needed basis. Teachers and school principals have a calendar of meetings that includes constant sharing of pedagogical knowledge. Training takes place in workshops with an essential role for the team of pedagogy coordinators. The emphasis is on practical application rather than the use of specific concepts or methods. The municipal education secretary Mara Helena Dauberman reported that teachers, their pedagogical assistants and school principals enjoy absolute freedom and autonomy as to didactic methods, so long as they achieve expected results. Help is available when teachers need it, in terms of using different approaches in the classroom. This system of democratic and shared responsibility and the strong support for teachers are fundamental ingredients Campo Bom’s success. Interestingly, education authorities always reiterate that they are in a constant process of improvement. The Importance of Compensatory Education and Eclectic Aspects of Education. In other municipalities in our sample, we came across multiple education objectives reflecting concerns that went well beyond just student cognitive abilities. Given Campo Bom’s close, detailed attention to specific learning indicators, it might seem at first that the municipality is an exceptional case. Howver, this is not entirely accurate. The central learning objectives of Campo Bom seem almost too obvious to be described as system objectives. The compendium of projects implemented in 2005 began with the following mission statement: “To serve chlidren and adolescents, prioritizing those at-risk or in vulnberable social situations, offering after-school educational, sport, recreation, culture and leisure activities in an environment of mutual cooperation and respect, through highly engaging activities that develop skills, values and attitudes contributing to harmonious growth and to the development of citizenship.” Once again, we see a concern with ethics and citizenship and a concept of education as a force for promoting social equality. One of the town’s various programs – and it is small and merely symbolic, but it is a revealing example of the philosophy that inspires local educators – is a program to take students to the beach. The beach is just a few hours by car from this industrial town outside Porto Alegre, but educaors say many students have never seen the ocean. The objective of the beach trip was “to promote knowledge, leisure and culture, contributing to the meaningfulness of learning.” While this seems a symbolic contribution, contributions from other programs are quite concrete. One of these is a program that creates a learning environment for one entire day for children of all ages in 103 schools that have CAICA units – Centros de Atendimento Integral for Children and Adolescents. The CAICAs are located in the poorest neighborhoods and hthey provide spaces and installations for reading, sports, and leisure activities supervised by adults and with specific learning goals. In one of the visits to one of the CAICAs, we found students constructively enaged in a series of activities after school hours. Some programs seek to offer the types of activities normally taken for granted by the families of more economically advantaged children, such as chess clubs, dance and theater classes, art programs and so forth. One federally financed program, the Escola Aberta, uses school facilities during weekends and appeared to be quite popular. All these programs are seen as part of the responsibility of the government to offer options that are generally beyond the reach of poor families. 5.6. NOVO HAMBURGO – RIO GRANDE DO SUL Leadership in Action and the Power of Participation In Novo Hamburgo, there are many excellent policies and practices that merit in-depth discussion. Unfortunately, space limitations restrict us to discussing a single, but central, factor: how visionary leadership has been translated into action by the municipal education secretary, Maristela Guaselli. This is a fascinating story about the power of one person to stimulate change and how this can be done. Novo Hamburgo is an industrial city, with many leather and leather goods manufacturers – the city claims to be the “National Capital of Shoemaking” in a country known for making shoes. Novo Hamburgo shares a border with Campo Bom and is part of the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul. With 260,000 inhabitants, the municipal education system has 56 schools for the early childhood and fundamental cycles and 17 daycare facilities. Education, Training and Professional Experience Secretary Maristela, as she is known, had four years of experience as a teacher and 14 years as a school principal before she took the job of municipal education secretary. She was principal of a school that she herself helped to create, starting with little more than a modest building lacking adequate urban services. Her career as a school principal is impressive in its own right, but we will focus here on what she has done since taking the job of municipal education secretary. In 2002, Maristela took a leave of absence from her job as school principal to pursue personal and professional development by completing a Master’s degree in Special Education. Afterward, she took a job in the Special Education department of the SME. This experience, though brief, gave her a clear understanding of the internal politics and functioning of the department that later proved quite useful. 104 Assuming the Job of Municipal Education Secretary Shortly after Jair Henrique Foscarini was elected mayor in October 2004, he asked his team whether the job of municipal education secretary should be filled by someone from inside or outside the municipal government. He opted for someone who knew the system from the inside. The new mayor had no prior contact with Maristela, who he named education secretary along with some other cabinet members. But in the meantime, a legal challenge was brought against his election, which meant that neither he nor his new cabinet could assume office right away. The municipality was run by an interim government for three months, until the mayor won, again, in a specially convened election in which he carried 61% of the popular vote. The result of all this was that there was no time to form a transition team or to prepare for the change in administration. Maristela assumed her job under strong pressure to begin work immediately. This is perhaps the first lesson encountered in writings on leadership – adversity and stress bring out the best qualities of a leader. Obviously this is only speculation, given that there are many unknowns. The high energy required at the start could have been mere coincidence, but to us it seems it may have been one of those moments in which there was no time to plan but which would generates important implications far into the future. In this case, with the school year already underway, the moment demanded that decisions be taken quickly. The Value of Feedback – Gathering Information and Forming a Team One of the first things Maristela did as secretary was to organize a meeting with all employees and put an end to rumors that that she would bring in her own people and everyone else would be fired. At that stage, she did not have a single staunch ally. Instead of being fired, employees were surveyed. The instrument was a simple but very well designed survey that Maristela herself developed, typed and distributed to each one of the 80 employees in the three departments of education, administration and sports. She assured that people could give feedback confidentially or even anonomously in the survey. It was one page long with 10 questions (with a few variations from department to department). For each issue, i.e. organizational structure, physical infrastructure, calendar of meetings, and so forth, the survey asked for the respondent’s level of satisfaction with the current situation. It also asked if the respondent thought changes should or should not be made, and finally, it asked for specific suggestions. Interestingly, the survey also asked if the respondent had suggestions to make about changes in the workforce at the SME or among school principals. (Some principals were notorious for having unleashed political fueds and while giving inadequate attention to education services.) A final question asked respondents to suggest one priority issue to improve SME functioning. It is easy and perhaps illusory to attribute motive and purpose in hindsight, from the perspective of a study of positive deviant municipalities. But it should be remembered all this was done under tremendous pressure, literally from one day to the next. Maristela had no special training in designing surveys and she used no professional help from outside. Even so, the information she received through her survey was powerful. It illuminated real issues that would help her in administration – and even strategically motivated responses were useful. The responses to the survey, and especially to the question of which personnel should be changed and why, provided very interesting 105 information about the abilities of the people on her team and about the complex interpersonal relationships between them. At the same time, the idea that everyone’s opinion was important to the future functioning of the SME generated a wave of positive feeling toward the new boss. To maintain the confidentiality of this information was crucial. Even a small information leak would have been devastating. But the message that was communicated through the survey was that she was a leader of the highest compassion, integrity and ethics, someone who was worth following. Maristela had not yet finished collecting information. Next she introduced a second round survey, this time among the 74 school principals in the system. Later she would survey the municipal school system’s 1,500 teachers and employees, including cooks, doormen and janitors, whose opinions should also be included. The survey of teachers and school employees required a bit more planning and organization, and implementation of some changes had already begun. But the survey was so successful that it has been done annually ever since, with standards for measuring changes from year to year, and a process of 3600 feedback, and all this without the help of a single human resources advisor. Her school principals survey implemented in March 2005 had a single objective. She saw that the SME existed to provide services to schools, so that schools could better provide services to students, and she wanted to know how the work of schools was being done. Once again, beyond factual information about what was or was not working well, the survey must have generated the same feeling of admiration it generated among SME employees – that this was a leader who wanted to listen. When asked where the idea for the survey came from, and whether she had received formal leadership training or been influenced by any particular books, Maristela said no. All she had wanted to know was, for example, what the school principals expected from the SME. The next step was to analyze the results and categorize the suggestions that made sense and were viable in terms of implementation. Another point of feedback emerged here that comes straight out of the books on the complexity of human organizations and the exploration of the power of diversity. In a series of meetings, Maristela gave a summary of the responses to the survey and the decisions she was taking based on those responses, always leaving room for discussion and debate. It should be rememberd that all this was done in a short period of time, a few days after she took office – which must have required many hours of work and tremendous personal energy. On the other hand, it must also have eliminated the tedium often felt in bureaucratic organizations where such surveys are just another part of modern management practices.25 The velocity of change and discussion reinforced her credibility as a leader, demonstrating that the surveys were not merely a political exercise and that she was a leader to be taken seriously. Organizational changes were introduced in the SME, partly based on the surveys and partly based on Maristela’s own convictions about the usefulness of multidisciplinary teams. She reorganized the SME so that teams, instead of being grouped by function, 25 Perhaps it is no coincidence that Jack Welch, the father of leadership writings, speaks of the positive energy of the leader and of his capacity to energize others as a key ingredient for leadership and success, together with integrity and sincerity. (Winning, de Jack and Suzy Welch, Harper Business, 2005). 106 with each supposedly providing a specialized service to all schools, were organized geographically, with each team having its own pedagogy specialists, psychologist and so forth. Clear expectations were introduced for the teams to visit the schools so that teams were in the schools most days and school adminstrators did not have to come to the SME asking for help. After a few months, Maristela made changes to the design and decor of work stations in the SME, this time calling in outside professionals. The changes were meant to stimulate teamwork and collaboration and ultimately increase productivity.26 At the same time, she sought ways for employees to bond and build morale by sponsoring fun activities – even though at that moment people were already starting to change and the size of the SME was reduced from 80 to 60 people. The transformation in the culture of the organization, now solidly aligned behind the idea of providing services to schools, is notable given the speed and determination with which it was achieved. A more detailed survey would be needed to draw lessons that could be transformed into practices that cuold be adopted by other municipal education secretaries in similar situations, some of whom may not share Maristela’s personal energy and drive.27 Election of School Principals Maristela delivered another effective performance with the changes she made in school leadership. In the teacher survey, she not only asked teachers what they thought about the SME but also what they thought – confidentially – about principals, vice-principals and pedagogy coordinators in their schools. Based on the feedback provided by teachers and SME personnel, it became clear that any education reform program would require changes in some principals but that other principals were doing a good job. The problem was to figure out who was who. Time to gather more information. This time, however, Maristela decided to try elections instead of more surveys. The teachers in each school elected three candidates and election commissions were duly established to monitor the process and ensure there was no foul play. The elections were held in 10 schools at a time and, once again, Maristela used time to her advantage in a very interesting way. Elections were always held on a Friday (it took about two months to cover all schools), and the results were announced the same day. The three winning nominees then had to finalize a presentation over the weekend on how they would contribute to the school. On Monday, the candidates had to present their plans in an interview with Maristela and her team, and the best of the three was then selected as school principal. The idea of choosing three candidates is relatively common in Brazil, and it was a way to avoid conflict in the schools. The innovation in Novo Hamburgo was the time pressure on the candidates to prepare a presentation, which helped in selecting the most qualified principals. In Maristela’s view, serious candidates with something useful to contribute 26 Several of the ideas that were implemented at the SME in Novo Hamburgo are similar to those found in a well known success story: “The Southwest Airlines Way: Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve High Performance,” Judy Hoffer Gittell, McGraw Hill, 2003. 27 Maristela downplays the importance of her own personality and instead credits success to SME and school employees: “The more you involve people and seek their participation in planning, the more excited and dedicated they are to the work. They become partners in a game where they helped define. Dictatorship doesn’t work.” 107 would already have prepared a pedagogical plan before the election and would have used it to win support. Someone with the energy and commitment to give the plan a few final touches over the weekend was exactly the type of person she wanted – not someone whose work week ended Friday afternoon. In the interviews, she analyzed candidates’s professional qualifications as well as their opinions and actions on human resources, their knowledge of federal education law, their knowledge of theoretical and administrative aspects of pedagogy, and their records for applying that knowledge. Of the 74 school directors, 36 were changed – practically an administrative revolution. The fact that elections were held 10 schools at a time, although motivated by logistics, actually helped because this was a time of significant political opposition for Maristela. Some school principlas who were not nominated had powerful political patrons who tried to put pressure to the mayor. The mayor’s support in allowing Maristela to implement her plan with clearly defined and transparent methods and goals was extremely useful – without the support of the mayor she would not have been able to make the changes. Best of all, the way in which the changes were made, together with changes at the SME to make it a more productive and responsive organization, once again generated strong support for Maristela’s leadership. A situation that started out rife with conflict ended up turning the game in favor of her management plan to improve education services. Maristela introduced another small but interesting activity to unite SME and school personnel. She personally delivered commemorative cards to each school on its anniversary, and each school prinicipal received a “school birthday card.” This may seem a small gesture but it was part of a whole package of gestures that successfully created a closer relationship between the schools and the SME. Professional Development for Teachers The teachers survey Maristela administered when she first became municipal education secretary was composed of six fairly blunt questions. The first was “How has the SME contributed to the practice of the teacher’s profession?” Some of the suggestions (which sometimes required that additional pages be attached) came from teachers who did not wish to remain anonymous. Those who had interesting contributions to make were invited for individual meetings to discuss their ideas in greater detail. A collateral effect of this was that Maristela was able to identify dynamic and energetic individuals who she invited to come work for the SME – your ideas are great, do you think you could take charge of implementing that idea as director of this or that department? This idea seems to have come straight from the literature on leadership – if you come across an opportunity (in this case committed individuals), grab it immediately and increase in various ways the potential of the agents that can effect change. It was a challenge to the individual who was making suggestions – can you put your money where your mouth is and make this happen? – but it was also a decision with inherent risk. She was asking for a high level of commitment to leadership and goals – those who rose to the challenge were definitely not people who were just counting down the hours at work. Those who were not ready for the frenetic pace of work would feel out of place and leave the SME on their own, rather than trying to stop the tsunami. 108 Teachers soon received a memo from the SME on the five priority areas for SME operations, based on the surveys and subsequent discussions. They were: (i) evaluation, renovation and professionalization of the school administrations (including principals, vice-principals and pedagogy coordinators); (ii) professionalization, effective accompaniment and dedication of SME technical specialists to the process of teaching and learning in the classroom; (iii) ongoing professional development for teachers; (iv) identification of and provision of services to children with special needs; and (v) building effective relationships between teachers and SME personnel. A detailed calendar of professional development activities was developed, with a variety of schedules to suit different personal needs. The activities ranged from twice weekly workshops on teaching math and sciences, offered in partnership with a local university, to meetings every two months for developing lesson plans in every subject. A number of professional development activities were intiated in addition to the meetings – courses where teachers could enroll individually with different local universities; thematic discussion groups for projects and programs, in which each teacher could participate according to interest and availability; learning programs involving activities during school hours (for example, classroom observation by a pedagogy specialist followed by feedback as to what went well and what could be improved), among other initiatives. This report does not have space to discuss each of these professional development opportunities in depth; it is enough to say that teachers who previously had no options suddenly had a great variety of choices they could adapt to their own needs. The careful attention to planning and implementation of the programs does deserve brief mention. The location of periodic meetings – which rotated through the schools depending on where space was available – was an important way to encourage teachers and principals to visit other schools in the system, rare without this kind of incentive. Also, the SME auditorium was renovated, a renovation that included one small but very important detail. Moveable chairs were installed so seats could be moved around to allow the formation of working groups. This may seem insignificant but it was an important change from having chairs arranged in rows facing a stage in a room teachers visited only to attend presentations. The new space was also made suitable for parties and celebrations such as the year-end teachers party, where teachers participated in a staged performance organized by professionals – an activity that was meant to be fun but also to promote team building and a sense of professional connection. The reform and restructuring of the education system in Novo Hamburgo is an ongoing story, and it merits further study to be thoroughly recorded and analyzed. The information collected in the initial and follow-up studies, the reforms implemented and the performance of each of the schools – all these deserve careful study with regard to education administration and leadership, which promises to provide insighful ideas that can be transformed into effective policy mechanisms. It is hoped that this brief narrative, based on a two-day visit to Novo Hamburgo, offers some idea of the wealth of ideas that are being implemented to improve education quality. 109 5.7. PAROBÉ – RIO GRANDE DO SUL Evaluation Process and Pedagogical “Triage” Parobé is a municipality with 54,000 residents and 20 municipal schools. According to our quantitative analysis, students in Parobé performed exactly as would be expected on the Prova Brasil test given their socioeconomic attributes and the economic development and resources of the municipality. In Parobé, we found nothing particularly impressive with regard to vision and leadership. School principals are appointed rather than elected and the majority of institutional processes seemed to be in line with standards and norms for Rio Grade do Sul state and Brazil overall. This implies having a Career Plan according to which teachers were paid average salaries, selecting teachers through a public recruitment process, and maintaining a reasonable level of transparency and responsibility in administering the education system. One of the atypical characteristics of the education system in Parobé was its evaluation process for identifying students with special education needs. Every year, a highly qualified team of pedagogy specialists from the SME carries out an exhaustive evaluation of student performance in each school, using a process referred to as pedadgogical “triage.” In a one-day marathon, a team of specialists that includes professionals in student evaluation and special education, conducts lengthy consultations with school personnel. Each teacher is called to a meeting with the principal, the pedagogy coordinator and the school supervisor. Together they analyze the history of the students for each teacher, with an emphasis on age-grade distortion and students’ ability to keep up with the curriculum. The objective of this exercise is to identify students that need special attention and determine what can be done to help. In terms of short-term economic efficiency, if the objective is to improve average test scores, it might be more productive to target students with average or just below average performance who do not need special attention. Thus small changes per student, multiplied by the large number of students in this category, could perhaps lead to a general improvement in performance. On the other hand, if there are concerns regarding dispersion, it makes sense to target students lagging farthest behind in academic terms. In general, it costs more to care for those students who would face challenges under any circumstances, taking into consideration the variability in the nature and seriousness of disabilities. Typically, the number of students with disabilities is relatively small, and so improvements do not dramatically impact the overall performance of the system. Again, in Parobé, the students with the worst performance receive tremendous attention and care. In most cases, the students come from poor families or suffer some type of socioeconomic challenge, though this is not true for all students. As occurs in medical triage, each student’s degree of need for special attention drives the agenda following the meetings with teachers and specialists. In most cases, the strategy of the teacher is considered sufficient corrective action (i.e., special attention from the teacher with reports to parents when the student needs incentives to try harder). However, monitoring continues throughout the semester to ensure the initial diagnosis was correct. In some 110 cases, it is decided the student needs more special attention than the teacher can provide and the type of attention is identified. For example the teacher may need the help of a psychologist or a speech and hearing therapist or some other specialist. The conclusions are recorded in a document used for follow-up. In some extreme cases, it is concluded that ongoing special evaluations are necessary, with the help of parents and medical specialists as required. This evaluation process is repeated annually, with systems in place to address problems that come up during the year. The practice of pedagogical triage needs to be studied carefully. For example, how many municipal systems practice it? What is the distribution and reach of the problems identified? How effective is follow-up and what are the long-term trends in each municipality? If a large number of students are being identified with problems that are treatable – and even many serious problems are – an effective policy can be developed to address the issue. In this way, students being left behind because the teacher already has enough problems with average students could benefit by discovering their own potential to contribute to society. In this case, education would contribute to increasing equality. 5.8. GOIANA – PERNAMBUCO – ZONA DA MATA NORTE Municipal administration and Political Commitment – the mayor of Goiana (PE) was recently elected. The previous mayor was forced out of office in July 2006 following two years of political turmoil, and elections were held almost immediately. The new mayor was a member of the Municipal Education Council (the CME) and he invited the CME president to serve as the new Municipal Education Secretary, at the head of the SME. Because the new mayor knows and has worked in the education sector, he is generally expected to emphasize the its value and support the needed structural changes to improve its services. The Municipal Education System Vision and objectives for municipal education – It was not possible to identify the new municipal administration’s vision and objectives for the education sector. Historically, the municipality has had serious problems in education coverage and improving education quality. These were the stated priorities of the current administration. Municipal Education Plan – There is an existing Municipal Education Plan, but it has not been approved by the Municipal Legislative Council (Vereadores). Given the recent change in administration, the SME plans to revise the Municipal Education Plan and submit a new version to the Municipal Legislative Council for approval. Municipal Education Council – the Municipal Education Council appeared to be a reasonably active body. The current mayor and municipal education secretary were previously both members of the CME. We were unable to establish in concrete terms how the CME supports municipal education or what interferes most directly in improving measures of municipal education performance. 111 Leadership in Education – The municipal education secretary appeared to be a dynamic person with broad experience in education in the municipality. He worked as a teacher in the state education system and served as director of schools and as president of the local CME. He also has broad knowledge of the municipal education sector, of which he is also a permanent employee. Given his short time as municipal education secretary, his priorities are to put together a core team in the SME, to put together an overview of the main problems facing the municipal education sector, and to define a program of priorities that can be implemented in the 24 months remaining for the municipal administration. The municipal education secretary sees these as considerable challenges given the precarious situation of municipal schools that, like other municipal services, suffered from the political turmoil that dominated before the new administration was elected. The SME Team - The SME inherited a large number of employees from the previous administration, approximately 60 in all. At this time, the SME is revising its organizational structure in order to define a better management model for municipal education. To support in these initial months, the Education Secretary is relying on consultants with significant experience in other SMEs. All appear to recognize that they will must be pragmatic and aim for goals that can be achieved in the short time available. Pedagogical Plan and Organization of the school system – The organization of the school system follows the normal patterns and no innovations such as school cycles were introduced in the system. The pedagogical plan also follows the parameters for curriculum established by MEC with no additional efforts in teacher preparation until now. The SME’s current priority is to implement the PEG – the School Administration Program. The program aims to develop a system of bi-weekly encounters with the 19 pedagogy assesors distributed among the schools and with the administration of each teaching institution. With this program, the SME aims to revitalize the schools and train the school administrations in identifying and solving the main problems in the municipal education sector. School administrative positions are political appointments. Even so, almost all school principals have university degrees, some have completed post-graduate preparation, while two or three completed only secondary education. Through the PEG, the SME aims to intiate the development of individual school plans and build closer working relationships with the school councils that exist in each school. The SME aims to use quality indicators established by the MEC to support the monitoring of schools in this program. The SME team that participated in the interview viewed improving data analysis capacity as fundamental to the enhancement of decision-making. Statistical services were weak, and the kind of data analysis needed to support the definition and monitoring of municipal education policies was lacking. This was evident in the difficulty employees had providing consistent information about which students benefitted from the Bolsa Família program. 112 Teacher Hiring and Training – teachers are hired via consurso (public competition in which a number of candidates qualify by passing an exam), and the last concurso was held in 2004. All candidates who qualified to teach grades 1-4 and Portuguese and mathematics have been hired, which indicates future concursos are needed to meet the demand for teachers. There is a Career Plan for teachers which also needs some adjustments and revisions. In-service training for teachers is not yet being done in a systematic fashion. Mainly it is being done only when there is a need to implement a specific project. Recently teachers were trained to implement the EJA Youth and Adult Education program and also to develop Early Childhood education activities. Teachers also participated in a literacy training program called Proletramento, sponsored by the MEC. There was minimal participation by municipal teachers in training programs developed by the State Education Secretariat. Also among in-service training programs, 31 teachers from the municipal system participated in the Distance Training Course in Sciences offered through a partnership with the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco. Main program developed by the SME - The SME does not participate in federal programs supported by international agencies (i.e. the World Bank or the InterAmerican Development Bank). Fundescola has not been implemented, and for this reason the municipal school system does not use products linked to the program. Stil, the SME is aware of these programs through encounters with other municipalities and with State Education Secretary representatives. Meantime, the SME implements other projects with the support of federal or state funds, including: (i) EJA Youth and Adult Education with federal support; (ii) Alfabetizar com Sucesso and Se Liga e Acelera with state support; (iii) Todas as Letras, with support from the CUT labor confederation and oil company Petrobrás; (iv) Special Education with state support; and (v) Escola de Fábrica with support from CEFET - federal. A large number students in the municipal school system also receives support from the Bolsa Família conditional cash transfer program, and the SME tracks participation in this program. During its remaining months in office, the SME intends to prioritize: a review of the infrastructure and equipment needs of all schools; the initiation work on schools requiring rehabilitation; and the development of incentives to improve the pedagogical performance and administration of schools. Visit to the Schools – Two schools were visited, one on the outskirts of the municipality and one in the center. The school on the outskirts offered only grades 1-4 of the fundamental education cycle , and the school obtained a mean score on the Prova Brasil test that was significantly higher than the mean for Brazil. Specifically, the average Prova Brasil score for grade 4 students was 10 percentage points higher than the average score for grade 4 students nationwide. The school has extremely precarious infrastructure. Specifically, there is no space for leisure or play, no library, and sanitary facilities that are inadequate both in quality and in terms of the number of students to be served. The school principal was appointed, as all 113 other principals in the municipality. There is no significant community participation in the school. Still, now the school has a pedagogical assessor that appears to support teachers in instructional activities, including in the preparation of a School Journal, a program which has received awards from local radio stations. Meantime, two classrooms caught our attention: the first where the program Acelera was offered to students out of synch with the age for their grade. Although the classroom facilities were of lower quality that those used for the Acelera program in other schools, the teacher had been trained to develop the content of the program and had adopted the program methodology. The other classroom that caught our eye was the grade 4 classroom where students, despite lacking maps, books, adequate seating and much of the other basic equipment that makes the classroom experience engaging, proved to be total partipation in activities being developed by the teacher. The teacher appeared to have a good deal of experience, mastery of classroom administration and the ability to motivate students to participate actively in school activities. It gave the clear impression that the superior test results of grade 4 students in this school were due in large part to the role of this teacher. The second school visited, in the center of town quite near to the SME, offered the full fundamental education cycle. The school was in a state of total disrepair. The school principal and other administrators were not there at the time of the visit; an assistant administrator took charge of disciplinary functions and was trying to calm down the students, who were demonstrating a total disregard for the teachers. It is not surprising that the result of this school ranked at the low end of the spectrum. It was not possible to gather information about this school’s programs, but the need for a profound restructuring of the institution’s administration and pedagogical model was evident. A preliminary analysis of Goiana’s education system allowed us to identify some factors that could be responsible for the municipality’s low performance on indicators of learning: a) Municipal Administration and Political Commitment – the significant political turmoil and discontinuity suffered by the municipality had a strong negative impact on the organization and development of the education sector and much needs to be done to recover and improve services. On the other hand the political turmoil had very deep roots. Despite being near the state capital and having a reasonable economic situation, and despite having higher level schools, Goiana does not have a public library (the only library is supported by a philanthropic organization) and investment in information technology is lacking. These and other shortcomings of the sector make it difficult to improve schools, especially in rural areas. Immediate socioeconomic needs are of such an order that education stands little chance of being a priority for the new administration, in spite of the mayor’s ties to the sector. b) Leadership- despite the fact that the mayor has experience in and enthusiasm for the education sector, given so many competing needs and the short political timeframe, it will be difficult to implement all the education innovations that the municipal system schools so badly need. The municipal education secretary and 114 the SME team are keenly aware of the limits they face and they plan to pursue only the most urgent priorities to start the process of improving the physical conditions of schools and their pedagogical and administrative management. c) System administration – as regognized by the new administration, there is a great need for change in the administration of schools and the school system. To make the necessary changes, information systems must first be improved to facilitate analysis and decision-making in the sector. Those schools producing good results seem to be doing so because of the efforts of individual teachers, not because of collective efforts at the municipal or school levels. d) Community Participation – although School Councils exist they do not seem to participate in stimulating change and improvement in education indicators. 5.9 ALTO ALEGRE DO PINDARÉ – MARANHÃO Qualified and engaged municipal education secretary in favor of quality. Municipal education secretary Altemar Lima earned a university degree in Language and Literature and a master’s degree in Education. His master’s thesis explored reasons for regional school absenteeism and grade repetition,28 and he also completed a special focus on Education Technology. His experience in public administration began in 1997, when he was invited to take the job of municipal education secretary. Previoulsy, he had been secretary of Regional Education Management in the nearby municipality of Santa Inês. He later became State Education Secretary, but because of political misunderstandings he did not serve out his term. He returned to the post of municipal education secretary in Alto Alegre do Pindaré in 2005. The best words to describe the municipal school system of Alto Alegre do Pindaré are: effort, dedication, commitment and quality. What first attracts notice is the school system’s concern with making education an instrument for the intellectual and economic emancipation of children and young people. This is a school system that documents all its pedagogical and administrative actions. A report on municipal public education policies, for the 1997-2006 period, was elaborated and delivered to the MEC. Among other things, the report contained a local analysis of the municipal performance on the Prova Brasil test. Another interesting aspect of the outstanding quality in municipal education is due, in the eyes of the education secretary, to a pact formed nine years ago by members of a segment of the town’s political and intellectual elite. The pact members made a commitment to gain political power and then to establish certain goals in the local legal framework. 28 LIMA, Altemar. A Explicação da Repetência e Evasão pelas Vítimas do Fracasso Escolar. EDUFMA, 1997. 115 These goals are now established and legally guaranteed so that the continuity of the policies is assured, even in future administrations. In the words of the municipal education secretary, quality education means an “education that teaches and that the student learns, everything else is just window dressing.” And while the municipal school system is rated as good, the true test of quality, according to the education secretary, is having school buildings where they are needed and having them all perform equally. Public and private sector partnerships: Incentives for the reading and qualification of teachers as central axes of municipal education policy The school is the focus of municipally education policy. With the purpose of guiding the municipal education policy, the mayor and the SME published a report on education policy over the last decade, the Relatório de Políticas de Educação (1997-2006). This report contains the main policy programs and actions and an overview of the evolution of education results in Alto Alegre do Pindaré. According to this report, there are five main pillars of education policy for the 2005-08 administration: (i) to address illiteracy; (ii) to expand physical school infrastructure; (iii) to provide ongoing in-service professional training; (iv) to address absenteeism and grade repetition; and (v) to value and reward teachers. To make programs and activities supporting these five pillars viable, the municipal administration will seek partnerships with the Federal University of Maranhão, the State University of Maranhão, SEBRAE, EMBRAPA, CDI, OCIP and with private sector mining company Vale do Rio Doce. The municipality also formed partnerships with the federal government (one program offers free eye exams and glasses) and with the state government. Two SME initiatives with Companhia Vale do Rio Doce deserve mention: the Casa do Professor Program and the Jegue-Livre Project. A Casa do Professor is part of a wider program called Escola que Vale,29 which is sponsored and run by Vale do Rio Doce in partnership with Municipal Education Secretariats, the Vale do Rio Doce Foundation and CEDAC (Centro de Educação e Documentação para Ação Comunitária). The central focus of this program is learning to read and write, as well as ethical and aesthetic values, which according to the program are fundamental to developing effective social and interpersonal relationships. Casa do Professor consists of a large space with appropriate equipment and supplies to carry out ongoing in-service training and to serve as a gathering place for education professionals, given that it is open to all. The Casa do Professor in Alto Alegre do Pindaré opened in 2003. It is not just used for ongoing in-service training for teachers, it is also used to bring together students, the community and the school. Through Casa do Professor, the Jegue-Livro project was created to give children from the community incentives to develop the habit of reading. 29 More information on the Escola que Vale program is available at the following Web site: http://www.escolaquevale.org.br/pg_int_1.php?pid=32 116 Source: Secretaria Municipal de Educação de Alto Alegre do Pindaré/Maranhão. Jegue-Livro is a moveable library project developed by the school principals who participate in the Escola que Vale’s Teacher Training Program. A donkey loaded with baskets of books travels around all the rural and urban areas of town. Once a month, the donkey departs from community schools and heads for the busiest spot in town, generally a plaza, where a blanket is spread on the ground and covered with books and literature for all ages. Magazines, newspapers, dictionaries, and colored pens and paper are also laid out, all available for people to use. In rounds conducted by the Young Readers Program (Jovens Leitores),30 children, adults and the elderly discover, re-discover or share with others the enchantments of reading. Reading rounds also often take place in the Casa do Professor. Source: Secretaria Municipal de Educação de Alto Alegre do Pindaré/Maranhão. 30 Jovens Leitores is a program that aims to stimulate the habit of reading inside schools. It was developed as a way to make use of the free hours students had when their teachers were attending in-service training meetings as part of the Escola que Vale program. 117 Evaluation System: Learning from the Success of other States The Nossa Escola nos Trilhos program This program was implemented in the municipality in 2005. It is an evaluation system that seeks to periodically accompany education performance, mainly with respect to teachers, identifying positive and negative aspects with the idea of improving the quality of municipal education. The program is based on the Nova Escola program developed by the Rio de Janeiro State Education Secretary and was adapted to local conditions in Alto Alegre do Pindaré. In Rio de Janeiro, the Nova Escola program presented a plan for Institutional Evaluation in the schools of the state education system. The proposed objective was to evaluate state schools based on an evaluation of performance and school administration. The program aimed to “provide subsidies for the elaboration of public policies; to create incentives for using evaluation processes that would contribute to independent school development and reform; and to establish rewards for these efforts.” (D.O 12/01/2001). The guiding principles of the Nova Escola program are: the universalization of education; the democratization of education administration with broader community participation; enhanced appreciation and rewards for education professionals; higher education levels and lower illiteracy rates; a decrease in school absenteeism and grade repetition, and social inclusiveness.31 According to the report, Relatório de Políticas de Educação (1997-2006), the specific objectives of the program are: o To visit education institutions monthly in order to measure the indiactors established by the program; o To hold bimonthly meetings in the education institutions with all those involved in the education proess to discuss the learning results obtained; o To offer in-service training for education professionals with a weak performance in their teaching duties; o To disseminate information about successful education experiences; o To reward education professionsals who perform well. The SME establishs indicators to be analyzed during visits to the schools by the program’s pedagogical specialists and by the program coordinator. The pedagogical specialists are responsible for the monitoring and supervision of schools and also for the elaboration of monthly reports on the performance of individual schools on the indicators established by the SME. These indicators are defined in accordance with members of the 31 See LEAL, Maria E. Pereira (2004). O Programa Nova Escola – Avaliação Institucional nas Escolas da Rede do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (2000-2001). Rio de Janeiro: Universidade Federal Fluminense, Master’s Dissertation. 118 school community. These actors to be evaluated in this program are: teachers, students, school principals and the school itself. 5.10. SÃO PEDRO DA ALDEIA – RIO DE JANEIRO An Integrated View of Education: From Daycare to Higher Education According to the 1988 Constitution, the primary spheres of education responsibility for municipal governments are: early childhood education, where municipalities hold sole responsibility, and the fundamental education cycle, where responsibility is often shared with State Governments. In São Pedro da Aldeia, the broad vision and active engagement of municipal education secretary Evaldo Souza goes well beyond this legal mandate. Since the current municipal education secretary took office, education in São Pedro da Aldeia has been undergoing a series of positive changes. The municipality has a Municipal Plan for the education sector that includes everything from early childhood education to tertiary education. Even though education spending is limited to 25% of the municipal budget, the SME enjoys great autonomy to innovate and experiment with alternative methods of finding funding, and all indications suggest education spending is becoming more efficient. One example is school transportation. The school system had only one school bus under the previous administration, but now it has eight, giving children from rural and outlying urban areas daily access to schools. Paved roads and urban infrastructure projects are currently the main demands of the community, given that only 80km of the 300km of municipal roads are paved. But even though the Municipal Government does not invest in secondary or higher education, the current administration’s interest in education had led to important achievements. One way to verify the importance of education for the current administration is to understand the political relationship between the Municipal and State governments. Secondary education and mainly higher education became important goals for the current administration after compiling data on the municipality’s precarious education situation. This pressured the State Government (through cooperation channels created in the LDB federal education law) to attend to the problem with higher and technical education in the municipality. This in turn led to a consortium of universities in São Pedro da Aldeia, with the establishment UFF and the Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ) programs in 2002. Professional preparation in the basic education cycle also became a reality with the introduction of language courses and workshops such as “bakery school” and “restaurant school.” Thus the current State Government was sensitive to the local demands for advances in professional education and higher education. Today, São Pedro da Aldeia has a full education cycle from pre-school to university. The Municipal Education Plan, or PME, explicitly mentions different levels of education and education for students with special needs; it is not concentrated exclusively on the early childhood and fundamental cycles. The PME also emphasizes increased attention to community demands for early childhood education – daycare centers and literarcy skills 119 instruction – especially in the poorest areas. In the fundamental education cycle, the main concerns are expanding the supply of spaces in schools and establishing a school model that includes information technology, equipment and furniture as well as basic infrastructure and sanitation. As for secondary education, the municipality promises to pass along to the State Government local demand for pre-vestibular courses and instruction for the three grades of the secondary cycle. Regarding higher education, the municipality pledges to inform the Federal and State Governments about local demand for programs and institutions. In effect, this vision of the municipal education secretary contributes in large part, to establishing forms of cooperation that are not only horizontal – between the SME and schools in the system – but also vertical. We explore this issue further in the next sub- section. Using Vertical and Horizontal Cooperation to improve quality in education: The SME’s concern with all levels of education has clearly evolved into a partnership with the State Government, especially considering concerns with increasing the supply of secondary education and offering university courses and programs. But São Pedro da Aldeia has also been busy developing horizontal partnerships with other municipalities. The SME founded an inter-municipal education consortium of 11 cities, conceiving of education as a regionally integrated service. The municipality also leads a commission of five nearby municipalities that meet for seminars to study and evaluate alternative funding sources for education spending and investment in the region. Internally, the SME is also seeking support from oil company Petrobras and from Viva Rio and other NGOs. The vertical integration of levels from early childhood to university education was managed through a direct channel from the municipal mayor to the cabinet of the Rio de Janeiro State Government. This is how the SME was able to mobilize state support for establishing more secondary schools and tertiary programs. A point of relevance for understanding this is the leadership position the SME of São Pedro da Aldeia holds in the surrounding Lakes Region in the attempt to form a consortium and seek alternative funding sources, because the independence of these cities in funding, institutional and professional support could weaken the unique position of the Regional Education Coordinator. The SME sometimes intervenes in schools that present serious problems constituting a challenge for the municipality. Recently, in regions where crime rates had risen, inside and outside schools, the SME and the Municipal Secretariat for Security partnered to implement actions addressing problems with violence. For another example, problems with precocious sexual activity and pregnancy became evident in some schools in the poorest regions. In such cases, the SME tries broader mechanisms such as workshops, activities, psychological support in the schools and cooperation with the Municipal Health Secretariat. Regarding support for special students, Education and Culture Teams were created and implemented by the Programa Segundo Tempo. Grade repeaters and students with 120 significant age-grade distortion are encouraged to develop artisitic, athletic or cultural talents as a tool to improve self-esteem. These students also receive academic support to keep up with classes and content. One of these teams is located in the municipality’s historically problematic rural area, in order to address high absenteeism and low performance indices. The other team is located in an urban outskirts area located between two poor neighborhoods and plagued by a number of problems. Sports and arts educators attend attends more than 300 children. As for students with disabilities, the SME partnered with the Benjamin Constant Institute and the National Institute of Education for the Deaf in order to train interested municipal teachers in forming part of a special team to address these issues. The coordination of the team is in the hands of a pedagogy specialist with more than 20 years of experience in these issues and, in partnership with the SME, the teachers are participating in training workshops and courses on working with hearing- or visually-impaired children. There is also a team developing its own project for autistic and intellectually disabled children in partnership with the Municipal Health Secretariat. Despite the obstacles faced by the SME, such as the scarcity of resources and the limited space in early childhood education, significant education advances have been achieved. From the perspective that a good education system should involve the community in school problems, increase school hours and the access of children to schools, provide in in-service professional training and invest in acquiring quality equipment, São Pedro da Aldeia in five years effectively double the number of students enrolled from 7,000 to 13,500, transporting 800 students to school daily. In the beginning of the administration, the SME had just one bus in the rural area and it now has eight buses to transport children in the rural and urban outskirts areas. Another positive result was the decline in age-grade distortion rates – from 55% to 48% in the rural area, and from 40% to 36% in the urban area – one year into the administration. School absenteeism dropped from 14% to 5%, owing to the attention to transportation, help from social programs like Bolsa Família. The current administration, which started in 2001, found schools with basic sanitation and infrastructure problems. From 1993 to 2000, municipal governments had not built a single new school and had only renovated a few schools in the rural area. In roughly six years, the current administration built two community daycare centers and seven new schools, focusing on the poorest regions and areas with high age-grade distortion rates. New schools and those old schools which have been renovated have computer laboratories, reading rooms, television monitors and DVD players for educational films. The SME implemented an Arts School and Sports School and Education and Culture Centers to encourage the development of children’s artistic talents. The SME also partnered with the State Government to implement technical education projects (FAETEC), distance learning for higher education (CEDERJ) and university preparation courses in poor communities. School Autonomy and SME Supervision: The SME in São Pedro da Aldeia does not have a municipal pedagogical plan; rather based on federal education guidelines and on 121 the principle of school autonomy, it established incentives for principals, teachers, pedagogy coordinators and administrators in each school to evaluate their school’s strengths and weaknesses and institute their own political-pedagogical plans (PPP). The SME develops only broad guidelines to establish basic principles rather than a uniform pedagogical plan. This approach is meant to give schools the flexibility to communicate with the local community and develop strategies for addressing challenges that are participative and germane to local conditions, not imposed from outside. Thus municipal education policy gives schools the autonomy to develop a PPP, allowing parents and local associations to establish effective channels of communication with the school administration. In this sense, the student becomes a subject of the education process insofar as his or her needs guide the actions of each school rather than the individual will of the school principal. In this way, the SME seeks to make education a useful source of knowledge that is relevant to the lives of students. Proof of this is election as an instrument of choice for school principals, which puts public opinion at the center of decision-making. On the other hand, the school administration receives courses in school administration to better attend local needs. Since 2004, resources for school nutrition programs are decentralized and each school administers the funds according to its own needs. The school also has complete autonomy in managing funds linked to the federal PDDE program (Programa Dinheiro Direto na Escola), which are not channeled through the SME. The SME does oversee school maintenance, and has a team with trucks and equipment for addressing day-to-day problems. As for school supervision, the SME provides one pedagogy supervisor to every three schools. The municipal education secretary asks schools to maintain a dialogue with the pedagogy supervisors to fine-tune goals and to share experiences. The SME realizes that it would be ideal for each school to have its own pedagogy supervisor, but budget limitations preclude this as an option. With the expansion of the municipal school system, and growing demands rom teachers, school principals and the local community, the SME is overworked and school visits by SME personnel are an increasing challenge. Students, teachers, parents, pedagogy coordinators, school principals and school supervisors are knocking on door of the SME every day with a great variety of problems. There is little time left over to go out and visit the schools and to see how each operates first-hand. With so much to be done and very few changes to the technical team over the last two years, it is increasingly difficult to visit the schools. Faced with such a heavy workload, one way to increase the capacity of the SME team. is regular in-service training. In addition to a career plan, the SME awards 5% salary bonuses for every 200 hours of training courses, and there is no limit to how many hours of training personnel can complete. Training courses are quite varied, and traditionally the SME offers incentives for taking courses in pedagogical methods, methods for evaluating student learning, disciplinary content, education programs for youths and 122 adults, school library organization interpersonal relations in the school, and also education inclusion. The SME itself organizes these training courses itself, or offeresincentives for personnel to take courses at local universities, providing reimbursement for transportation, lodging and other costs. The other way to speed and facilitate work was to organize the SME into teams with precisely defined areas of responsibility. For example, there is an infrastructure team, a maintenance team, a personnel team and a financial team. In this way, the SME manages to harmonize the work of the overall organization, avoiding overlap of responsibilities and conflicts of interest. Through training and organization, the SME manages to develop more efficient methods for evaluating school and student performance, through pedagogical meetings, visits and encounters in which themes can be discussed in a technical and scientific manner. On the other hand, the SME manages to evaluate supervisors’ performance in their responsibilities for overseeing schools. Using reports from the most closely linked team, supervisors’ promoted aca combination of professional qualifications, length of service and number of training courses completed. There are also financial incentives for rewarding the performance of supervisors. Civil Society and Community engagement in improving education quality: The participation of civil society groups and the community in geneal begins with the setting of budget priorities. However, São Pedro da Aldeia does not use a participatory process for developing its budget. The SME manages financial issues through public bidding processes with payments coming from the municipal government. There is a reasonable amount of control over what are the costs, what are the needs and demands, and what can be achieved with available funds. These questions are discussed with the community through annual strategic planning meetings, through which teachers, school principals and supervisors can become informed about the entire financial process. But there is no opening regarding the municipal education budget because there is no participatory budget process. The allocation of resources is decided by the SME through an analysis of the needs and demands brought by the community to the school councils and to the Municipal Education Council, the CME. That is, for the community there is an avenue for registering opinions and complaints, but no avenue for actually participating in allocating resources. During the mayor’s first term, citizen’s associations participated actively in elaborating social priorities and in identifying the main challenges in the municipality, including the question of education. Based on that, the mayor sketched out a long-term plan (which may be completed as he was re-elected for a second term) to accommodate these demands on the municipal budget. Through the CME, the Municipal Legislative Council (Vereadores), the local press and community radio, the SME has continued working throughout the administration to address problems in education. 123 The CME is active and recently debated and approved an Art School project and the opening of a private school in the municipality. It is currently evaluating possible revisions to the statutes governing schools in the municipal system. The CME also has a commission that specifically oversees resources linked to the national fund FUNDEF (now FUNDEB). Meantime, the SME thinks the CME does not function in a clear and transparent manner. In the SME’s view, the relatively insignificant popular participation simple mirrors the broader national weakness in civil society organizations. During the current mayor’s first term, the SME went out and heard the demands of the community and, as stated, opened channels of communication between schools, the SME and the community. Currently there is open communication between residents, parents, teachers and principals. There are certain autonomous bodies within the municipal system that are well coordinated for handling local problems locally and so larger problems are passed directly to the SME. There was no Ombudsman during the administration of the previous mayor and the main way for the public to voice complaints was through local radio, which became a platform for sensationalist charges and challenges. Only rarely were problems solved. When the current administration first came to office in 2001, the new mayor established an Ombudsman’s Office and an 0800 number citizens could call to express doubts, suggestions or complaints. Each secretary under the mayor has time set aside to respond to citizens. With respect to school administration, the community also participates and interferes in decisions on school operations. Schools are managed by an administrative team made up of the principal, vice-principal, pedagogy supervisor, school inspector and teachers. To occupy a position on the school administrative team, one must have a university degree; the principal is chosen through an election in the school community. Within the philosophy of community involvement in school administration, the School Council is not named by the CME but rather by the school community. The School Council is made up of school employees, parents, students and teachers, and its role is to support the school on issues of maintenance and the administration of funds. The School Council also approves the PPP for the school and ii has the freedom to promote cultural, sport and pedagogical activites. The SME also allows the School Council to seek alternative sources of funding for school activities. The distribution of funds in the municipal school system does not take school performance into consideration. The SME believes performance is a variable affected by a number of factors, and that funds are not necessarily the most central factor. Questions such as teachers, community involvement and the PPP can be equally important in the SME view. Funds are distributed in an equitable manner, in part to end a policy of preferences and benefits used by the previous administration that is seen as largely political in motivation. Thus, when funds are inadequate to support a given goal across the entire school system, the SME seeks to determine the specific needs of each school and use this as a basis to 124 divvy up the available funds. The criteria vary and each case is analyzed individually. There is no overall guideline dictating that schools with certain attributes will have the right to a specific amount of funds. In this context, considerable care is taken to ensure transparency regarding the allocation of funds so that the entire community will be know the reasons behind SME actions. Municipal Education Plan: Concrete goals and objetivos for the short, medium and long-term The instruments used by the municipality for education planning are: the PPA and the PME. In both plans, the SME was key to closing the accord because it performed the role of articulating opinions, and also organizing encounters and seminars to discuss the issue. The PME was approved by the Municipal Legislative Council (Vereadores) in 2003 after two and half years of wide-ranging discussions and a series of meetings with parents, teachers, supervisors, principals and education specialists.32 An assembly with more than 700 people and 65 delegates, including members of the Public Ministry (Public Attorney), approved a document containing a diagnosis of the problems and challenges of the municipal education sector and a number of strategies and plans to reach a set of established goals. Due to the weight of public opinion in developing the document, and with the aval of educators and other professionals linked to the municipal school system, the Municipal Legislative Council (Vereadores) approved the document without making a single change. The PME is divided in two parts. The first part contains a diagnosis of the municipal education sector including access and student flow indicators, specifically measuring education coverage, grade repetition, school absenteeism among other things. This first part of the PME also included evidence of improvement in these indicators and some possible explanations for the improvement. Explanations included the increase in enrollment rates in the rural area of the municipality and the expansion of school transportation to serve 800 children per day.33 The increase in enrollment, in turn, might stem from the reform and expansion of schools, which increased the available education supply. These are just a few examples of the indicators and explanations that make up the first part of the PME. The second part of the PME outlines the main objectives of the plan and also establishes goals for the short-term (3 years), medium-term (6 years) and long-term (10 years) for reaching these objectives. The goals and objectives are well articulated. The six main objectives are as follows: I) To increase the education level of the general population; II) To improve the quality of education at all education levels; 32 The Municipal Education Plan was passed as Lei N. 1.763 on 7 January 2004. The only annex attached to the document is a timetable of these meetings and participants. 33 Na Gestão anterior havia apenas 1 ônibus, ao passo que, atualmente, existem 8 ônibus. 125 III) To decrease inequalities in terms of the access and permanence of students in schools IV) To make public education adminstration more democratic; to increase the participation of education professionals and the community in decisions; V) To appreciate and reward teaching professionals; and VI) To continue progressing toward the universalization of Basic Education. These objectives are broad and generic, while the goals linked to them are more narrowly focused. The PME also describes some of the goals that might have been included but were not and explains why. The Municipal Education Plan is evaluated according to instruments such as Prova Brasil and other data collected by the SME or obtained from other sources such as the IBGE. 5.11. APARECIDA – SÃO PAULO Commitment on the Part of the Municipal Education Secretary – Municipal Education Secretary Terezinha Amaral R. de Soares has worked in the education sector for more than five decades, since 1950. She is trained in Pedagogy and her family history is linked to education: she has relatives who are teachers, school principals and who have worked in adult literacy training programs. She herself began working in education before she even began to study pedagogy. The secretary is respected for her 50 years of experience in the education sector, for her performance in her current job and especially for her history as a teacher, a successful career during which she taught a good part of today’s adult population in Aparecida. The respect with which she is treated on the streets and in the schools demonstrates a admiration that goes well beyond mere respect for her current job. Secretary Terezinha was already well known before becoming Municipal Education Secretary. Besides having taught so many residents, she was also known for having acted on behalf of a student who passed the university entrance exam (vestibular) while in grade 10, but then was not accepted into the university program. Because of the direct intervention of Secretary Terezinha with the State Council, the legality of the case became known, and ultimately the student was accepted into the program. The Invitation to assume the position of municipal education secretary was made personally, with the mayor-elect paying a visit to Terezinha with the plan to equip all municipal schools with quality instruction. Although Secretary Terezinha had a small team and limited funds, engagement and commitment to education are important. Her engagement found form in policies of training and fine-tuning of quality education provided to students in the municipal school system. There are education programs and education partnerships that originated with the 126 work of the secretary. Education, in her words, is a commitment to children and to their future. She could not have made this more clear in the interview. Guided by a broad vision of the meaning of education and learning, Secretary Terezinha stimulates and provides incentives for activities that go well beyond ordinary ideas about the role and implementation of education. Her constant concern with improving the physical and intellectual conditions for instruction, her engagement in artistic and musical projects as well as her conern with physical education and well-being of students are clear proof of her ideas. Secreatary Terezinha has a forceful personality and equally strong ideas and attitudes. She was even called on to clarify some of her statements by a state education leader because she openly criticized policies of forced progression through grade levels. She views this approach as a system of “inclusion that excludes” because it allows children to graduate when they are not properly prepared. She also criticizes the policies of teaching Supervisors who are more occupied with administration than with education and the process of teaching and learning. The two grand goals of Secretary Terezinha’s administration is to equalize the quality of municipal schools and to promote better training and qualification of teachers. Cooperation and partnership as important elements contributing to quality education: Learning beyond the classroom – The first activity of the education secretary was to seek out other didactic sources different from the books already used in the municipal system. One of the measures to be cited here consisted in the acquisition of notes34 of the Organização Educacional Expoente to complement the didactic books adopted by the administration. Another concern was with establishing education project partnerships with private companies in the region. There is the Music with Energy Project carried out with the Bandeirantes Energy company, which donated musical instruments and funds to buy uniforms for children. There are also other artistic activities such as plays staged in the town center and there is also the Arte Criança project,35 where children learn artisanal craft and painting techniques. As per guidance from the education secretary, school principals have a a close relationship with the communities where they are located, with resident associations and with parent-teacher associations. There is also an accord with Rádio Aparecida maintained by the Catholic institution, which allowed the creation of the “Hora do recreio” program made by children from all municipal schools. The Municipal Chamber 34 A aquisição destas apostilas foi feita mediante licitação. 35 Arte Criança é um projeto sócio-educativo que visa atender crianças de 7 a 12 anos com diversas atividades como artesanato, dança e teatro. Atualmente, este projeto atende 452 crianças. 127 of Commerce36 participates by providing prizes for the (concurso municipal de contos) which encompasses all children in municipal education system. Given the mixed nature of the Aparecida education system, the relationship with the State is of primary importance for the good administration of municipal schools. Because the system is mixed, some public schools are run by the state government and others by the municipal government. The municipal government took charge of one school, in the same way the State government helped build the first full-time school in the municipality of Aparecida, the E.M.E.F.I. Aureliano Paixão in the neighborhood of Nossa Senhora do Perpétuo Socorro. In this sense that all SME work is done in partnership with the State government, there is no formal supervision in municipal schools. Informally, Secretary Terezinha takes change of this task. With regard to state supervisor, they are strongly criticized because, according to , Secretary Terezinha, they are more concerned with bureaucratic tasks than with the quality of education. The internal work of the SME takes more time that would be desireable, in the secreatary’s words of the secretary, who would like to spend more time visiting the municipal schools. In fact, the reduced size of the administrative team itself makes school visits less frequent than she would like. Well-trained and enthusiastic teachers: As mentioned previously, teacher training is one of the main goals of Secretary Terezinha’s administration. To this end, some programs have been developed in order to better train municipal teachers. The Teacher Qualification Program is carried out in partnership with UNESP and through a distance learning course offered by ULBRA (Universidade Luterana do Brasil) so that all teachers will have completed higher education. Also, all people responsible for children in municipal daycare centers are qualified teachers. Not all teachers working in the municipal school system passed a public hiring exam, which is a mistake in the eyes of Secretary Terezinha. In the current administration, a concurso (public exam) was held in order to hire municipal school teachers but not for education administration positions in the SME. There is still a significant number of teachers who were appointed, although not all of them are still teaching in the classroom. Teachers have gone through training and qualification courses, and in-service training is offered municipal teachers. The teachers who do not have higher education degress have graduated from courses offered through a partnership with UNESP (Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho), as part of a specific program called Pedagogia Cidadã,37 developed specifically to offer higher education to public school teachers in São Paulo state. The objective of this program is to offer tertiary education training – specifically degrees in Pedagogy – for teachers and for professionals in early childhood education and the initial 36 O setor de comércio e serviços é de extrema importância para esse pólo turístico religiosa, absorvendo grande parte da mão de obra do município. 37 For more information about this program see: https://sol.unesp.br/index.htm 128 years of the fundamental education cycle. The courses use communication and information technology, using media such as conference calls, with or without video connections. The municipal system also has an accord with ULBRA (Universidade Luterana do Brasil) for teacher training and qualification. Aparecida also has a Career Plan for teachers that clearly offers financial incentives directly linked to teacher performance and qualification. There is also a Teachers Career Plan based on salary rise incentives for teachers trained in pedagogy. There is a points system that uses as a reference the qualification of teachers. Democratization of Municipal Education Plan Development and self-evlaution systems: The education policy of Aparecida is planned mainly through three instruments: the 10-year education plan, the Municipal Education Plan and the Multi-year Education Plan , the PPA. The Municipal Education Plan is developed by the SME with the participation of teachers and school principals. The 10-year plan and the PPA are developed by the Municipal Government, taking into account constitutional requirements in the allocation of funds for public education. The 10-year education plan is conceived in an extremely participative fashion. This plan was originally developed by the municipal education secretary and sent to all the municipal school principals and to entities such as the Rotary Club and the Lions Club as well as the Chamber of Commerce and the state schools. There is also the Municipal Education Council, the CME, the FUNDEF Council and the School Nutrition Council. There is a pedagogical plan developed by the SME and which is expressed in the Instruction Plans of the SME and of the schools in the municipal system. According to the secretary, careful attention must be given to the two basic disciplines to build knowledge and learning, which are in her opinion, Portuguese and Mathematics. Following basic mastery of these two fundamental disciplines, other types of learning and other disciplines can be assimilated by students. All education policy is directed at two main focal points: on improved prepration, training and qualification of teachers and on the equalization of the education quality offered by municipal schools. Beyond this, there is no clear link to any particular school of pedagogical thought. The pedagogy plans, just as much as the broader education plans, are developed with the collaboration of the main agents in the municipal education sector. It should also be pointed out that the schools develop daily reports on the main events that occur in the classrooms, highlighting specific difficulties with student learning as well as student behavior. According to information collected together with the principal of the E.M.E.F.E.P., Professora Virgulina M.M. Fazzeri, even though the current administration has brought good results for municipal schools, the policy of raising appreciation and rewards for teachers and education professionals was actually started by the previous administration. 129 In the words of the principal, everything in the previous administration of Mayor Benedito Raul Bento was terrible with the single exception of education policy, thanks ro the management of the previous municipal education secretary. Regarding the evaluation of education quality in Aparecida, the secretary develops and reviews annual evaluation tests for all grade levels of municipal education in collaboration with teachers and principals. And changes or restructurings of the education and pedagogical plans are discussed based on the results of these tests. The school principals themselves are evaluated via the results of these tests, which are administered at the end of each school year. Those who do not achieve satisfactory results on these tests receive information and advice from the secretary, addressing issues of education quality and also teacher training and qualification programs. School as a system that transforms the lives of students as well as the community: One issue that deserves special mention in this report is the role exercised by the Professor Aureliano Paixão school in transforming the social life, not only of the students, but also of the entire community. Inaugurated in March 2006, the Professor Aureliano Paixão School is the newest school in the Aparecida municipal school system. It is a school that teaches the early childhood and the fundamental education cycles full-time (em período integral) and it is located in one of the poorest neighborhoods of the city. The school was built in partnership with the State Government. It is a relatively simple physical infrastructure, with no sports field, and not much space for recreational and cultural activities, but it is very well cared for by teachers and students. The school is situated in a poor neighborhood, where many of the roads are not paved. The school operates full-time, combining classes in the morning with sport and artistic activities in the after-school hours. Students receive five meals per day, they practice sports with the few pieces of equipment cobbled together by the principal. In recent months, students rehearsed a theatrical performance which they eventually staged in the plaza in the center of town. It is impressive how great an impact a school can have on people’s lives and relationships in a poor local community. The Professor Aureliano Paixão School has become a point of reference for local residents, who lack access to many public services and often share a feeling of having been abandoned by society. The school is highly valued, it is a place where children take their meals, where they develop intellectual and physical abilities that influence the entire community in terms of social and family behavior. The school principal has noticed small but distinct changes in the behavior of local residents. Teen and adult drug-users who used to hang out in this area have started staying away during school hours. The students have won respect by staging plays and by successfully participating in municipal sporting events, and this seems to have re-awakened hopes for the future that are normally suppressed by the realities of life in this neighborhood. It has shifted parents’ perspective of the future to see their children experiencing social success and recognition, creating real expectations of building a new kind of life. This is what we 130 most seek to call attention to in this report: the relative nature of lack of resources. Many times, in conditions of extreme vulnerability, people’s innate creativity finds solutions that are not directly related to the availability of resources. 131 5.12. JOINVILLE – SANTA CATARINA Stability of the SME: Ten Years at the Head of the Education Sector in Joinville: Sylvio Sniecikovsky graduated with a degree in Math and Physics from the Federal University of Paraná and he served as State Education Secretary in the administration of Governor Pedro Ivo from 1987 to 1990. He has significant experience in the classroom, having been responsible for establishing the Técnica Tupi School, linked to the company Fundição Tupy,38 before assuming the role of municipal education secretary. In December 1996, he was invited by then-mayor Luis Henrique – who is now governor of Santa Catarina – to take charge of the Municipal Education Secretariat. Secretary Sniecikovsky has proven extremely active in promoting initiatives to support education projects, especially in partnership with private companies. This is due in large measure to his familiarity with the private sector through his history working with Fundição Tupi. As examples of private sector partners, he names EMBRACO, which awards an annual Ecology prize, and Tigre, which helps with small contruction and maintenance projects around the schools. He also points to a successful partnership with the Ayrton Senna Institute. The SME in Joinville participates in Rede Vencer, which as discussed earlier in this report, involves students, teachers and school principals in a program to increase education quality. Planning and Evaluation for results in Education. The guiding education policy documents for Joinville are: the PME municipal education plan, the Regimento Escolar and the Programa de Ensino. The PME is based on policy guidelines in the National Education Plan and the State Education Plan. The SME also uses as a reference the municipal Governing Plan (2005 to 2008), which establishes 31 goals for the education sector. With the Governing Plan, there is a planning strategy that defines principles, macro objectives and strategies for reaching these objectives. It evaluates the municipality’s needs, its education history, its socioeconomic situation, etc. The Plan was discussed with SME leaders and its technical team and then submitted for review to the CME, the Municipal Education Council. The PME was discussed in the schools, giving everyone the opportunity to voice opinions, and so it is familiar to the main actors in the education sector. The SME is visibly concerned with planning for results and with the continuous evaluation of its policies. This seems to be related to the SME participation with the Ayrton Senna Institute’s Rede Vencer program, which establishes a series of guidelines to improve public educaiton indicators in associated municipalities, setting goals, carrying out evaluations and making social science and information technologies available to improve administration of the school system. The goals linked to Rede Vencer are: 800 school hours in 200 days; 98% attendence rate for student; 98% attendenace rate for teachers; 95% graduation rate from grades 1-8 linked to successful student performance; 95% literacy rate in the first grade.39 38 For more information on the Fundição TUPY see http://www.tupy.com.br/portugues/home/ 39 For more information about Rede Vencer see: http://www.redevencer.org.br/v2/conteudo/contexto.asp. 132 In Joinville, there are two information systems for tracking education results, which allow for quick decision-making about policy adjustments to correct shortcomings identified. These are: SIASI, the Ayrton Senna Institute Information System, and Controller. SIASI registers education information in the municipality by collecting information from the schools and consolidating it the education secretariats, allowing for rapid decisions based on reports of analysis and interventions. Controller is made available to all schools in the municipal system and it can instantly produce lists, reports and other documents allowing for the rapid assessment of every student and grade cohort. Based on these systems and on Rede Vencer guidelines, frequent evaluations of the implementation of municipal education policies are carried out, as well as external evaluations. Two more external factors were identified as relevant to the SME’s ongoing efforts to improve quality. The first is the oversight of the Vigilância Sanitária Municipal, which is responsible for ensuring electrical wiring and other physical facilities are in adequate condition and no danger to children in education institutions. The second is the Public Ministry, an independent public prosector’s office with broad powers to investigate suspected lapses in the law. The MP also has programs that directly address the right of children and students in particular. These include APOMT (Aviso Por Maus Tratos, for reporting abuse), and APÓIA (Programa de Combate à Evasão Escolar, to address school absenteeism). APOMT aims to promote greater articulation among the institutional actors who investigate child abuse. Cases of suspected abuse are reported to the (Conselho Tutelar) which decides how to proceed. In 2005, 28 suspected abuse cases were reported to the council; in 2006 the number was 20. The APOIA program aims to reduce absenteeism and ensure that children and adolescents regularly attend school, remain enrolled and complete the fundamental education cycle. It also aims to promote the return to school of children who have dropped out.40 In effect, all municipal education policies are regulated by laws, resolutions and decrees (Leis, resoluções e portarias). Regulations cover everything from delimitation of the elements for evaluating students in each grade of fundamental education cycle (Portaria n. 117 de 30/11/2004), the attendence of students in schools (Portaria n.054 de 2005), evaluation of teachers and school adminstration, criteria for selecting principals (Resolução n. 1 de 10/04/2002), norms that require schools to inform parents about the Programa de Ensino (Resolução n. 4 de 25/04/2003), to defining the basic personnel that should be part of the school administration team (Portaria n. 10 de 16/10/2003). Goals for Education in the Joinville Government Plan (2005 – 2008)41 I. PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION – To build at least 20 new daycare and pre- school facilities; to assure proper ongoing maintenance of all pre-school facilities II. FULL-TIME SCHOOL HOURS – To establish partnerships with public and private institutions to ensure the use of empty classrooms to increase enrollment in pre-school; to prioritize offering service during the full-time period. 40 For more information see http://www.secjoinville.net/ 41 For more information see: http://www.secjoinville.net/ 133 III. VIVA INFÂNCIA – To continue supporing daycare centers in homes and in the community by offering technical, financial and pedagogical support. IV. FUNDAMENTAL EDUCATION CYCLE – To eliminate intermediate education and standardize the fundamental cycle through the following actions: a) to correct age-grade distortion using accelerated classes; b) to incorporate children over 14 years old in grades 5, 6 and 7 into Youth and Adult Education, or EJA; c) to use zoning in student enrollment, to fill education supply with children in the neighborhood of the school; d) to strengthen articulation between the State (GEREI) and Municipal governments (SEC) to ensure to full use of space in public schools; e) to work with outside institutions to occupy empty classroom space when necessary; f) to build atleast 6 new schools and renovate and expand the number of classrooms in existing schools. V. MAINTENANCE – To continuing the ongoing maintenance of school buildings to guarantee education quality. VI. RURAL AREAS – To increase the number of full-time schools in rural areas. VII. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY – To expand schools with information education classrooms, making information technology an instrument the study-to- work programs for students and teachers, including suport for learning by students with special needs. VIII. ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION – To offer interdiscplinary Environmental Education through the NEAM Environmental Education Group with the aim of supporting sustainable development and improved quality of life in the school community. IX. MINICENTREVENTOS – To establish and erect infrastructure for at least 20 new fields for sports and “mini-centers” for events. X. PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION – To strengthen the Professional Education program for youths over 14 years old in partnership with public and privates institutions. XI. SECONDARY SCHOOL – To partner with the State Government to implement secondary school during evening hours in municipal schools , with well defined criteria XII. INTERNSHIPS – To continue offering students in middle-level professional courses internships in public administration. XIII. YOUTHS AND ADULTS – To promote actions to eliminate illiteracy, to encourage private and public entities to offer literacy training and EJA courses to employees, and to continue increasing the supply of EJA program, using different supplemental education models to encourage completion of the fundamental and secondary education cycles XIV. UNIVERSITIES – To support and offer incentives for making Univille a federal program, to support and offer incentives to help universities and existing higher education institutions achieve excelence. XV. SCHOLARSHIPS – To continue offering needy children scholarships for study XVI. WORKFORCE TRAINING – To expand the PMJ/Trainee Program, increasing the offer of internships in public administration for students in technical and university programs and to integrate internships offerings with the privatre sector. 134 XVII. SPECIAL EDUCATION – To expand Pedagogy Support Teams – NAPE –to attend to children with special education needs, to promote integration of students with special needs by improving the physical and pedagogical infrastructure of schools, to establish partnerships with public, private and civil society organizations to serve students with special education needs, including by offering professional training workshops XVIII. CAREER PLAN – To establish a new career plan for teachers, adapting and updating the plan to meet the present and future needs of education professionals. XIX. CLASS PREPARATION – To guarantee teachers can dedicate 20% of their time to preparing classes, evaluations and pedagogical meetings. XX. TRAINING – To guarantee ongoing in-service training for teachers, by improving technical-pedagogical knowledge, for quality service to students including those who require special education services XXI. FAMILY PARTICIPATION IN SCHOOL – To support to increased participation of family members in daily activities of the schools through the Parent-Teachers Association, to encourage parents to participate in and share the responsibilty for the school lives of their children. XXII. LIBRARIES – To restructure and adapt the old PMJ building (Rua Max Colin) to serve as a larger and more modern public library with updated offerings. XXIII. ÔNIBUS DA LEITURA – To maintain and expand the reach of the “Reading Bus” (Ônibus da Leitura) program in rural areas. XXIV. READING SPACES – To expand public spaces that encourage reading, such as libraries and reading plazaa in municipal schools, to increase the quality and quality of public library offerings. XXV. COMPUTER LITERACY – To increase the use of computers and the Internet in all schools. XXVI. SCHOOL TRANSPORT – To continue the school transport program, to guarantee transportation to school for fundamental cycle students where there are no available spaces in schools closer to home. XXVII. ASSISTANCE TO STUDENTS – To promote hearing and sight test for all students in the early childhood and fundamental education cycles in partnership with the Health Secretariat and NGOs XXVIII. SCHOOL UNIFORMS AND SUPPLIES – To continue programs to distribute school uniforms and learning supplies and to provide meals during schools. XXIX. LEIA JOINVILLE – To expand the Joinville Reads program, encouraging reading through libraries, reading plazas and mobile library programs. XXX. SOCIO-EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS – To continue and expand the following programs: The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Center (NUPEGA), the Child Labor Eradication program (PETI), the Song and Dance in the Schools project; to continue and expand support for other programs that aim to prevent drug use; to continue and expand the School Orchard Program, to expand the Student Guide program XXXI. OPEN SCHOOL PROGRAM – To make available for community activities any unused space in school buildings XXXII. FOREIGN LANGUAGE – To continue teaching English as part of the regular curriculum and offer the option to study other foreign languages, such as French, Italian, German and other languages within the Sister Cities Program. 135 136 6. FINAL ConsideraTIONS The objective of this study was to identify good policies and administrative practices at the municipal level that led certain municipal school systems to obtain better-than- expected test results given their socioeconomic context. In this sense, the study emphasized factors associated with education policies that contributed to improved student learning. It is the aim of this study to contribute to the exploration of what makes good municipal education policy rather than to provide a definitive answer to that question. In fact, it is precisely the argument of this study that there is no one single recipe for success. Beyond the patterns we observed, we call attention to the great diversity of good practices that exist across Brazil’s municipal school systems, where teachers and school principals and education administrators each make creative contributions to student learning every day. It is most likely that the reason a municipality obtains good results on the Prova Brasil test is a constellation of good practices, the interactions among them, and a confluence of events in the local context whose effects accumulate over time. Good practices were found in all the municipal school systems we studied, in the control groups as well as the positive deviant municipalities. What leads one municipality to achieve better results is could be a greater quantity of good practices and a complex constellation of other factors. It is important to highlight that this study does not aim to establish definitive causal and deterministic relationships between the factors identified. This means that the presence of one or more factors will not necessarily guarantee that a municipal school system will produce good results. In practice, we found diverse combinations of these factors in the municipalities studied, and the weight of each of these practices varied according to the local context in which it was inserted. Factors, and also the particular characteristics of factors, manifested themselves in various ways. 137 It is hoped the results of this study will provide important insights, mainly for policymakers interested in improving the quality of education. This is extremely relevant if we consider the crucial role education can play in breaking the vicious circles of intergenerational poverty and social inequality. 138 ReferencEs ALBERNAZ, A. FERREIRA, F. e FRANCO, C. 2002. Qualidade e equidade no ensino fundamental brasileiro. Pesquisa e Planejamento Econômico, v.32, n.3. Rio de Janeiro, IPEA. AZEVEDO, N.P (2001) – “A UNIDIME e os desafios da educação municipal” in Estudos Avançados, USP, vol.15, n.42, São Paulo, maio/agosto. BARROS, Ricardo Paes de; MENDONÇA, Rosane (1995). Determinantes da Desigualdade no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Ipea, Texto para Discussão, n. 377. ______________________________________________________QUINTAES, Giovani; SANTOS, Daniel (2001). Determinantes do Desempenho Educacional no Brasil. Brasília: IPEA, Pesquisa e Planejamento Econômico – PPE, v.31, n.1. CARUSI, Danielle (2007). Uma análise da freqüência e do atraso escolar das crianças brasileiras. Rio de Janeiro: Sinais Sociais –SESC, n.03, p. 36-65. CARVALHO, Murilo de (2002). Cidadania no Brasil: o longo caminho. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira. 3a. edição DESIMONE, L. et all (2002) – “How do district management and implementation strategies relate to the quality of the professional development that districs provide do teachers?” in Teachers College Record, vol. 104, n.7, oct. (1265-1312). FERNANDES, Reynaldo; NATEZON, Paulo E. (2006). O impacto do FUNDEF na alocação de recursos para a Educação Básica. Brasília: IPEA, Pesquisa e Planejamento Econômico – PPE, v.36, n.1. FRANCO, Creso; BONAMINO, Alicia; COSCARELLI, Carla (2002). Avaliação e Letramento: Concepções de aluno letrado subjacentes ao SAEB e ao PISA. 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A Ética Protestante e o “Espírito” do Capitalismo. São Paulo, Companhia das Letras. WELCH, Jack (2005). Paixão para Vencer. São Paulo: Editora Campus. WROBEL, V.(1999) “O silêncio da escola pública”, Jornal O Globo, edição de 12/09. 141 Annexes 8.1. ANNEX I: PROFILES OF THE MUNICIPALITIES STUDIED North 142 143 Southeast 144 145 146 Northeast 147 148 149 Center-West 150 South 151 152 8.2. ANNEX II: MODEL The factors determining the mean student performance of a municipality i on the Prova Brasil test (represented by N k in equation (1)) can be separated by hypothesis into six factors: • The first Ai represents the socioeconomic profile of students such as measured by the level of school completed by parents, and i the series of students. • The second, E j determined by the quality and quantity of education supply in the school (human and material resources, organization, collaboration with community, etc.), and j the series of schools. • The third, M k represents the effect of the municipal conditions, such as size, level of development, etc., and k the series of municipalities. • The fourth, S l represents the state where the municipality is located, and l the series of states. • The fifth, Rm represents the region where the municipality is located (of Brazil’s 5 regions ), and m the series of regions. • The sixth, γ represents random error. We do not include a series for γ , because the hypothesis is that γ is composed of the random error in all of the preceding series from i to m. Nk = A ˆ +E ˆ +Mˆ +S ˆ +Rˆ +γ (1) i j k l m onde 1 n Ai = ∑ (αAi + z1i ); z1i ~ i.i.d . N (0,σ z1i ); n alunos no município k ˆ n i =1 s ˆ = 1 ∑ (ψE + z ); z ~ i.i.d . N (0,σ ); s escolas no município k E j j 2j 2j z2 j s j =1 153 ˆ = µM + z ; z ~ i.i.d . N (0,σ ) M k k 3k 3k z 3k ˆ = ζS + z ; z ~ i.i.d . N (0,σ ) S l l 4l 4l z 4l Rm = ϕRm + z 5 m ; z 5 m ~ i.i.d . N (0,σ z 5 m ) The random error variable γ is the sum of the random error z1i , z2j , z3k , z4l , z5m,, in the different variables, and there is a correlation among these variables. But for the purpose of defining a sample for our qualitative analysis, we decided to leave this issue aside and carry out a sum of least squares regression using the municipal-level variables. We proceeded in the following manner: Step 1: We carried out regression analyses, separately for each region, of the average municipal score of 4th-grade students, using Portuguese and math scores as the dependent variables. Step 2: We used as explanatory variables in the regressions, variables representing the means of the students and families, economic levels of the municipality and dummy variables for the States. We were careful not to include variables related to choices in education policy in these regressions.42 Step 3: We calculated the estimated value of the regression and subtracted this value from the actual value of the municipality to calculate a residual value for each. The hypothesis was that any effects of education policy choices would be represented in this residual. We divided the municipalities into three groups based on whether their residual was positive, negative, or close to zero. These were the candidates for the field study. 42 After the field study we repeated the regression, this time included variables on education supply for each municipality – for example, education spending or percentage of teachers with university degrees. We do not report the results of these regressions because the coefficients of these variables were not statistically significant. In the definition of the field study sample, we did not include variable to represent the effect of the school system or the effect of the school in the determination of the Prova Brasil results because it was precisely these effects we wished to isolate. 154 Step 4: we selected a group of municipalities for further comparison and study from the following states in each of Brazil’s five regions: (i) Bahia, Pernambuco and Maranhão in the Northeast, (ii) São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais in the Southeast, (iii) Pará in the North, (iv) Goiás in the Center-West, and (v) Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina in the South. Within each state, we chose two positive deviant municipalities, one control group 1 municipality and one control group 2, or negative deviant, municipality. For logistical reasons, we wanted to selected municipalities located near state capitals, but we did not want to select only the closest. We identified a range of 20 municipalities for each of the three groups – the positive deviant, the negative deviant and the near-zero municipalities. We called the near-zero municipalities control group 1 and the negative deviant municipalities control group 2. In the schools chosen for the field study, we tried always to select school systems with at least 10 but no more than 60 individual schools. It is important to note that the field study represents the qualitative part of the work, which was carried out to enhance understanding of the object of analysis and not to claim to be statistically representative of Brazilian municipalities as a whole. Step 5: We carried out a field study using a questionnaire and guidelines for in-depth interviews. 155 8.3. Annex III: Field Research Instruments ROTEIRO PARA ENTREVISTA COM SECRETARIO(A) MUNICIPAL DE EDUCAÇÃO PAUTADO NAS HIPÓTESES DA PESQUISA PARTE 1. CARACTERIZAÇÃO DO SECRETARIO MUNICIPAL DE EDUCAÇÃO a) Gostaria de saber, inicialmente, qual a sua formação? (ensino médio, graduação/ pós-graduação – área ) b) Poderia me falar um pouco de sua experiência na área de administração, particularmente a administração púbica? c) Como chegou a se tornar o Secretário (ou Secretaria) Municipal de educação? Qual a sua relação com a temática da educação antes de assumir o cargo de Secretario(a) de Educação Municipal? O Sr. ( ou Sra.) tem um relacionamento pessoal com o Prefeito ou com vereadores? Ou suas relações com a administração municipal são recentes e, basicamente, formais? PARTE 2. PRIORIDADES GOVERNAMENTAIS E EDUCAÇÃO a) Com esse seu interesse pela educação, o Sr. (Sra.) encontra receptividade na política da prefeitura? Diria que a educação é prioritária na agenda política do prefeito? Ou existem outras prioridades? A relação do Prefeito com o atual governador, é satisfatória? Acredita que o novo governo produzirá mudanças importantes para a política educacional do município? b) No plano de governo do prefeito, qual o lugar dado à educação? Nesses últimos dois anos, considera que o plano do governo municipal vem se realizando? Existe documentação a respeito à qual eu poderia ter acesso? c) E os recursos destinados à educação vão além dos 25% do orçamento municipal? Se sim, de que fontes provêem? A questão dos recursos é importante para o Sr(Sra.)? Já tomou alguma iniciativa para conseguir apoio para seus projetos educacionais? (ONGs, parcerias com empresas, fundos governamentais, agências internacionais, etc.). d) Qual é a posição da prefeitura sobre o assunto da participação e de transparência na gestão? Gostaria que você falasse sobre os instrumentos de participação e a estrutura institucional necessária para que esses instrumentos funcionem. Por exemplo, existe orçamento participativo? Como é feito este orçamento? As compras e os contratos que o município faz são publicados para conhecimento de todos público? Existem conselhos instituídos para a participação da comunidade? Em quais áreas? Existe sistema de 156 ouvidoria e atendimento das reclamações possíveis dos moradores do município? Há presença nesse município de ONGs ? Quais são, e qual é o papel de cada uma delas ? PARTE 3. PROGRAMAS E POLÍTICAS EDUCACIONAIS a) Sei que dependendo do município varia o foco central da política educacional. Aqui, o Sr. diria que sua política está centrada em quais aspectos? a) Quais os principais desafios na área da educação do município? (perguntar a todos os entrevistados) _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ (deixar o entrevistado falar livremente sobre o tema; se por acaso ele (ela) não mencionar o tema qualidade da educação, o entrevistador deverá perguntar a opinião do entrevistado sobre esse tema. Em seguida procurar saber qual é conceito que ele tem de qualidade da educação). b) Em sua opinião o que significa uma educação de boa qualidade? _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ (deixar o entrevistado falar livremente e registrar se ele/ela menciona o processo do ensino- aprendizagem na resposta) c) Em sua opinião, como o Sr. (Sra.) classifica as escolas de sua rede em termos da qualidade da educação. _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ d) O Sr.(Sra.) recebeu os resultados da Prova Brasil feita nas escolas de sua rede? Sim 1, Não 2 (i) De que forma o Sr. (Sra.) recebeu esses resultados?.________ _________________________________________________ 157 (ii) Qual a sua opinião sobre os resultados dessa prova nas escolas da rede municipal? ___________________________ (iii) Como esses resultados irão ser utilizados para definir reformas de políticas educativas na rede municipal? _________________________________________________ e) Se não recebeu os resultados, como pretende obtê-los? _____________________ [Nota 1: O entrevistador deverá mostrar as tabelas com a média dos resultados da Prova de Brasil das escolas estaduais e municípios do município. Se houver uma diferença significativa entre as médias das escolas da rede municipal vi-`a-vis as escolas estaduais, solicita ao Secretario que explique esta diferença) a média das escolas municipais for maior de que das escolas estaduais O Secretario será informado sobre a diferença negativa ou positiva par sua rede). f) A que o Sr. (Sra.). atribui a diferença?___________________________________ g) Quais são os principais fatores responsáveis pela qualidade da educação em seu município? (i) ______________________________ (ii)______________________________ (iii)______________________________ PARTE 4. CARACTERIZAÇÃO DA REDE POLÍTICO /INSTITUCIONAL a) Penso que quando há colaboração entre o governo estadual e municipal no que concerne a educação, as crianças em idade escolar saem ganhando. É este o caso do município? O Governo Estadual tem programas bem desenhados, que sejam usados aqui? O Sr. pode me falar disso? b) E a Câmara de Vereadores, tem boa atuação no campo educacional? colabora com a secretaria? Ou existem conflitos? Que tipo? E como o Sr. faz para lidar com eles? c) Em geral, quando a sociedade se organiza em torno da questão educacional, os resultados são positivos para o aprendizado do aluno. Aqui, existe clima de mobilização e pactos políticos entre governo e sociedade civil ? Em particular, gostaria de saber se, em sua opinião, o Conselho Municipal de Educação está funcionando a contento? 158 Gostaria também que me falasse um pouco da relação com as entidades da sociedade civil, como associações de moradores, sindicatos, associações empresariais, etc. PARTE 5: PROPOSTA PEDAGÓGICA. a) Já falamos um pouco do que o Sr. considera ser o foco principal da atuação da secretaria, mas gostaria de desenvolver mais esse assunto. Os princípios que informam sua política educacional estão pautados por uma proposta pedagógica? b) De que tipo? Feita pelo senhor, ou em continuidade à proposta da gestão anterior? existe algum documento que possa me dar uma idéia mais precisa da forma pela qual o ensino é tratado em sua rede escolar? c) O Sr. diria que a proposta é do conhecimento dos principais agentes educacionais? Diretores, supervisores e professores? d) Na formulação dessa proposta, os agentes educacionais tiveram a possibilidade de opinar? Consultores ou pessoas externas à rede também contribuiriam para sua formulação?O Sr. considera que há consenso em torno da proposta? Ou existem pontos de discordância? Neste caso, quais? e) Nem sempre uma proposta torna-se realidade, isto é, nem sempre a proposta efetivamente norteia as ações: qual é o caso aqui? a Sr. considera que a proposta está presente nas ações da secretaria? de que modo? PARTE 6. CARACTERIZAÇÃO DA EQUIPE DA SECRETARIA MUNICIPAL DE EDUCAÇÃO a) Ao montar sua equipe, a Sr. teve liberdade para escolher seus auxiliares? E como procedeu para essa seleção? Os critérios técnicos prevaleceram sobre relações pessoais, de confiança? Sofreu alguma pressão política para manter esta ou aquela pessoa, na equipe? Já precisou fazer alterações na equipe, ao longo destes dois anos? b) E o corpo de funcionário, é de qualidade? Precisou abrir concurso, ou fazer algumas alterações? De que tipo? c) Eu gostaria de saber tanto do Sr (Sra.) quanto de sua equipe sobre a distribuição do tempo disponível para o trabalho. Quanto tempo é dedicado ao apoio às escolas da rede, relativamente ao tempo despendida com o trabalho interno da secretaria? d) O Sr (Sra.) se preocupa com a capacitação de sua equipe? Já passaram por cursos ou outras formas de aprimoramento de suas competências? Algum apoio de Universidades? E a remuneração, é compatível com a qualidade de seu desempenho? O desempenho é sistematicamente avaliado? Por que meios? 159 f) Finalmente, ainda no que concerne a sua equipe, o Sr(Sra.). diria que a distribuição das funções da secretaria se faz de forma adequada entre os membros, de modo a responder às demandas das escolas? PARTE 7. POLÍTICA EDUCACIONAL E PLANEJAMENTO a) Gostaria de que o Sr. falasse um pouco sobre planejamento e política educacional. Imagino que contam, aqui com o Plano Plurianual e com o Plano Municipal de Educação; existe também um plano de governo da prefeitura? Em qual deles a questão educacional vem sendo mais bem tratada? O Sr. acompanha cada um deles, desde sua formulação? De que maneira? b) No que concerne ao Plano Municipal de Educação, ele foi criado por lei? Posso ter acesso a ele? O Sr. tem conhecimento de como se deu o processo de sua formulação? Sabe identificar que atores participaram do processo decisório? Em particular, foram escutados representantes da comunidade? E sua contribuição,como a qualifica? c) Eu gostaria de ter uma idéia do conteúdo do plano, bem como de sua abrangência(diagnostico do ensino, metas, discriminação de gastos, projeções de matricula e outros elementos importantes da rede, monitoramento, avaliação). d) O Sr(Sra.) conta com equipamento adequado para implementação dos planos? Em particular, tem como dar um tratamento informatizado à sua base de dados? e) No âmbito dos planos, ou de forma mais geral, o Sr. tem algum procedimento regular para avaliar sua política para rede municipal? Os resultados do Plano são discutidos com as escolas, comunidade e com outro agentes? PARTE 8. FINANCIAMENTO DA EDUCAÇÃO MUNICIPAL a) O senhor é ordenador de despesas? Se sim, como obteve essa prerrogativa? Se não, como faz para liberar recursos destinados à educação? b) Sua participação no processo orçamentário se dá em todas as etapas? Fale um pouco disto. c) Que critérios o Sr. utiliza para alocar os recursos na rede? Como faz para atender a demandas inesperadas, como a necessidade de reparar algo em alguma escola? Tem uma reserva? d) O Sr. considera eficiente seu sistema de gestão financeira (licitação, pagamento, etc.) e de controle interno? e) E como vem sendo feita a prestação de contas? É um sistema único, ou varia de acordo com recursos financeiros adicionais à dotação orçamentária? 160 PARTE 9: EDUCAÇÃO INFANTIL a) Aqui no município já existem programas públicos para educação infantil? Se sim, desde quando? Articulados com o Ensino Fundamental? Os recursos de que dispõe são suficientes para atender às crianças em idade pré escolar? E de onde eles provêm? b) Se não, acha que seria importante cuidar disso? Ainda na sua administração? Como pensaria em iniciar esse tipo de educação? PARTE 10: PROFESSORES a) Normalmente, elegemos os professores como peças centrais na qualidade do município, bem como dos processos de constituição. Em geral, os professores são concursados? Quando foi o último concurso? Para que áreas? A demanda foi muito grande? E os resultados foram satisfatórios? b) O Sr(Sra.) diria que aqui existe uma política que garante a formação continuada, de boa qualidade? Por que meios? É comum um professor se licenciar para completar sua formação, ou para fazer cursos de capacitação? Essa política de capacitação está mais voltada para atender as necessidades dos professores ou da rede escolar? Estou imaginando uma situação em que a secretaria dá uma licença remunerada para o professor se qualificar, e que este , assim que pode, vai pra outro município onde imagina ter melhores condições de trabalho. Esse tipo de situação acontece, aqui? c) O Plano de Carreira é adequado para manter o professor com boa disposição em sala de aula? Como é feita sua avaliação? E que tipo de incentivos ou gratificações são dadas? Poderia ter uma cópia de Plano? d) Como se faz a distribuição dos professores na escolas? Há muita mudança? Existem escolas para as quais ninguém quer ir? Ou , alternativamente, aquelas para as quais todos querem ser transferidos? Como o Sr. equaciona esse tipo de questão? PARTE 11: GESTÃO ESCOLAR a)As escolas de sua rede são dirigidas apenas pelo diretor, ou contam também com coordenador pedagógico ou outros auxiliares no núcleo gestor? O Sr. considera que a direção escolar, no município, está em boas mãos? Fale um pouco do processo de seleção dos diretores, se há ou não participação da comunidade, e se existem incentivos para incremento de sua qualidade. b) A direção escolar é submetida a um processo de avaliação? De que tipo? Com que regularidade? c) Existem programas de qualificação dos núcleos gestores, que ajudem a tornar a administração escolar ágil, moderna, participativa? 161 d) As crianças vão para a escola de preferência de seus pais, ou existe alguma orientação da secretaria para sua alocação na rede escolar? PARTE 12: POLÍTICAS DIFERENCIADAS PARA UMA REDE ESCOLAR HETEROGÊNEA. a) Que você acha sobre o tema de equidade na qualidade de educação no município? O SME dá mais atenção às escolas que tem bom desempenho para que elas que fiquem cada vez melhor e aumente sua reputação? E o que faz a SME para ajudar as escolas com desempenho inferior? b)Que critérios o Sr. usa para distribuir os recursos financeiros nas escolas? As melhores são premiadas? c) Existe suporte pedagógico para educação de crianças com necessidades particulares (distorção de idade/ serie, repetência, etc.)? Questionário aplicado a SME PARTE 1. CARACTERIZAÇÃO DO SECRETARIO MUNICIPAL DE EDUCAÇÃO PARTE 2. PRIORIDADES GOVERNAMENTAIS E EDUCAÇÃO PARTE 3: PROGRAMAS E POLÍTICAS EDUCACIONAIS h) Que programas Federais a Secretaria Municipal da Educação (SME) implementa? (i) Educação de Jovens e Adultos: ___________________ (ii) Escola Ativa: ___________________ (iii) Escola Aberta: ___________________ (iv) Pro Jovem ___________________ (v) Programa de Aceleração ___________________ (vi) Fundescola____________________ (vii) Outros: (especifique) ___________________ 162 i) Que programas estudais a Secretaria Municipal da Educação (SME) implementa? (i) ___________________ (ii) ____________________ (iii) ____________________ (iv) ____________________ j) Que programas municipais (desenvolvidos por a própria Secretaria Municipal da Educação (SME)) implementa? (i) ___________________ (ii) ____________________ (iii) ____________________ (iv) _____________________ PARTE 4: CARACTERIZAÇÃO DA REDE POLÍTICO / INSTITUICIONAL PARTE 5: PROPOSTA PEDAGÓGICA PARTE 6: CARACTERIZAÇÃO DA EQUIPE DA SECRETARIA MUNICIPAL DE EDUCAÇÃO 1. Sobre a Organização da Secretaria [Obter organograma, e se não existir, desenhar e anexar] a) área de planejamento Sim 1 Não 2 Quantas pessoas? b) área de estatísticas Sim 1 Não 2 Quantas pessoas? c) área /sistema de avaliação Sim 1 Não 2 Quantas pessoas? d) Instância intermediaria entre a SME e a escola? Sim 1 Não 2 Quantas pessoas? e) área de apoio pedagógico? Sim 1 Não 2 Quantas pessoas? f) Grupos dedicados ao apoio Sim 1 Não 2 Quantas pessoas? as escolas (supervisores) 163 g) As escolas fazem seu PDE Sim 1 Não 2 Quantas pessoas? (plano de desenvolvimento escolar) 2. Quais dimensões da secretaria têm mais necessidade de melhorias? ( Indicar por ordem decrescente 1-9) a) Área financeira b) Área de Planejamento c) Área de Estatística d) Administrativa (apoio) e) Recursos Humanos f) Área de Compras e Aquisições g) Avaliação e Monitoramento h) Área de apoio pedagógico i) Supervisão 3. Composição da Equipe de Supervisão a) Existe equipe de supervisão pedagógica no município? Sim 1 Não 2 b) existe supervisor por tipo de escola Sim 1 Não 2 c) quantos são os supervisores por escola?: um supervisor para ________ escolas 4. Mecanismos de Supervisão a) Existe instrumento formal para registrar as visitas dos supervisores? Sim 1 Não 2 Se sim, qual é o instrumento? _______________________ b) Como é feito o acompanhamento do desempenho da escola? (i) Fichas de acompanhamento de cada escola 164 (ii) Sistema de acompanhamento técnico-pedagógico por computador (iii) Caderno de visitas da supervisão (iv) Outros Indique o tipo de instrumento utilizado pela supervisão __________________________________ c) Qual a freqüência das visitas ? (v) Semanal (vi) Mensal (vii) Trimestral (viii) Semestral (ix) Outra Qual ? _______________________________ d) Quais os assuntos mais freqüentes abordados pelos supervisores: [entre 1 a 5, indique com um “x” o tema mais freqüente (1) até o menos freqüente (5)]: Assuntos mais comuns 1 2 3 4 5 Projeto Pedagógico Infra-estrutura Deficiência dos professores no domínio do conteúdo Deficiência dos professores no domínio da didática e métodos de ensino Monitoramento da Presença dos Professores Substituição dês Professores em licença Monitoramento da Freqüência Escolar dos alunos Deficiência nos métodos de avaliação da aprendizagem do aluno Relacionamento diretor x professores Relacionamento escola x comunidade 165 Carência de livros e materiais didáticos Problemas de merenda escolar Problemas de violência Questões disciplinares Problemas de relacionamento professor x aluno 5. Relação dos Supervisores Municipais e Estaduais Identifique qual o tipo de relação existe entre a equipe de supervisão municipal e a estadual. (i) Existe um trabalho integrado e de ajuda mútua? Sim 1 Não 2 (ii) Existem reuniões periódicas para troca de informações? Sim 1 Não 2 (iii) Eventualmente, a equipe da SME participa de atividades de capacitação organizadas pela Secretaria estadual? Sim 1 Não 2 6. Capacitação dos Supervisores a) Existe programa de capacitação para os supervisores municipais? Sim 1 Não 2 b) Se sim, indique conteúdo das capacitações dos supervisores (em que áreas os supervisores são treinados?) Tipo de treinamento Sim Não Metodologias para melhorar o ensino-aprendizagem Métodos de alfabetização Métodos de avaliação da aprendizagem dos alunos Planejamento educativo (PDE) Uso das estatísticas e indicadores educativos Conteúdos das disciplinas Programas de aceleração da aprendizagem Orientações sobre como organizar o Conselho Escolar Metodologia da Escola Ativa Programas de Educação de Jovens e Adultos Organização e uso de bibliotecas escolares 166 Organização e uso de laboratórios de Ciências Técnicas de trabalho com a comunidade Nutrição e merenda escolar Relações Interpessoais na escola Outros (indique nas linhas abaixo c) Quem realiza a capacitação dos supervisores municipais? (i) A SME (ii) A Secretaria Estadual (iii) Universidades (iv) Outros 7. Monitoramento do desempenho das escolas/alunos a) Existe um programa para monitoramento do desempenho das escolas, incluindo discussão com as escolas sobre esse desempenho? Sim 1 Não 2 b) Quais os mecanismos utilizados pela supervisão para prover feedback às escolas sob sua responsabilidade? Indique esses mecanismos/instrumentos ____________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ 8. Avaliação do trabalho dos supervisores. a) Existe algum sistema de avaliação do desempenho dos supervisores? Sim 1 Não 2 b) Se sim, qual o instrumento utilizado? _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ 9. Sistema de Promoção dos Supervisores 167 a) - Existe um sistema de Promoção especifico para os supervisores pedagógicos ? Sim 1 Não 2 b) Se sim, quais os critérios para a promoção do supervisor? 1. Qualificação profissional 2. Tempo de serviço 3. Numero de treinamentos recebidos 4. Combinação do ( 2 ) + ( 3 ) 5. Outros critérios Indique quais são esses critérios_______________________________________ b) Ademais do sistema de promoção existe um sistema de incentivos para os supervisores? Sim 1 Não 2 c) Se sim, que tipo de incentivo ? (i) Financeiro Sim 1 Não 2 (ii) Bolsa de estudos para aperfeiçoamento Sim 1 Não 2 (iii)Pontos para contar na aposentadoria Sim 1 Não 2 (iv) Outros Sim 1 Não 2 . PARTE 7: POLÍTICA EDUCACIONAL E PLANEJAMENTO PARTE 8: FINANCIAMENTO DA EDUCAÇÃO MUNICIPAL 1. Orçamento Municipal a) SME é responsável pela movimentação da conta bancária do FUNDEF? Sim Não neste caso, qual a instância responsável por esta movimentação: _______________________________________ b) Com a implantação do FUNDEF os salários dos professores melhoraram? 168 Sim Não c) O custo por aluno na rede municipal é equivalente ao montante repassado pelo Fundef? Sim Não O município aporta recursos próprios. d) Composição do Orçamento da SME no ano de 2006 por fontes em percentuais (%): (i) federal: _________________ (ii) estadual: ________________ (iii) municipal:_______________ (iv) outras: __________________ e) Percentual orçamentário destinado à (i) Secretaria ( administração central*) ________________ (ii) Rede escolar: ________________ * nesta categoria incluir os supervisores pedagógicos 2. Detalhamento do Orçamento da SME Preencha o quadro abaixo em relação aos três últimos anos (2004, 2005, 2006) Orçamento da Secretaria Municipal da Educação 2004 2005 2006(executado (executado) (executado) até outubro) 1 Custos recorrentes=(2) + 11) +(17) 2. Despesas com pessoal (3)+(6)+(7) 3 Pagamento de professores (4)+ (5) 4. Professores em sala de aula 5. Professores em outras atividades 6 Pessoal administrativo 7.Pessoal de apoio pedagógico * 8.Despesas com Treinamento = (9)+(10) 9.Treinamento de professores leigos 10.Treinamento de professores habilitados 169 11. Outras despesa recorrentes =(12)+(13)+(14)+(15)+(16) 12. Transporte 13. Reabilitarão e manutenção de escolas e outros prédios da SME 14. Materiais Didáticos 15. Outras matérias de consumo 16. Despesas com Merenda escolar 17. Despesas variadas (miscelâneas) 18. Custos Capital =(19) + (20) + (21)+(22)+(23) 19. Infra-estrutura 20. Aquisição de veículos 21. Aquisição de equipamentos 22. Amortização de dividas 23. Outras despesas de capital (miscelâneas) 24. Despesas fora do orçamento 25. Despesas com Inativos 26. Total das miscelâneas de despesas de capital e recorrente 27. Total = (1) + (18) + (24) + (25) + (26) 3. Financiamento das escolas a) A Rede Municipal descentraliza recursos para suas escolas? Não Sim Qual o valor e a freqüência dos repasses e para que atividades são destinados? ___________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ b) Quais os critérios para alocação dos recursos nas escolas? (i) Número de alunos (ii) Proposta do PDE (Plano de Desenvolvimento da Escola ) (iii) Combinação dos dois itens acima (iv) Nenhum dos critérios acima PARTE 9: EDUCAÇÃO INFANTIL 170 PARTE 10: PROFESSORES 1. Carga Horária e Salário Médio do Professor: a) Os professores municipais têm , em média, a mesma carga horária? Sim 1, Não b) Se não, especifique por quantas horas a maioria dos professores contratados.______________________________ c) É possível identificar, em média, quantas horas semanais os professores municipais dedicam a aula e quantas à sua preparação? • Carga horária semanal(média) em sala de aula • Carga horária semanal(média) em preparação de aulas d) O salário médio do professor das escolas municipais é maior do que os dos professores estaduais no mesmo nível? Sim 1 Não 2 e) A remuneração dos professores é um assunto crítico na secretaria? Sim 1 Não 2 2. Capacitação dos Professores a) Existe programa de capacitação de professores ? Sim 1, Não 2 b) Se sim, quem realiza a capacitação dos professores municipais? (i) A SME (ii) A Secretaria Estadual (iii) Universidades (iv) Os supervisores pedagógicos (v) Outros Indique quais são_______________________________________ 171 c) Qual a freqüência dos treinamentos ? (i) Anual (ii) Mensal (iii) Semestral (iv) Sempre que há um novo programa (v) Outros Indique_________________________ d) Existe algum sistema pelo qual o professor participa da decisão sobre o conteúdo de seu treinamento ? Sim 1 Não 2 3. Conteúdo da Capacitação dos Professores Tipo de treinamento Sim Não Metodologias de ensino-aprendizagem Métodos de alfabetização Métodos de avaliação da aprendizagem dos alunos Planejamento educativo (PDE) Conteúdos das disciplinas Manejo de programas de aceleração da aprendizagem Metodologia da Escola Ativa Treinamento sobre Padrões Curriculares Metodologia de programas para Jovens e Adultos Uso adequado da bibliotecas escolares Uso de material multimídia Preparação de material didático Organização e uso de laboratórios de Ciências Nutrição e merenda escolar Métodos para trabalho com alunos portadoras de deficiências Relações Inter-pessoais na escola Outros (indique nas linhas abaixo _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 4. Sistema promoção dos professores 172 a) Existe um Plano de Carreira do Professor? Sim 1 Não 2 b) Se existe, quais os critérios para serem promovidos (assinale uma das opções abaixo): (i) Qualificação profissional (ii) Tempo de serviço (iii) Numero de treinamentos recebidos (iv) Combinação do (ii ) + ( iii) (v) Outros critérios Indique quais são esses critérios________________ c) Ademais do sistema de promoção existe um sistema de incentivos para os professores? Sim 1 Não 2 a) Se sim, qual o critério para aplicar o incentivo? Com base no: (i) Desempenho dos alunos Sim 1 Não 2 (ii) Resultado geral da escola Sim 1 Não 2 (iii) Resultado da Avaliação do professor Sim 1 Não 2 (iv) Outros Sim 1 Não 2 . b) Se sim para os incentivos , qual o tipo de incentivo oferecido (i) Financeiro Sim 1 Não 2 (ii) Bolsa de estudos para aperfeiçoamento Sim 1 Não 2 (iii) Pontos para a aposentadoria Sim 1 Não 2 c) Existe um sistema para avaliação dos professores da rede? Sim 1. Não 2 ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 173 PARTE 11: GESTÃO ESCOLAR 1. Modelo de Direção adotado nas escolas do município a) As escolas municipais são administradas somente por um Diretor? Sim 1 Não 2 b) As escolas municipais são administradas por um núcleo gestor? Sim 1 Não 2 Se sim , qual a composição do núcleo gestor ? _____________________ 2. Pré-requisitos e Critérios para ser Diretor de uma escola municipal. a) Para ser indicado como Diretor de uma escola municipal é necessário: (i) Licenciatura Plena Sim 1 Não 2 (ii) Escola Normal Sim 1 Não 2 (iii) Outros Sim 1 Não 2 b) Quais os critérios adotados para escolha do Diretor de uma escola municipal? (i) Concurso público Sim 1 Não 2 (ii) Indicação Política Sim 1 Não 2 (iii) Eleição pela Comunidade Escolar Sim 1 Não 2 (iv) Concurso +eleição da comunidade escolar Sim 1 Não 2 (v) Outros critérios Sim 1 Não 2 3. Seleção e Papel do Conselho Escolar na gestão da escola a) As escolas municipais têm Conselho Escolar? Sim 1 Não 2 b) O Conselho Escolar é indicado pela SME? Sim 1, Não 2 c) A seleção do Conselho Escolar é feito pela comunidade escolar? Sim 1 Não 2 d) O Conselho Escolar é composto por : ___________________________ 174 e) Em quais atividades o Conselho Escolar apóia a escola?: (i) No monitoramento do desempenho dos alunos Sim 1 Não 2 (ii) No desenvolvimento das atividades pedagógicas Sim 1 Não 2 (iii) Na administração dos recursos da escola Sim 1 Não 2 (iv) Na aprovação do Plano de desenvolvimento da escola Sim 1 Não 2 (v) Na manutenção da escola Sim 1 Não 2 (vi) Na preparação da merenda Sim 1 Não 2 (vii) Na busca de recursos adicionais para a escola Sim 1 Não 2 (viii) Nas atividades culturais da escola Sim 1 Não 2 (ix) No desenvolvimento das atividades pedagógicas Sim 1 Não 2 (x) No desenvolvimento das atividades desportivas Sim 1 Não 2 4. Capacitação da equipe de gestão da Escola a. A Secretaria Municipal de Educação (SME ) treina sistematicamente os Diretores das Escolas Sim 1 Não 2 b. Onde existe Núcleo Gestor Sim 1 Não 2 c. Conselhos Escolares Sim 1 Não 2 1. Existe no município outras agencias ou empresas que apóiam as escolas no desenvolvimento do seu trabalho educativo? Sim 1, Não 2 a) Se sim, por favor indique quais são e quais os programas que apóiam . 2. Apoio da Comunidade às Escolas Municipais Indique se no município a comunidade participa dos programas seguintes: (i) Amigos da Escola Sim 1, Não 2 (ii) Programa de Voluntários na escola Sim 1 Não 2 (iii) Adote uma escola (por empresas) Sim 1, Não 2 (iv) Outros Sim 1, Não 2 Se sim, em “Outros”, indique quais são esses programas _____________________________________________________ 175 PARTE 12: POLÍTICAS DIFERENCIADAS PARA UMA REDE ESCOLAR HETEROGÊNEA ROTEIRO PARA ENTREVISTA COM DIRETORES ESCOLARES/PROFESSORES Nós estamos fazendo uma pesquisa sobre a rede escolar municipal buscando compreender os fatores que afetam o desempenho educativo dos alunos. Como parte dela, gostaríamos de ter uma idéia da percepção da direção e professores dessa escola acerca da política educacional do município. Nesse sentido, gostaria que qualificasse o apoio dado pela SME para cada um dos tópicos abaixo relacionados : Parcela dos problemas resolvidos a tempo Nenhuma Todas Não há problema Natureza dos Problemas 0 1 2 3 4 5 Projeto Pedagógico Infra-estrutura Atender demandas dos professores relativa a conteúdo das disciplinas Atender demandas dos professores relativas a didática e métodos de ensino Monitoramento da presença dos Professores Substituição dos professores licenciados Monitoramento da freqüência escolar dos alunos Deficiência nos métodos de avaliação da aprendizagem do aluno Relacionamento diretor x professores Relacionamento escola x comunidade Carência de livros e materiais didáticos 176 Problemas de merenda escolar Problemas de violência Questões disciplinares Problemas de relacionamento professor x aluno such L:\HD Sector\AAA\QUALITY OF EDUC. SPENDING\Different Paths To Student Learning.doc 16/6/2008 16:31:00