33196 INTERNATIONALBANK FOR WORLD BANK R E T C N O E N STRUCTION PM AND DEVELO March 2005 No. 64 A regular series of notes highlighting recent lessons emerging from the operational and analytical program of the World Bank`s Latin America and Caribbean Region BARRIERS TO BETTER QUALITY EDUCATION IN CENTRAL AMERICA Emanuela Di Gropello Background substantially worse for poorer groups. Central America's single most important educational chal- Factors inside and outside the educational system affect lenge is improving learning at all levels. Improved learning is educational outcomes: the children, as influenced by their vital for individual and national growth, competitiveness, and families and communities; teachers; pedagogy and curricu- quality of life. Today, most children complete their education lum; educational materials and infrastructure; and school without gaining sufficient skills to earn a good living. Poor management. Attending school does not automatically pro- learning outcomes cause vide necessary skills and school abandonment, grade knowledge. This note, based on failure and repetition; and a new report by the World snowball into larger and larger Bank1, focuses on so-called problems as students attempt to supply-side constraints to move to subsequent grades learning (school characteris- without the necessary skills and tics) in El Salvador, Guatemala, knowledge, resulting in more Honduras and Nicaragua, but repetition, drop out, and absen- also mentions demand-side teeism at higher levels regard- constraints. Policy options are less of the quality of later suggested to address different teachers. Improving learning types of constraints. can directly improve cognitive skills and abilities, and increase National Educational educational attainment by low- Assessment Systems ering drop-out and repetition. Quality is key to completing primary education and the Education For All goals in Central America. Higher quality A first barrier to improving learning in Central America is the will make workers more productive, increase rates of return insufficient culture and development of evaluation. To ana- to education and provide incentives for further private invest- lyze and improve quality, information is needed on educa- ments in education. tional achievement, and on its determinants. National assess- ment systems have two key roles: (a) providing relevant Learning outcomes require urgent attention in Central information to specific audiences (education authorities, America. Except in Costa Rica, average test scores are low or school directors, teachers, parents) for diagnostic and policy low intermediate relative to each country's standards. Where reform/action purposes; and (b) making education authorities, assessments are comparable over time, results show no clear schools and teachers accountable to the public. improvement in the past decade. Low learning achievements in all countries are associated with low levels of reading Learning outcomes are typically measured through standard- comprehension, often considered the most relevant indicator ized assessments of student achievement in literacy and of educational quality at the third grade. Outcomes appear numeracy. All Central American countries now have stan- 1 dardized testing at primary and/or secondary level. However, Teaching Capacity examination design and national standards differ, making comparisons difficult. Teacher pre-service training is consistently related to student achievement in Central American studies, al- Central American national educational assessment systems though less strongly than elsewhere. also differ in level of experience and institutional integration2, but all are used more for diagnosis and action than for In all countries, it is necessary to complete at least the accountability. Dissemination of assessment information is teacher preparation program ("escuela normal") to weak, despite recent efforts. Feedback to schools and teachers qualify to teach in primary; and university level studies to is limited, and standardized testing at different levels of the qualify to teach in secondary. El Salvador sets the highest educational cycle could be better aligned with curricula and teacher training requirements and has the largest propor- national standards. Finally, despite recently developed re- tion of teachers who fulfill minimum requirements. Over- gional standards, comparability is still inadequate. all, 90 percent of teachers have tertiary education in El Salvador, 52 percent in Honduras and only 30 percent and Key Learning Constraints 14 percent respectively in Guatemala and Nicaragua (see Table 1). Other key constraints include poverty, low parental Table 1 - Highest Level of Education Attained by education, social and cultural barriers, weak teacher Teachers in Central American Countries performance and accountability, over-dependence on traditional pedagogical practices and insufficient El Salvador Honduras Guatemala Nicaragua instructional time. 2002 2002 2000 2001 % % % % 1. Demand-side constraints Primary 1 3 18 Test scores are correlated with wealth at family, community, Secondary 12 46 (a) 67 (a) 37 and even state levels. Poor families are more likely to lack basic resources that help children learn. Student outcomes Teacher School 26 are also negatively related to low levels of parental literacy Tertiary, Technical 61 (a) 2 3 and education, and certain social and cultural characteristics of students, families, and communities. Linguistic Tertiary, University 27 50 27 (b) 11 differences pose barriers to learning when high-quality Other 1 3 6 bilingual education is not available. This is particularly the case in Guatemala. The children of families that do not value Total 100 100 100 100 education highly, or who feel culturally or socially alienated Source: World Bank (2004). Notes: (a) Including teacher school; (b) In- by schools, are less likely to succeed and advance in school. cludes technical and university tertiary. 2. Teachers Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala face difficulties in Teacher quality is difficult to measure. It involves capacity to attracting (and retaining) qualified competent teachers to transmit the curriculum to students effectively; and rural areas to improve low efficiency and results among motivation and continuous effort to do so. Teaching capacity students from poor families. is related to teacher education levels and quality, quality of in-service support and training, and incentives to attract To some degree, all four countries have a teacher surplus. talented skilled people. Teacher effort and motivation are El Salvador has responded by enhancing teacher selection affected by performance incentives (e.g., supervision and criteria, requiring minimum examination scores and an inspection systems, salaries, and job security). accreditation test (ECAP). Poor results in ECAP and in achievement tests of Guatemalan student teachers in 2000 indicate a need to improve teacher training. Mismatches between demand and supply in teacher specializations contribute to sub-optimal teacher qualifications. Studies show little association between teacher in-service training and achievement, which may reflect measure- ment difficulties and the spotty quality of this training. Overall, in-service teacher training seems to have im- proved in all four countries over the last decade. Systems have become more structured, and more flexible and decentralized, offering on-site school-based training and 2 distance programs, and encouraging participatory method- ticipatory methods appear to improve achievement and ologies and classroom innovation. Challenges remain in decrease repetition and failure rates. improving the relevance and quality of these training pro- grams. Pedagogy and curricular reforms More effort is needed to change and update classroom In the 1990s, all four countries implemented education practices. Too little attention is paid to contexts (multi- reforms that decentralized education through school com- cultural environments, rural areas, etc). Also, too few formal munity-based management, increased education budgets, evaluations exist of training program effectiveness. Follow- and introduced national school achievement assessment up of those trained is needed to determine if they are applying and curriculum reforms (mostly at primary level) to in- what they learned. Finally, in some countries, training re- crease the relevance of education. Evaluation suggests quires long absences from work (for example, Guatemala's that the reforms probably took the right direction, but that two year work/study program). classroom practices have changed little, limiting effective use of new curricula and their impact on learning out- Teacher effort and motivation, measured by teachers' comes. Teachers in Central America are overly dependent absences or working hours, is low in several Central on passive and traditional teaching methods such as American countries. dictation, repetition, lecturing, and individual work. There is a knowledge gap in this area, although the suspected Teachers in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala have reasons include inadequate teacher expertise in participa- all benefited from recent increases in real salary levels. tory pedagogies; lack of textbooks; and teacher opposition Current hourly wage levels are comparable to (or higher to the reforms, exacerbated by limited consultation with than) other professionals with similar qualifications and teachers on the reform process. should, therefore, attract reasonably talented applicants. Indicators of teaching quality (test scores, teacher absen- Instructional time (class hours) teeism and hours worked) do not suggest obvious im- provements in teacher quality generated yet from these Low effective instructional time (see Figure 1) is a major salary improvements. weakness in Central America. Recent studies in Hondu- ras3 and Guatemala4 show that more teaching hours are Current structures of teacher salaries in the region (and associated with better educational achievement and pass throughout Latin America) undermine teacher quality by rates. All countries have introduced school calendars of rewarding seniority and education level without regard to 180-200 days and 25-30 hour school weeks in primary. teachers' performance. Incentives to become qualified are This should yield 900-1,200 class hours a year, in line desirable, but larger than warranted in some countries. It with Latin American standards, although lower than Eu- is good that El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua have rope and South-east Asia (where 1,200-1,750 class hours introduced salary incentives to encourage qualified teach- a year are common).5 However, the widespread perception ers to work in rural or disadvantaged areas. El Salvador in Central America is that teachers' absences, school recently introduced a merit-pay mechanism (el bono al closings and administrative tasks reduce effective class buen desempeño institucional), linking salaries to aspects hours to only 500-800 (or less), 60-80 percent lower than of school efficiency. The effectiveness of this incentive notional class time (although measurement is difficult). still needs to be assessed, but some evidence indicates that school-level performance incentives can boost student Figure 1 achievement, especially on indicators evaluated for the Central America : Notional and effective class hours per year bonus. None of the Central American countries penalize teacher absenteeism. Inspection systems, decentralized systems of teacher monitoring, and fixed-term contracts might also enhance teacher performance. Most countries are increasingly in- volving parents in teacher monitoring in an effort to compensate for the lack of central information on teacher performance, and show promising results. 3. Curricula, teaching methods and instructional time In all four countries, curricula are nationally determined, with some regional differentiation. Teaching strategies-- which should reflect the curriculum--are developed rela- tively autonomously by teachers. Homework frequency, instructional time, curriculum coverage, and active, par- Source: World Bank (2004). 3 Policy Implications to 200 days. Develop better ways of recording teacher absences and school closings at school level, through con- tinuously updating school registers. Implement an efficient Responding to these identified barriers to learning and educa- monitoring system of teacher absences involving the depart- tion quality, this analysis details four main areas of policy ment, district and community level. interventions: (a) improving national assessment systems; (b) enhancing teacher performance; (c) diversifying teaching Design effective interventions to address demand-side con- methodologies; and (d) increasing instructional time. All are straints. Improved quality of teaching and learning through key to improving the quality of teaching and learning. The these interventions could be strengthened by complementary analysis also discusses a few interventions that could improve interventions addressing demand-side constraints, such as learning and education quality by addressing demand-side poverty and low parental education. Demand-side interven- constraints. tions include: (a) publicity campaigns addressing learning quality that give families important information about exams, Institutionalize assessment systems more. This includes timely enrollment, or tips for supporting children's academic starting evaluation at grade 1, and establishing effective success in school; and (b) policies that directly impact dissemination mechanisms. Several innovative assessment children's background characteristics, such as their health, dissemination policies are currently used internationally. One nutrition, and access to clean water and safe homes. Supply- example is school report cards published in local newspapers side interventions include effective incentives for skilled or posted as laminated posters at school teachers to work in rural and low-income entrances. areas and improving current programs for rural and indigenous populations (commu- Improve teacher education and prepara- nity-based school management, multi-grade tion. This includes developing selection teaching and bilingual education). These criteria and diagnostic tools such as ac- programs have achieved substantial im- creditation exams, which may require full provements in performance of poor and teacher certification systems as in El Salva- disadvantaged, but do not provide all the dor and Costa Rica; and reducing demand/ elements identified for high-performing supply gaps in teacher specializations. low-income schools.6 Improve teacher effort. Analyze the feasi- Notes bility of incentive mechanisms such as: (a) carefully designed team-based merit-pay 1 World Bank (2004): "Central America: schemes; (b) salary scales which promote Education Strategy Paper", Green Cover. higher effective hours of work; (c) decen- 2 In El Salvador and Costa Rica, evaluation tralized systems of teacher monitoring; and began in the late 1980s or early 1990s and (d) fixed-term contracts or local authority evaluation departments are fully integrated to hire and fire teachers. Setting-up effec- within the Ministry of Education. Evalua- tive teacher monitoring systems may be the tion is newer and less well established in most effective incentive to increase teacher Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. effort and/or instructional time, possibly 3 di Gropello and Marshall 2004, "Teacher combined with more flexible hiring and effort and schooling outcomes in rural Hon- firing mechanisms. An analysis of school- duras", World Bank (mimeo). based management with community participation in the four 4Marshall 2003, "If you build it will they come? Primary Central American countries suggest that empowering parents school quality and grade attainment in rural Guatemala", to hire, fire and monitor teachers results in greater teacher Stanford University (mimeo). effort as measured by teaching hours. 5PREAL (2002): "El tiempo de aprendizaje en America Latina" ­ Serie Políticas. Diversify teaching strategies and deepen constructivist teach- 6World Bank (2004) identified three key determinants of ing methods. Emphasize classroom practices more in pre- good performance in poor schools: (a) satisfactory levels of service and in-service training and develop innovative ways teacher education and experience; (b) use of new pedagogical of organizing in-service teacher support. This would include practices; and (c) substantive and supportive involvement of creating spaces for teachers to share ideas and methodologies. both teachers and parents in school management. Develop an effective system of school supervision to ensure continuous support for teachers to apply new methodologies. About the Author Curricular reform, standards, training and supervision need to cover secondary grades ­ especially 7 to 9 ­ as well as primary education. Emanuela Di Gropello is a Senior Eductaion Specialist with the Human Development Department of the World Bank's Increase instructional time. Lengthen the official school year Latin Ameria and the Caribbean Region. 4