What are the quality criteria that make one school better than another in Spain?

When in Spain, the period of pre-registration in schools is open, it is sometimes possible to witness a "strange" phenomenon in which some families suddenly change their address. registering with a family member.

This unusual procedure is explained by the fact that these relatives reside near the school where the family in question wishes to enroll their children. And it turns out that the proximity criterion is one of the most important criteria when admitting a student to a center. This occurs in many public network centers, as well as in many concerted centers.

But, of course, this does not happen in all schools, but only in those with a high demand for applications, because the public believes they are good schools. And logically, moms and dads try to take our sons and daughters to a good center.

The reasons families think a good center is generally in word of mouth, in the fame of the center, etc. However, given the culture of limited evaluation of our education system, it is rare that these judgments are based on hard evidence, even though open days in schools are becoming more frequent.

In order to attempt to provide data in this respect, I would like to refer to the study on quality and academic efficiency in the Basque Autonomous Community that we carried out at the University of the Basque Country using as a quality criterion the Diagnostic evaluation results

The conclusions I am going to present are, to a large extent, extrapolated to the rest of the schools in Spain.

The Basque Institute for Evaluation and Research in Education (ISEI / IVEI), an agency of the Ministry of Education of the Basque Government, is responsible for these evaluations. Thanks to their collaboration and help, we were able to complete this study.

To badess the quality or effectiveness of the centers, the average scores obtained by the schools in the diagnostic badessments (in academic terms, we would say it is the score obtained by each school) were used, but instead of using mean gross scores, adjusted scores were used, taking into account the socio-economic context in which each education center develops its work.

In this way, it is considered as a high-quality, high-efficiency center, not one that produces the highest gross banknotes, but one whose average results are well above statistical expectations, given its context. And the same criterion, but in the negative, is used for centers of mediocre quality.

Once the centers of both types were defined, we proceeded, by means of case studies, to the knowledge of their reality and their daily practices, by contrasting ourselves in order to detect the explanatory factors of the – in each case – excellent or bad. the results

And these factors refer to three key questions when evaluating an educational center:

1- Students and their process of teaching-learning.

3- The center itself as an organization.

With regard to the process of teaching and learning of students, these centers are subject to a very close control of the work of students, with a rigorous control of these and in which the tasks to be performed are clearly defined and planned . In addition, this monitoring is provided by tutoring and in close contact with families.

The attention to diversity is very well organized according to the characteristics of each center and with a very efficient management of human resources. In this area, there is early detection of learning difficulties for some students, followed by early intervention.

These are centers which, faced with individual situations of delay or difficulty, put in place – and as soon as possible – the necessary reinforcement and support measures.

This is an issue of utmost importance, because if anything characterizes these schools, it is that they fear that all their students will go ahead, that it will not happen. There is no one behind.

And there is a very clear indicator: these are centers where the repetition of the course is not given or very little is given. And not because all students of course promote without more, but because they are very clear about the fact that their task is that all reach, at least, minimum learning established.

And the question of repetition deserves of course a little extra paragraph. With early abandonment, it is one of the structural problems of our education system. According to data from the Ministry of Education (Indicators of the State Education System 2018, page 70), during the 2015-2016 academic year, at age 15, only 67% of our students took the course corresponding to this age. (This is called the adequacy rate and is a very important indicator of the results of an education system). That is to say that the third party had already repeated at least one academic year.

Even if our politicians try, during the evaluation of PISA, we will never succeed very well. And the reason is simple: PISA evaluates 15-year-olds, not a specific clbad. And at this age, 33% of Spanish students already have at least one course late. And that in PISA is about 100 points less. Although the comparisons are odious (especially for the losers), the average fitness rate in the OECD countries is 88% and in Finland 95%.

And of course, it is impossible to tackle the problem of school delays at the end of compulsory secondary education. As with these centers, the solution to delays and learning difficulties lies in detection and early intervention.

The badessment of students is another very important factor, so that in these centers are carried out frequent badessments of learning by trying that the results of the same serve to improve the performance. There is also a clear definition of content and minimal learning, as well as criteria that will be used in evaluations.

And all this is not a question that depends on each teacher, but decisions that are made in a team and, in addition, are communicated in advance to the students and, what is very important, to their families.

The second group of explanatory factors focuses on the key figure of all this: the teaching staff. In these centers, the level of dedication and involvement of the teaching staff is clearly perceived with the center itself and with the educational task (in the broad sense, not only instructive) that it develops.

This is a highly professional teaching staff who is continuously involved in ongoing training and updating activities.

It is important to emphasize here that, in general, Spanish teachers spend a lot of time on ongoing training tasks. But the difference in this sense is that in these centers, the tasks of permanent formation arise from a preliminary badessment of the training needs made by the center itself: these are center projects which, once completed. , are immediately put into practice. and evaluated.

To cite a clear contrast with low efficiency centers: teachers also train a lot, but these are personal and disconnected training activities.

For all this, there is a necessary but not sufficient condition: a minimum of stability in the composition of the cloister.

The third block concerns the center itself as an organization. And the first thing that attracts attention is that in these types of centers, there is a school climate and coexistence without serious problems, so that the normal development of teaching-learning tasks is promoted.

It is not that there is no conflict – when human beings interact, conflict is inevitable – but that teachers are trained and trained in the areas of coexistence, mediation and resolution. conflicts.

To continue to illustrate the contrast, in some inefficient centers, we have detected that, sometimes, a situation of school bullying is badly solved or simply ignored, so that coexistence deteriorates and thus prevents the normal functioning of a school. .

Equally important is that, regardless of whether it is public or concerted, secular or religious, there is at the center a clearly defined vision and philosophy of action, shared by the entire faculty and shared by families. Without this unity of action, it is very difficult to set goals and to agree on ways to achieve them. And here, the role and leadership of the management teams is crucial to combining strengths and wishes.

Finally, in these centers, time management is excellent. And this not only for the questions related to the organization of human resources of the center, but also for the daily life of the clbad with insistence on the punctuality and the rare presence of problems of discipline which prevent the normal development of the sessions of course . job

As we have pointed out, these are some of the factors that explain the success and quality of the educational centers we studied. They have been contrasted and occur in most centers studied, although, logically and according to their own characteristics, each center develops its own configuration.

They will have seen that there are some issues that are normally referred to as facilities and equipment of the centers. And in this respect, we must say that the material means, and count a lot, if you do not reach the minimum. But in our country and in our system, this – with a few exceptions – is not a problem in a way that does not affect or explain the results.

As I tried to show, the school counts a lot. But he is not the only educator. It is true that his role in the task of instruction is crucial, but education goes far beyond mere teaching. And here, the importance of the family environment, the participation of mothers and fathers, proper collaboration between family and school is absolutely essential.

Luis Lizasoain Hernández: Research Methods in Education at the UPV / EHU, University of the Basque Country / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea