Public Issues
November 11,2004
N° 701
EDUCATION:
NEED OF GOALS AND TIME PERIODS
The recent statements of the Minister of Education
with respect to not recognizing the goals of quality
established in the previous management give grounds for
great concern, especially when the measurements show
that they are becoming more distant.
having an adequate design to resolve the problems for
which they were thought.
What are the Goals that Exist?
At present there are few concrete goals in
education and the ones that there are, are related more
with achievement of consumables
Because any public policy that
than learning results.
The
is designed and any program that is
The performance of the Chilean
economic efforts of the last years
implemented must be evaluated in
educational system shows no
have been strongly focused on
terms of its effectiveness – that is to
advances. The bad news received
infrastructure, salary improvement
say, check if it complies with the
in 2000 in relation with the very high for teachers and other focalized
objective for which it was thought;
proportion of students who did not
programs. In this sense, programs
and if not, introduce the necessary
acquire basic learning – 32% in the
such as the complete school day
modifications that will permit reaching
case of mathematics – and that
have lessened the merit of the
it
motivated special programs and
central objective “improvement in
resources,
were
repeated
a
couple
learning” that should guide their
The goals indicate this
of years later.
implementation. That is to say, the
objective, and for this reason must
goal has become that the schools
refer to concrete achievements of
should have a complete school day;
fulfillment and not only to declaration
forgetting
that,
in
spite
of the great benefits that it
of intentions. When one hears of programs whose goal is
represents,
if
it
is
not
translated
into an improvement in
to “improve the quality of teaching”, it is difficult to
learning,
the
central
objective
of
the educational system
measure its effectiveness. This, because for one part,
will not have been fulfilled.
there are different definitions of the concept “quality of
teaching”; and on the other, there are increases of 1 point
This lack of goals associated to strong problems of
in SIMCE that would reflect its “fulfillment” in the same
incentives are determinant of the low quality situation that
way that would be done by increases of 50 points.
exists at present in the schools of our country, and that is
reflected in the results of the measurements that are
But the goals are not the only important element at
made periodically.
the time when effectiveness is evaluated; it is also
necessary to define time periods in which such goals
must be fulfilled. The time periods show, in a certain
way, the possibilities of reaching them; and the lack of
The results of the 4th grade are the ones that give
them makes evaluation impossible, because the date for
most information since they not only show the score of
it can always be postponed. This is translated into the
each establishment, municipality, and region, as occurs in
fact that the programs continue to function in spite of not
the measurements of 8th grade and 10th grade; but it also
qualifies the students in four levels of performance1
Why are Goals Required?
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Table No.1:
SIMCE 1999
Levels of Performance
language
mathematics
deficient
19%
32%
basic
31%
31%
Intermediate
25%
25%
high
25%
12%
to say, the present situation reflects that the
quality of the learning of the 4th grade students
is farther from the goal than when it was
established (Graph No. 1)
The above seems to be a signal of alarm
with respect to the policies that are being used
to attack the problem of deficient quality, which
are failing in their objective. Such reality should
lead to an evaluation of its design in order to
introduce the changes that are required in a
timely manner.
Instead of looking for opportune
solutions which in a few months from when the
time period has expired – permit reaching the
objective, the Ministry has ignored the
relevance of the goals imposed.
Source: Results Simce Test 1999, 4th Grade.
making a difference between those who are able to
acquire the basic learning, from those who did not
achieve it or who exceed it. The levels are: low, basic
intermediate and high.
One would have to ask oneself about the
reasons for such decision:
This categorization has been occurring since the
measurement of 1999, which when made known in 2000
– generated great impact because of the situation it
showed (table No. 1): 32% of the children of the 4th grade
obtained a deficient performance (that then became low2)
in mathematics, and 19% were in that category in
language.
-
-
On that occasion, the low results motivated the
definition of a concrete goal of achievement: reduce the
proportion in the category of deficient (low) to half, in
2005.
Why is it impossible to reach the goal? It is to
be hoped that no one thinks so, all the children
can learn and there are many schools that can
give testimony of it. .
Why is it not important to have goals? To which
one should reply with another question: without
them, how can we check that we are going in the
right direction?
Special programs focused on the children with a
lower performance in order to make it possible to comply
with the goal also accompanied the decision.
Graph No. 1
Proportion of students in low level
We got farther away from the Goal
45%
The following measurement in which the 4th
grades participated, corresponded to SIMCE 2002 –
made known in 2003 – showed a critical situation: not
only no advances were observed that would permit
trusting that the goal would be fulfilled in the following 3
years since the proportion of children in the deficient
category (low) was not reduced; but there was even an
increase of children in it, reaching in the case of
mathematics 35% of the students (Table No. 2). That is
35%
25%
32%
35%
goal 2005
15%
5%
1999
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2002
Conclusion
Table No. 2
SIMCE 2002
Performance Levels
language
mathematics
19%
35%
low
basic
30%
29%
23%
24%
iintermediate
high
28%
12%
Source: Results Simce Test 2002- 4th Grades
The performance of the Chilean educational
system does not show advances. The bad news
received in 2000 in relation with the very high
proportion of students who did not get to acquire the
basic learning – 32% in the case of mathematics –
and that motivated special programs and resources,
were repeated a couple of years later.
Now, the goals established on this occasion
apparently are not recognized. Instead of that the
hoped-for behavior would be the evaluation- in
terms of effectiveness of the learning – of each one
of the programs that is being carried out identifying
and introducing the necessary modifications to
achieve the advances that are required.
What must be done?
In the case of mathematics the categories represent the
following contents: (1) deficient level: although the students of this
level may have developed numerical abilities and notions of geometry
and spatial location, their performance is unstable and they do not
have complete dominion of the basic skills described in the following
level; (2) basic level: recognize basic geometrical figures such as
squares, triangle and rectangle, apart from reading and decomposing
numbers of four figures. It also compares lengths and instances in
simple plans; (3) intermediate level: recognize geometric bodies such
as cone, pyramid, cylinder or cube ; resolve daily problems that imply
adding and subtracting. Also calculate multiplications and divisions
with one figure multiplier and use graded ruler in centimeters to
measure lengths; and (4) high level: resolve problems that involve
multiplication or division and calculate partial results to reach a global
solution of the problems presented. In addition, resolve problems that
require fractioning of units (halves, thirds and fourths) and calculate
time intervals.
The 2002 measurement introduces some changes in the
definition of what the students know and can do in the different
performance levels, describing in greater detail: (1) lower level: in
general they do not dominate the group of knowledge and skills
described for the basic level; (2) basic level: they recognize basic
geometric figures establish relations of position and distance in street
plan and associate objects of the physical space with their
representation in two dimensions. They read numbers of up to 4
figures, they establish relation of order between them and find
regularities in a sequence. They recognize equivalences between a
sum of money and its additive decomposition using real currency
values. They resolve sums and subtractions with numbers of up to 3
figures, they also resolve problems that require understanding a dayto-day situation and finding a simple strategy for resolution (count,
make groupings, present and resolve a simple operation); (3)
intermediate level: apart from that of the preceding level, they
recognize bodies, determining the shape and number of their faces in
flat representations of them. They recognize opposed and parallel
sides of geometric figures, determine locations and routes in a street
plan from verbal descriptions in which they use elements of the
landscape as references.
The lack of an advance in learning should
motivate a reallocation of the resources that are destined
to education. The proportion of the public budget for
education that goes to centralized programs has been
increasing remarkably in the last years, which, in spite of
assigning most of it through subsidy, causes that this
should be losing importance
The allocation of resources towards programs
centralized in the Ministry of Education – such as the
complete school day, MECE programs, P900, among
many others – has the disadvantage that it does not take
into consideration the specific problems of each school
that prevent it from improving its performance; on the
contrary, the programs managed from the Ministry
determine fixed destinations for the resources allocated,
not allowing the schools to give them priority in the way
each one of them considers more efficient to resolve
them.
The path to be followed according to the above
signals should be to strengthen the subsidy, permitting
sufficient flexibility for a good management. In the same
line, a differenced subsidy should be implemented that
would make it possible for the students of scant
resources to have greater mobility, as in a certain way
they are maintained captive, by the present focalization
system, since when they “move” to other schools they
lose their assistance.
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They establish equivalences between quantity of money and
additive decomposition, passing from one to another numerical ambit.
They resolve subtractions reserving numbers of up to 4 figures as well
as multiplications and divisions with multiplier and divisor of one figure.
They resolve problems in which several strategies of resolution can be
used and that require determining a sequence of operations to obtain
a result; (4) high level: apart from that of the above levels, they identify
trajectories in a plan using spatial reference of laterality (left and right)
and of sequence of events (before and after). They use the concepts
of parallelism and perpendicularity, both to orient positions in a street
plan and to characterize geometrical figures. They resolve problems
of fractioning in day-to-day situations, calculating parts of a whole,
determining a half of a fraction given or else the part that lacks to
complete the whole. They are capable of determining what problem
can be resolved by a certain operation, for which they give sense to
the data and establish relations between them, without the need of
calculating a final numerical result. They determine duration of time
intervals.
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