ARGENTINA: Institute for the Development of Quality in Education (IDECE)

Context

 Within the context of the educational reform carried out in 1993, the provisional organization of the Ministry of National Culture and Education was approved by Decree 506. As part of this provisional organization, the Department of Educational Programming and Evaluation was established, and within it, the Under Department of Educational Quality Evaluation under whose authority were placed the National Directorate of Evaluation and the General Directorate for the Federal Education Information System. In February 2001 these two directorates were absorbed by the Institute for the Development of Quality in Education (IDECE), established by Presidential Decree 165.
IDECE operates in every jurisdiction and every school in the country, in rural as well as urban areas. It is active mainly within the school system focusing on the primary and secondary levels.

Objectives

The aim of IDECE, as established by Decree 165/01, is to promote a system of quality education combining equity with high academic standards. Its primary responsibility is to serve as the central administrative authority of the state with responsibility for general evaluation of the national educational system, the operation of an integrated education information system, and the promotion and conduct of research for the purposes of formulating policies to promote quality and help reduce educational inequalities.
The central objective of IDECE is to improve and develop information systems with respect to basic general education. Specifically, the Institute's work includes:
  • Regularly monitoring the functioning of the education system in terms of academic performance, producing information comparable at the national level. This is essential to maintaining an integrated system, by permitting timely detection of excessive discrepancies between jurisdictions.
  • Strengthening the process of decentralization, which provides relevant information on the educational system in each jurisdiction relative to the national context.
  • Providing indispensable information for the formulation of compensatory policies to ensure equity by permitting disadvantaged sectors in the system to be identified, special resources to be assigned to them, and the educational impact of equity policies to be evaluated.
  • Facilitating the participation of stakeholders in the management of education activities, providing relevant and continuous information on educational performance.

    Pedagogical Challenges

    According to the diagnostic assessment conducted, for society as a whole as well as for the organizations concerned, educational quality appears to be one of the most critical problems facing Argentina. It was therefore necessary to obtain precise and up-to-date information on what is occurring within the educational system for use by all stakeholders in the educational system.

    General Description

    The program consists of the following stages:
  • Students in the third, sixth, and the ninth grades and in their final year at the intermediate level of the educational system are evaluated. A sample of the population is taken which includes sections of the education system that are representative of each of the country's provinces. The students participate as National Evaluation Subjects, on the basis of a census or sample, and as International Evaluation Subjects representing the Argentine Republic.
  • The teachers for the courses to be evaluated complete the "Supplemental Questionnaires for Teachers" (questionnaires covering variables related to their classroom work and other general information, age, sex, etc.).
  • The administrators of the institutions where the evaluations are conducted must complete the "Administrative Context Questionnaire" covering variables pertaining to the school in general, form of administration, etc.).
  • The results are compiled and processed by IDECE, which prepares official documents for the purpose of presenting its conclusions to the educational community.
  • The political and technical bodies responsible for education policy decisions use the information obtained for the purposes of decision-making.


    • Participating Individuals and Institutions

    IDECE staff perform the various tasks of coordination, management, training, and organization. Stakeholders within the system include political and technical agency officials at the national and jurisdictional levels as well as regional and local operational teams composed of practitioners, supervisors, managers, and members of the educational units: teachers and students.

    Budget and Financing

    The main source of financing for the program has always been the National Treasury. A loan was obtained for the five-year period 1995-2000 (World Bank No. 3794).

    Strengths

  • Implementation of wide-ranging activities covering every school in the country (National Evaluation Subjects, Annual Education Information Surveys).
  • The country was brought into the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), enabling IDECE to enter into the international evaluation activities conducted by that association.
  • Argentina has begun participating in the following studies:
    - TIMSS � R, (Third International Mathematics and Science Study )
    - Preparations for TIMSS-2003 (which will evaluate trends in mathematics and science in 2003).
    - The International Civic Education Study.
    - PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study), for fourth year general basic education students.
  • - PISA (Program for International Student Assessment), launched by the OECD, which evaluates the relationship between educational systems and employment opportunities for graduates.

    Lessons Learned

  • The development of instruments for data collection and evaluation is of vital importance for the monitoring of national education policies.
  • The generation of substantive information for management, policymaking, and teaching activities at all levels of the education system (national, provincial, municipal, and school)) also strengthens the capacity of local governments.
  • It is important for the program to ensure coordination between the various areas of the Ministry of Education and provincial teams and international organizations.

    Future Challenges
  • Mantener una actualizaci�n en las formas de evaluaci�n y relevamiento de la informaci�n, que permita ir respondiendo a demandas m�s espec�ficas. Para esto se requiere capacitaci�n constante e implementaci�n de acciones renovadoras en los campos espec�ficos.
  • To constantly update evaluation and information gathering methods in order to respond to ever more specific requirements. This requires continuous training and refresher activities in the fields concerned.
  • To encourage greater use and application of the information generated.
  • To develop and strengthen a system for the precise recording of all published material on IDECE.

    Responding to the Challenges of the Summit

    IDECE adheres to the commitments undertaken in Quebec City, which are consistent with the strengthening of equity with educational quality throughout the country.

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