Published Monday, May 10, 2004
Alvarez Tells Students: "Si, Se Puede"
Mexican Educator Pushes Listeners to Believe in the Capacity for Change
By Rebekka Olsen
APPIAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

At some level, he said, you just have to believe that you can do something valuable, even in the face of strong adversity. “You have to believe that you can,” he said.

Alvarez, who addressed the IEP cohort and students from Fernando Reimers’ class on poverty and inequality in Latin America, shared the insights and knowledge that have come from being the director of a program to improve the most marginalized public schools in Mexico called “The Quality Schools Program,” or QSP.

But Alvarez aimed also to inspire students to continue in the idealistic work that they do, to do more, and to maintain high expectations of both those with whom they work, and of themselves as educators and aspiring policy makers.

Alvarez believes, on the most basic level, that people and school communities made up of potential change agents can surprise you, and that often they are more capable, resourceful and knowledgeable than you would ever have imagined. In addition, he believes in the power of commitment and self-evaluation. Even when you don’t reach all the goals that you set, it is important that you set them, and work to attain them, he pointed out.

Combining these core beliefs, his QSP program focuses on changing social norms at the school level by creating school capacity for goal setting, planning and decision making, as well as encouraging horizontal management and resource allocation in public education.

The program operates under the belief that “the key for increasing the quality of education rests on the internal organization of the school and its capacity to focus on learning achievements.”

The QSP model also espouses that “each school community (teachers and parents) has the responsibility to identify its needs, challenges and possible goals, however, it requires external support and confidence.”

Alvarez also explained some of the key learning points in the course of the QSP program, particularly in terms of identifying what makes schools successful organizations: they are schools that have effective management, parent-school partnerships and quality teaching.

“We have to change the way that schools are managed, the way that they relate to parents, but mostly the way that teachers teach,” he said. “Teachers have to help students to think, collaborate, to teach citizenship, create communities and solve problems in a peaceful manner. And elicit active, critical and creative participation.”

The QSP program believes so strongly in the capacity of the schools to manage their own resources that they have worked on creating mechanisms by which at least 94 percent of the program money is utilized directly by schools.

By the same token, QSP believes that it is capacity building at the school level, and not just top-down, input-based reforms, that will help these lower performing schools.

As such, QSP provides assistance in the form of consultants for the school during a five- year period within which the school generates a goal for each year and then evaluates itself on the attainment of this goal, and then generates a new goal for the next year.

Importantly, this can be any goal and any plan that they desire. It is then the role of QSP to support the school in their attainment of this goal.

In total, 15,000 schools in 1,467 participating municipalities are served by the QSP program. In the sample of 1,000 schools that QSP has carefully observed, they have noted positive changes in organizational structures in the way that principals alter their leadership styles, parents becoming more involved and teachers taking greater initiative.

QSP applies national standardized exams in Spanish and mathematics at the schools in the program. In a sample of 1,000 schools, 71 percent of QSP schools have demonstrated a significant increase in student achievement, which is notable given the general decline in achievement levels across Mexican schools.

In Alvarez’s words, “there is no one wise man in Mexico City that has the solution. Each school community has the capacity to identify its needs, authorities and goals. As authorities, we have a more humble task. We should ask the schools what path they want to follow, and we should support the schools."

For more information on the Quality Schools Program in Mexico, visit:
http://www.escuelasdecalidad.net

Rebekka Olsen is an Ed.M. candidate in International Education Policy.