Teach First Spain
Programa Empieza por Educar (ExE)
Fundación Empieza por Educar
Evidence of results
Purpose related to Let's Care
Level of Education
Pillars
Brief description of the Project
Duration
Scope
Funds
Objectives
The ExE Programme is a professional development programme aimed at young people and professionals who aspire to bring about educational and social change for the benefit of equal opportunities for all students.
Methodology
For two years, the participants will co-teach with teachers in schools in disadvantaged environments, pursuing the academic and competence growth of the students while receiving training and accompaniment to maximise their impact in the classroom. In these external trainings, participants work on key aspects to establish a relationship of attachment with their students, also enhancing their academic performance. To this end, they receive tutoring once a month in the classroom, to see those aspects in which their teaching performance can be strengthened. Likewise, participants are guided in future itineraries to alleviate the educational gap, such as: public advocacy, innovation, teacher training or classroom teacher.
Type of Action
Target Group and Determinants attended
Professionals involved
Networking - Actors and Institutions mobilised by the Project
Enablers
The programme is part of the International Teach for All Network, which gives it the capacity to generate a very strong network of collaborations. This, together with a specific working methodology that has been improved through experience, are the strengths of the organisation.
Barriers
The programme is largely dependent on funding from regional administrations to provide grants for trainee teachers. This creates some uncertainty among trainees and in the organisation itself.
Grade of linkage with the Safe Education Model
The programme does not highlight the concept of attachment in the classroom and how to implement it, but it does work on it inherently. For example, it provides teachers with tools to implement certain competences in the classroom, such as socio-emotional competence or autonomy. Similarly, throughout the course, students are given questionnaires to find out their emotional state and how well they are integrated into the group and the school.
Grade of linkage with the purpose of Let's Care
One of the programme's objectives is to reduce educational inequality by targeting students from the most vulnerable socio-economic backgrounds. To this end, the trainee teachers begin the programme in a summer camp as teachers of English, mathematics and language, with the aim of reducing the educational gap that is generated in this type of students during the summer period. Subsequently, during the school term, the different trainee teachers are sent to schools in highly vulnerable environments where they carry out their work.
Grade of evidence about impact and political relevance
There are few studies on the programme. However, the Foundation is responsible for collecting a great deal of evidence, both socio-emotional and academic, in the years in which its participants are part of the Programme. The percentage of students who pass their subjects at the end of the school year exceeds 80% in those classes without the Foundation's participants, when in the results of the diagnostic tests carried out by the centres and teachers, the initial number of students who passed did not exceed 35%. Similarly, the programme is highly rated by the schools, both by the management teams and by the students. Students highlight, among other aspects, its closeness to the students.
Grade of evidence about impact - Project deliverables
Reproducibility
The programme has a regional impact, currently being developed in schools in Madrid and Catalonia, following a very similar methodology. It is a highly replicable programme, as the organisation's membership of the Teach for All Network has allowed synergies to be created with numerous countries where this programme has also been implemented in similar environments and with the same success.
Outcomes
Equity, equal opportunities.