Strength from Screens (MAIA)

During the pandemic, securing online school access for traditionally marginalized youth has been an essential, and incomplete, solution. 

Do teachers know how to maximize this new platform of instruction? Teachers making this radical, indefinite shift from classroom to screen need to reframe instructional techniques to keep students engaged and practicing the essential 21st-century competencies.  
 
MAIA proposes a partnership with One World Network of Schools (OWNOS), a global entity focused on developing high-impact school leaders. OWNOS designs and delivers state-of-the-art techniques for school leaders and teachers on how to teach/train youth in the online space in a way that meets the needs of the modern economy. 
 
MAIA will convene 10 secondary schools serving traditionally excluded youth in Guatemala to attend five online recorded (for open-source use in the LAC region) training sessions focusing on dynamic, competency-focused instruction.   

For many schools serving traditionally marginalized youth, the pandemic inspired innovation that leapfrogged over obstacles to internet access for students. Teachers in under-resourced schools now have access to students in ways that were difficult to imagine pre-pandemic. This innovation supports teachers and schools with new methodologies and tools that help them respond to these unprecedented challenges.  

Internet access for education is not the same as success. Teachers now must navigate the unchartered waters of online instruction. While in-person schooling is widely preferred, the return to the physical classroom remains indefinite for millions in low-vaccine countries around LAC. 
 
Educators must pivot quickly, indefinitely, and comprehensively to meet the new demands and realities of the online teaching experience. Classroom management, engaging lesson-planning and instruction, social-emotional connections, and formative assessment all must be reconsidered for the screen. 
 
For students in secondary school, it is increasingly difficult to make up the classroom time lost during the pandemic. Teachers in the LAC region are tasked with the double burden of covering more material in less time and doing so in a completely new platform (the screen). Compounding this challenge is the absence of need-specific, contextualized professional development opportunities in Spanish. 

Schools operating in low-resource settings, often operate in isolation. Many schools serving traditionally excluded youth have made tremendous strides in securing internet access for students but now lack the ability to provide professional development to teachers on how to maximize this tool.  

This solution first brings together schools that meet this profile and connects them with contextualized international expertise (One World Network of Schools) to access the fundamentals of effective online instruction. Emphasis will be placed on the following aspects:
Best practices for online teaching/learning, focusing on synchronous/asynchronous pedagogical strategies;
Instructional techniques that engage all learners, so that online classrooms continue to be student-centered and student-led; 
Lesson plan design that emphasizes the development of relevant workplace competencies such as critical thinking and collaboration; and 
Formative assessment techniques to assess learning.
 
These five, 90-minute live-streamed virtual training sessions will model these aspects for 10 impact-driven secondary non-state schools in Guatemala. The sessions will also be recorded for wider dissemination across the Spanish-speaking countries of LAC. The videos will be hosted on the Guatemala non-state school network webpage and disseminated through the Global Schools Forum network as well as several relevant networks in LAC.

This project serves leaders and teachers in non-state secondary schools designed for traditionally excluded youth. 

As schools serving the students often most impacted by the pandemic (and often doing so with minimal resources), these institutions have already moved mountains to secure student access to online instruction. 
 
Students now have access to devices and internet, but often attend online school in challenging circumstances (noisy and crowded homes). Teachers are under enormous pressure to impart engaging lessons for students in difficult circumstances. Very few have received any training for this format and therefore default into lecture-style instruction that does not build out student competencies. 
 
This intervention ensures that internet access generates results among students in vulnerable situations. 

The pandemic continues to unfold. As it does, online learning is becoming a more regular (it is no longer a short-term fix) feature. Many non-state schools, especially those serving traditionally marginalized youth, have demonstrated incredible agility and resourcefulness by securing internet and devices for students. 

Technology works when you know how to use it. Conversely, it is a source of frustration and fury when it does not. This solution opens up the effective use of technology for teachers who can then better serve LAC’s most vulnerable secondary students. 

MAIA operates an award-winning secondary school for Indigenous girls in Guatemala. The proposed project combines the global expertise of the One World Network of Schools with the practice-based innovation hub of MAIA’s Impact School and capitalizes on the emerging network of non-state schools in Guatemala called REdI-Red Educativa de Impacto. 

OWNOS designs and delivers state-of-the-art training for in-country programs around the world on key techniques of instructional leadership and implementing change. OWNOS has been providing technical support to MAIA since 2020 and through this initiative would grow the reach by training 10 non-state schools in Guatemala and then scale further by disseminating the sessions through the Global Schools Forum.

Evidencing the impact of coordinated educational innovations will significantly improve the trajectories of some of Guatemala’s most vulnerable youth. With shared practices and results, this network will have an unprecedented capacity to catalyze innovation in Guatemala’s otherwise stagnant secondary schooling system.

It is widely assumed that schooling unlocks opportunity; however, that belief is predicated on the notion of students receiving a quality education. Even prior to the global pandemic, the talent-to-employment pipeline in Guatemala was broken. Guatemala’s 2019 data showed that just 13.5% of high school graduates were deemed proficient in math, and just 37% achieved aspired levels of literacy. 

In Guatemala, 85% of the country’s 4,412 high schools are non-state schools. These schools are tasked with the enormous job of equipping students with essential transferable skills to prepare them for employment. They now must do more (make up for over a year of missed schooling) with less (in-person schooling is still rare in Guatemala). Compounding this situation is a context of isolation in which schools all confront similar challenges, but do so alone and without external support. 
 
This initiative will capitalize on the emerging network of non-state schools (REdI-Red Educativa de Impacto) (https://www.redi-guatemala.org/) as a foundation for empowering trendsetting school leaders to respond effectively to COVID-19’s devastating effects on student learning. Evidencing the impact of coordinated educational innovations will significantly improve the trajectories of some of Guatemala’s most vulnerable youth while galvanizing a collaborative network of non-state schools. With shared practices and results, this network will have an unprecedented capacity to catalyze innovation in Guatemala’s otherwise stagnant secondary schooling system.

This solution will train educators in how to use technology (tablets, laptops, smartphones) so they can maximize the digital platforms (Zoom, Google, Facebook, among others) so that the instructional techniques can be adapted to virtual lessons engaging students and improving learning outcomes. Developing the technology skills for educators as well as students is going to be key to achieving educational success during the pandemic and beyond.

The pandemic has rapidly increased access to technology and the internet. In MAIA’s experience, before COVID only 3% of students had access to the internet and now 100% have internet-equipped tablets. As the use of virtual classroom platforms and use of audiovisual content is growing, but the skills on how to adapt instructional techniques, lesson plans and student outcome indicators are not. This solution works to strengthen the effectiveness of the use of these tools so that students are better prepared when they are able to return on in-person instruction and eventually when they enter the workforce and university after graduating. 

Increasing access to technology and the internet is opening channels of information and communication in remote areas in Guatemala. With this also comes risks to the safety of children and adolescents. It is crucial to couple this with important conversations about digital literacy and safety.

MAIA serves 300 students at the Impact School and 4 other non-state schools who are part of the REdI-Red Educativa de Impacto representing 500 students

In one year the solution would impact 10 non state schools representing thousands of students

In five years the solution would grow to impact 24-36 non state schools representing thousands more 
 
Schools and their leaders will be carefully selected to participate in the program based on the following criteria:

• Leading non-state high schools that serve traditionally marginalized youth in a low/no-fee system;
• Evidence of an organizational ethos of impact and innovation;
• Minimal level of organizational and leadership stability and capacity (budget size and longevity);
• Ability to rapidly make and implement decisions; and
• Commitment to the school and cause of education.

The goal of this solution is to begin with the use of technology to engage and improve quality of instruction and education and to scale to an in-depth school leader training program that will rethink the previous model of education to better address the effects of COVID-19 on education. The components considered in the training program attune school leaders in Guatemala to global best practices from various countries, many of which are several steps ahead in the struggle to recover from pandemic-related disruptions. This leadership course will address the inefficiencies of the pre-pandemic context for schools (isolated, minimal access to global trends and practices) to equip leaders with the ability to lead their organizations through the complicated but essential work of recovery. This project is not designed to return Guatemalan schools to the previous status quo, but rather to leverage the crisis of COVID-19 to fundamentally redefine how school leaders deliver and lead their schools. As part of the Global Schools Forum, MAIA can disseminate the recorded sessions to Spanish speaking educators throughout LAC impacting thousands more schools and millions of students.

This initiative’s focus on using technology as a tool to engage learners through the virtual classroom. The solution can scale to integrate school leadership to respond to pandemic and post-pandemic education and places student growth achievement as paramount. When school leaders access the global experiences and trainings to effectively rethink their approaches, the results will be evidenced in the following areas that will be tracked:

Student retention, student attendance, student growth in math and literacy, successful transition from middle school to high school and high school and high school graduation. In addition, teacher a key measurement will be the collaboration between non-state schools to grow the community of practice and strengthen the network of educators and schools who are working to improve the quality of education in Guatemala.

5 full time staff on this solution with two contractors. MAIA has 60 full time staff in total.

MAIA operates an award-winning secondary school for 300 Indigenous girls in grades 7-12. Opened in 2017, MAIA’s Impact School is designed to highlight how local talent can unlock and connect the talents of Maya girls to the opportunities of the 21st century. MAIA is one of the few organizations in Guatemala that is led and run by Indigenous women who are from the same communities we serve. Educators and mentors at the Impact School mirror the gender/race of Girl Pioneers promoting the concept that “if she can see it she can be it.”

With over ten years of experience fostering strong ties in rural communities in Guatemala, MAIA works alongside girls, families, and community leaders to prioritize girls’ education. MAIA is a bold organization that asserts the right of Indigenous girls to pursue a high-quality education by emboldening them to use their voices in spaces where Indigenous women’s representation has been limited.
 
MAIA has a built-to-suit building located in Sololá, Guatemala, that was designed as a secondary school and a training center. MAIA draws from global best practices, contextualizes them into the local setting, and proactively disseminates them among other educational entities.
 
 In 2021, MAIA was recognized by HundrED as a top-15 innovation in Latin America for the impact and scalability of its ability to hone 21st-century skills. MAIA joined the One World Network of Schools as its first partner in Central America in 2020.

A growing body of evidence shows how increased education and economic participation of women dramatically improve economic prosperity for all. If women’s economic participation were equal to men’s in Guatemala, the GDP would rise almost 50%. In a country with a 60% poverty rate, this would be transformational. MAIA’s girl-centered design connects talent with opportunity and is showing the world that Indigenous Maya girls can be the leaders of this transformation.  

Local talent and leadership to demonstrate a sustainable impact: MAIA’s Human Resource design demonstrates that methods are replicable at a local and national level. Studies show the exponential impact of having just one same-race teacher. MAIA is one of only a few organizations in Guatemala that is led and run by Maya women from the same communities it serves. The team is 80% Indigenous Maya, 87% female, 75% under the age of 30, and approximately 30% are graduates of MAIA’s previous legacy Starfish scholarship program. Four of the six MAIA Guatemala board of directors are women from Guatemala and three are Indigenous women. A graduate of MAIA’s legacy mentorship program is among the members. Each member of our team serves as a role model for Girl Pioneers. Because we have a young talented team that understands the local context and the unique challenges Girl Pioneers and their families face, MAIA is able to take swift, innovative, and empathy-driven action. MAIA’s leadership has been recognized by One Young World, Start Network, International Youth Foundation, She’s the First, and Girl Rising. 

Guatemala and LAC have tremendous needs. MAIA approaches its challenges with an abundance mindset centered on collaboration and for this reason we are applying for the T-Prize. The Impact School is designed to be an innovation platform where other actors in youth development can access contextualized best practices. Instead of expanding our own Impact School into unfamiliar regions, cultures, and language groups around Guatemala, we partner with organizations already immersed in these communities and connect them with external innovators to create a community of learning. Our impact scales when services and opportunities improve across Guatemala and we all act in concert to secure the inclusion of more young women in Guatemalan society. With the support of the T-Prize MAIA and One World Network of Schools would like to invite other non-state schools to partner with us so that we can transform the use of technology into student success.

With the support from the T-Prize and the SOLVE network, MAIA and One World Network of Schools would be able to grow and strengthen the network of non-state schools in Guatemala to train educators and leadership to leverage technology to improve instruction and learning outcomes. The growth of this training program would strengthen the collaboration between non-state schools and catalyze innovation in Guatemala’s secondary schooling system.