A local app, a global view

Designing educational survival strategies for learning communities to endure through and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic is an investment that could pay huge returns by building resilience before other crises and emergencies strike. For that reason, it is necessary to focus efforts on the development of cognitive, social and emotional skills essential to continue learning throughout life. By modifying the pace or style of learning in a personalized way, academic activities multiply and diversify, suggesting greater collaborative work. When learners and their families establish robust networks of social interaction, they can together face the challenges of learning in adverse contexts and situations. Keeping learning communities active makes recovery, strengthening and improvement of learning easier because it socializes the methods, styles and adaptations to continue learning, allowing individual adaptation and the adoption and development of instructional strategies within a framework of greater autonomy.

In a study done by the UNESCO (2020), Strengthening online learning when school are closed: The role of families and teachers in supporting students during the COVID-19 crisis, findings show that the effective use of information and communications technology (ICT) and making the most of them for learning, can support “developing strong attitudes towards learning can help students overcome some of the potential challenges posed by online learning such as, for instance, remaining focused during online classes or maintaining sufficient motivation.” Having said that, families and teachers might struggle in supporting student learning due to their lack of knowledge in the effective use of ICT. 

Nuevo León, a northeastern state in Mexico, envisions offering quality education, inclusive and equitable, that will serve as an engine of change allowing its entire population to overcome and reach fullness under the operation of a world class educational system. The reality is that its educational system lacks the material resources necessary to ensure quality education. The educational infrastructure is insufficient for the size of the current demand and future of the student body. Additionally, there is a deficit in the incorporation of information and communication technologies that bring the education system up to international standards and reduce the digital divide. 

When it comes to material resources that ensure quality education, research shows that many existing educational materials do not challenge students at their academic level, as they tend to be very simplified, which is not very attractive to students and mainly do not show evidence of what they know how to do, their thought processes and learning. There is an urgent need for educational materials that are at the level of knowledge, needs and skills of students and that above all are aligned to the study plans and are consistent with the learning progress of students (Loewus, 2016). 

What would happen if an app could build capacity in its citizens for work and social life, and at the same time they develop a commitment to the welfare of others and the sustainability of their environment? What would happen if an app could ensure that all students acquire the knowledge, skills and competencies necessary for the full development of their potential in life? What would happen if an app can catalyze the design of a world-class, innovative and competitive educational system?

Our solution, A local app, a global view. 

References: 

Loewus, L. (2016). Quality Learning Materials Are Scarce for English-Language Learners. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/quality-learning-materials-are-scarce-for-english-language-learners/2016/05   

Manca, F., & Meluzzi, F. (2020). Strengthening online learning when school are closed: The role of families and teachers in supporting students during the COVID-19 crisis.

Our solution, A local app, a global view, is an application that integrates a design thinking approach to engage students in thoughtful dialogue to address needs, solve problems, or seek opportunities in their community through the implementation of community transdisciplinary projects. This design thinking approach supports students in understanding disciplinary content through multiple perspectives while developing a sense of empathy. As students learn to identify ways the disciplinary content solves problems in their environment, they can investigate opportunities to apply that understanding in practice. Through A local app, a global view, students seek opportunities to apply their knowledge and skills in the world that surrounds them, by reaching out to and inviting multiple voices to work together in brainstorming possible ways to design a novel solution to a problem or need they see in their community (Portnoy, 2020).

A local app, a global view is designed to redefine students’ and teachers’ roles and integrate the school’s community in a meaningful way for a continuous improvement culture in their communities by: 

• Acquiring disciplinary essential understandings, as well as attitudes and values that allow them to freely choose their own path in life.

• Be prepared academically and socio-emotionally in the world of the 21st century to meet the complex demands of uncertain situations.

• Demonstrate their knowledge through community projects where they apply knowledge and skills for the benefit of their communities and the planet.

A local app, a global view acknowledges that students are agents of change who can have a positive impact on their environment and their own well-being, influence the future, understand the intentions, actions and feelings of others and anticipate the short and long-term consequences of what they do (OECD, 2018). Through A local app, a global view, students exercise their sense of agency in their own education and lives by developing a sense of responsibility to participate in the world to influence people, events, and circumstances for the better (OECD, 2018).

A local app, a global view is a web-based application that does not need to be installed and can be accessed through any type of device such as mobile phone, tablets, and computers, through any type of web browser (i.e., Chrome, Firefox, Safari).  

References: 

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2018). The future of education and skills: Education 2030. OECD Education Working Papers.

Portnoy, L. (2019). Designed to learn: Using design thinking to bring purpose and passion to the classroom. ASCD.

Initial estimates of the effects of school closings are staggering. Today, many countries face challenges such as increasing actions for the benefit of the most vulnerable educational population, as well as how to guarantee conditions that allow young people to compete in a global world. Although it is true, there have been important advances in the past couple of years, Mexican students in Nuevo León are very far from reaching competences in basic mathematics to function in the labor market.  

Although the dropout rate has decreased from 4.2% in 2010 to 2.8% in 2020, it has not been possible for all the young people of Nuevo León to successfully attend middle school. Although the entity ranks first nationally in the proportion of students with good and excellent performance in Language and Communication and third in Mathematics, the majority of state students have an insufficient or elementary level of achievement (Planea, 2019). In Language and Communication, 28.4% are in this insufficient category, while in Mathematics it is 53.2% in insufficient. In terms of connectivity, 52.3% of middle schools have internet access, and 59.9% have computer equipment (SEP, 2019).

It is expected to serve all middle school students in Nuevo León. In Nuevo León, there are 240,713 students, 8,328 teachers and 1,027 public middle schools for the 2021-2022 school year. It is worth noting that there are three modalities of middle school in the state: general, telesecundaria, and técnica. In the 2021-2022 school year, there are 706 general middle schools, 219 técnica middle schools, and 96 telesecundaria, serving 148770 students, 88465 students, and 455 students, respectively. A brief description of each type of middle school is provided below. 

• General: The general middle school is found in urban and rural areas and caters, fundamentally, to students from 13 to 15 years of age. It is distinguished by having workshops and laboratories and because each subject is taught by a teacher specialized in the subject.

• Telesecundaria: This modality is offered in the morning shift and in the evening shift. They meet the educational demand of the population that does not have access to general or technical secondary schools, supporting the service with the use of electronic and communication media (i.e., television, satellite signal, videos). There is a teacher per group who facilitates and promotes the learning of the different subjects and provides didactic support to the students.

Técnica: Its purpose, in addition to providing humanistic, scientific and artistic training, is to provide a basic technological education that allows the student to acquire knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as the appreciation of the meaning that technology has in their training to participate productively in development of the nation.

The A local app, a global view team has been working with the board of education in Nuevo León since the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year implementing two programs: Programa de Mejora de Aprendizajes (Improving Learning Program) and Knowledgehook en mi Escuela (Knowledgehook in my School). The Programa de Mejora de Aprendizajes is a set of educational strategies that focus on promoting a continuous improvement culture that recognizes diversity, equity, and inclusion in an environment of essential understandings in literacy and mathematics for middle school students. Through this program, we have been working with 945 middle schools through 5373 educators. The Knowledgehook en mi Escuela aims to promote a growth mindset and effective teacher professional development for the teaching and learning of mathematics in each school in Mexico, considering the context and realities of educational communities targeting approximately 300 upper elementary schools and 314 educators. 

Through these two programs, the A local app, a global view team has engaged in dialogue with school communities in Nuevo León to have a deeper understanding of the beliefs, attitudes, vision, problems, and needs of teachers, administrators, instructional coaches, and students with respect to education. This evidence and data has been used to inform the design of the A local app, a global view prototype. 

In a survey done in February 2022 with 654 middle school teachers, principals, and instructional coaches, from Nuevo León, 40% established that there is a need to assess learning needs by identifying gaps in skills and knowledge based on the curriculum. Another 40% identified that schools should guarantee inclusion and gender equality, in particular for children who could not return to school after the pandemic. The remaining 20% of the surveyed educators indicated that there is a need to adjust the pedagogy so that the teaching is more adapted to the needs and capacities of the learners.

Through another survey done in February 2022 with 202 middle school teacher from Nuevo León, 50% commented that their priority is to assure that their students are academically and socially emotionally prepared in the world of the 21st century to meet the complex demands of uncertain situations, while 30% established that their priority that their students possess disciplinary knowledge and skills, as well as attitudes and values that allow them to freely choose their own path in life. Finally, 20% indicated that their priority is that their students demonstrate their knowledge through community projects where they apply knowledge and skills for the benefit of their communities and the planet.

When it comes to educational materials and resources for students, 121 middle school teachers from Nuevo León surveyed in March 2022 established that educational materials and resources should acknowledge how students learn best and how their learning processes allow not only their personal and academic growth, but also the growth of the people around them. In that same survey, 101 middle school teachers indicated that educational materials and resources should support students in understanding their learning routine to lead their own learning process, propose improvements and find ways to support their peers by setting daily goals for the acquisition of new knowledge and achieving the group vision. Also, 101 middle school teachers commented that educational materials should promote that they know, accept and value each other through a critical exercise that allows them, on the one hand, to manage their emotions and communicate them assertively; make conscious decisions that are consistent with its essence and that bring a benefit to its community.

With respect to the actions teachers can implement to promote the development of socio-emotional skills with students, 190 middle school teachers from Nuevo León were surveyed in March 2022. Half of them indicate that they would integrate the six skills in the design of learning experiences with my students looking for pedagogical resources. One fifth commented that they would generate a socio-emotional ecosystem where an empathic vision is conceived with their students. Another fifth indicated that they would first acquire these skills to be a role model for their students. And one tenth established that they will recognize their habits, beliefs, language, and actions based on the six social-emotional skills.

In addition, Radix Education, in partnership with the United States Embassy, has been operating the Youth in Action program for four years, impacting 100 to 200 students. Through this program, Mexican students enrolled in their first or second year at a public or private high school institution have the opportunity to participate in a leadership program that explores social issues affecting Mexico and the United States. The goal of the program is to promote youth leadership and regional to form citizens committed to their communities through the development of projects by strengthening the personal and collective leadership of the team, and by sharing tools that allow them to design, manage and implement a community project.

Taking into consideration the needs of the communities, the A local app, a global view team has been working for the past 11 years in ensuring that all girls, boys and adolescents have the education, support and opportunity to forge a better future for themselves and for all of us, through a wide variety of professional learning and professional development programs that:

• Support the performance and training of teachers by positioning themselves as designers, facilitators and leaders of real, rigorous and relevant learning experiences focused on students and their realities.

• Promote professional learning of teachers and directors, aligning themselves with the realities of the educational communities.

• Acknowledge the role of educational leaders as managers and promoters of a culture of continuous improvement in public and private schools and their communities.

• Promote access and integration of educational technology in a meaningful way.

• Promote change initiatives in schools and discussions with leaders of the public education sector to exchange best practices for a culture of improvement and transformation of the educational community.

The A local app, a global view team believes that at all times, everyone should have meaningful and quality educational opportunities; we should connect natural, physical, and virtual places of learning, making the most of the best features of each (UNESCO, 2021). 

We are applying to Solve since we want to connect with partners that we could learn from and with to make our A local app, a global view prototype functional in alignment with the needs and realities of the communities in Nuevo León. We would like to learn from technical experts on how our local app, a global view prototype, could  help students access and produce knowledge, while developing their ability to critique and apply it to promote active citizenship and democratic participation.

Innovating is not just putting the latest policies into practice. Innovating means changing the culture in the classroom, schools, districts, universities, and society (Fullan, 2007). Educational innovation must be multidimensional; must contain at least three components when implementing any new program or policy: (1) the ability to use new or revised materials; (2) the possible use of new approaches to education; and (3) the possible alteration of beliefs (Fullan, 2007).

A local app, a global view supports educational innovation by being multidimensional:

1. A local app, a global view introduces a series of new educational materials designed with a transdisciplinary focus in mathematics, language arts, and healthy living with a cross-cutting focus on social-emotional skills;

2. A local app, a global view integrates the Design Thinking Process as the approach to explore content knowledge to address community problems. 

3. A local app, a global view presents an opportunity to promote a culture of improvement in our educational communities.

A local app, a global view features nine (9) community transdisciplinary projects designed to redefine students’ and teachers’ roles and integrate the school’s community in a meaningful way for a continuous improvement culture in their communities. Each community transdisciplinary project is specifically designed to support students in: 

• Developing essential disciplinary understanding to ensure the continuity of their studies in basic education and upper secondary education.

• Developing socio-emotional skills which will help them understand their place in the world, creating awareness of themselves, others and the community.

• Applying new knowledge and skills of the 21st century (i.e., creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking) to solve problems or meet personal or community needs through a design process.

The design of these nine (9) community transdisciplinary projects provide an ecosystem of learning that recognizes diversity, equity, and inclusion for middle school students. At the same time, it helps improve the classroom experience and instruction by supporting middle school mathematics teachers in their process of designing, facilitating and leading real, rigorous and relevant learning experiences in their educational communities. Through the integration of five elements, these community transdisciplinary projects redefine the role of the student and teacher, and integrate the community in a meaningful way.

1. One-to-One Learning System. Each educational material is designed based on the One-to-One Learning System—a set of elements that operate in harmony to generate an education where the strengths of the students are maximized, their areas of opportunity improve and their interests are the catalyst to arouse curiosity to learn and to use knowledge in favor of their community. The One-to-One Learning System places students at the center of learning through recognition of their metacognitive processes, timely monitoring and evaluation of their personal and academic growth and their contribution to achieving goals and growth of your educational community. It is based on three pillars—Self-awareness, Autonomy and Metacognition. 

   1. Self-awareness: refers to the student's ability to be able to know, accept and value themself through a critical exercise that allows them, on the one hand, to manage their emotions and communicate them assertively and, on the other hand, to be able to make conscious decisions that be consistent with their essence and that, in turn, they bring a benefit to their community.

   2. Metacognition: refers to the student's ability to recognize how they learn best and how their learning processes allow not only their personal and academic growth, but also the growth of the people around them. 

   3. Self-Driven Leadership: refers to the student's ability to know their work pace, set significant daily goals aimed at achieving both progress in the acquisition of new understandings.

2. Design Thinking Methodology. Through a Design Thinking Methodology (Portnoy, 2019), cross-cutting projects were designed: (1) Examine issues of local, global, and cultural importance; (2) Understand and appreciate the perspectives and worldviews of others by developing their social-emotional skills; (3) Engage in open, appropriate, and effective interactions across cultures; and, (4) Act for collective well-being and sustainable development (Schleicher, 2017). 

   1. Understanding and Empathizing are the essential elements of the design process that involve understanding the users within the context of which you are designing, understanding the things they do and why, their physical and emotional needs, how they conceive the world and what is meaningful to them.

   2. Identify and Research determine the challenge of the project based on what has been learned from the user, its context and to create coherence on the different information gathered. The user its context and to create coherence on the diverse information that has been gathered.

   3. Communicate to Ideate is when the generation of multiple ideas propose possible solutions to the identified needs. 

   4. Prototyping and Testing is the generation of the proposed solution to the problem through drawings, artifacts or objects with the intention of answering questions that bring us closer to the final solution and then requesting feedback and opinions from users and colleagues to improve the prototype created.

   5. Reflect and Iterate consists of evaluating the functionality of the prototype according to the suggestions of the users who tested it, and making the necessary modifications to improve it.

   6. Sharing and Celebrating consists of sharing the different works carried out, through photographic evidence, videos, among others, so that their contributions are valued and the learning achieved is recognized.

3. Socio-emotional skills. Each of the educational materials integrate one or various six socio-emotional Skills, based on the Construye T teachers' manual (Secretaría de Educación Pública, 2021). Recognizing and validating emotions allows students to develop them through their daily experiences. The Reconociendo mis Emociones (Acknowledging My Emotions) (see Appendix C, Figure 6. Acknowledging My Emotions) instrument is designed to provide a tool with which students can recognize each of the six social-emotional skills during the learning process.

   1. Self-knowledge is the ability to know and value oneself, become aware of the motivations, needs, values, thoughts and emotions that define one's identity, and their effects on the behavior of others and the environment.

   2. Self-regulation is the ability to manage one's thoughts, feelings and behaviors in different situations. It requires modulating impulses, tolerating frustration, postponing rewards, facing conflicts peacefully, as well as regulating the intensity, duration and frequency of various emotional states in favor of learning and coexistence.

   3. Social awareness is the ability to understand and take into consideration the perspective of people with backgrounds and cultures different from one's own; understand social and ethical norms to establish and maintain constructive interpersonal relationships and act in favor of society.

   4. Collaboration is the ability to work with individuals and groups toward the achievement of shared goals. It implies active listening, assertive communication, responsibility, cooperation, inclusion, respect for diversity, peaceful and constructive resolution of conflicts, as well as seeking and offering help when required.

   5. Responsible decision-making is the ability to make choices autonomously, consciously and responsibly, with reference to goals inscribed in a life project, considering alternatives and consequences, and focusing on one's own well-being and that of others.

   6. Perseverance is the ability to sustain motivation, interest and effort to achieve long-term goals, facing failure and difficulties that arise.

4. Self-assessments. The self-assessments integrated in the educational materials position the students at the center of their learning through the recognition of their metacognitive processes, of a punctual follow-up and evaluation of their personal and academic growth and of their contribution to the achievement of the goals and to the growth of its educational community. The self-assessments allow students to reflect on how they are attaining the learning goals and create awareness of recognizing how they are learning, allowing them to take action and take responsibility for their learning process. These self-assessments provide an opportunity to recognize their needs as well as their academic achievements during the learning experience, providing a sense of autonomy by taking charge of their own learning process, and allow the development of a collaborative learning environment that optimizes the dynamics within their community and classroom.

5. Relationship with their community. The relationship with their community focus in the adaptation and redesign of each educational material recognizes the students as global Latinx citizens with local roots who “can examine local, global and intercultural problems, understand and appreciate the different perspectives and visions of the world, interact successfully and respectfully with others and undertake responsible actions towards sustainability and collective well-being” (Schleicher, 2017).

These materials have been recently shared with middle school teachers in Nuevo León. Therefore, there is no research to show the impact of the product on students’ academic outcomes.

Through A local app, a global view, our impact goals are that students will: 

• Acquire disciplinary knowledge and skills, as well as attitudes and values that allow them to freely choose their own path in life.

• Be prepared academically and socio-emotionally in the world of the 21st century to meet the complex demands of uncertain situations.

• Demonstrate their knowledge through community projects where they apply knowledge and skills for the benefit of their communities and the planet.

The A local app, a global view team will be responsible for: 

1. Identifying educational needs, problems and opportunities by understanding and empathizing with the contexts and realities of educational communities.

2. Acknowledging the connections between research and practice in educational communities. 

3. Create capacity in students and teachers by creating a functional prototype of A local app, a global view in alignment with the needs and realities of the communities. 

4. Learn with and from educational communities through reflective practices.

5. Share and celebrate educational innovations and effective practices in educational communities.

In order to achieve our impact goals, we will follow a four-phase design-based research approach. 

1. Phase 1. Analysis of educational problems carried out collaboratively by a multidisciplinary team. 

In order to know the magnitude of the deprivation of the right to education, it is necessary to constantly, comprehensively and quality assess the state of the situation, the magnitude of the challenges and the size of the gaps between the groups with the greatest and least learning challenges, in accordance with a clear and pertinent conceptual theoretical framework that allows for the implementation of evaluations in a timely manner in order to have two sources of information.

We will carry out contextual and situational assessments, aimed at students and their families, teachers and pedagogical leaders. The diagnostic instruments investigate aspects related to learning management, teacher support and the levels and styles of well-being and healthy life of the members of the educational community. In addition, we will carry out assessments of essential learning, aimed at students and teachers. The instruments consist of approaches that are simple and brief instructions to develop and exercise mathematical skills that allow the use and application of knowledge, skills and attitudes in specific activities. The use of results is articulated with the didactic planning to relate to the pedagogical activities in a natural way.

1. Phase 2: Development of solutions based on existing design principles and educational innovations. Based on the detailed information from the needs assessment in Phase 1, the team will adapt and redesign A local app, a global view in response to the needs of the school communities and users. 

2. Phase 3: Iterative cycles of testing and refining solutions in practice.

As it is necessary for all activities to be carried out in an orderly and sequential manner, evaluation and control actions will be implemented throughout the project, especially during the time window in which the data collection processes are carried out. During this phase, data will be collected allowing the monitoring and evaluation process to be successful and thus provide information that helps build various levels of knowledge about the population of students and their families, teachers and administrators of the participating schools.

1. Phase 4: Reflection to produce "design principles" and improve solution implementation. 

The evidence collected through this intervention will highlight best practices that suggest the possibility of replicating them in different public policy processes: design, planning, implementation or evaluation of any policy or project.

We will carry out several iterations over a five-school year period to ensure the improvement, its scalability and its replicability of A local app, a global view: What works, when, how and for whom? How do we improve this breeding strategy to make it more sustainable? What capabilities does the system need to keep improving?

1. Security, understood as the elements that guarantee the expected results of the intervention proposed by the project. In this component, the diagnostic process offers the necessary information to design specific actions that allow optimizing time and educational resources aimed at increasing the level of learning in all students based on their specific needs and thus reducing redundancy processes. , guaranteeing that students and teachers participate enthusiastically in strategies for improving and deepening new learning.

• Scalability, understood as the elements that allow the project to be applied in more territories and populations if the conditions exist to do so (e.g., resources, time, authorizations). The systematization of all improvement processes and their statistical analysis in groupings on the implementation and collaboration network offers multiple opportunities to develop strategies that guarantee scalability with efforts and resources on a smaller scale, mainly due to the possibility of reproducing interventions in contexts. with the same level of impact from the maturity developed by the implementation teams based on this new management experience.

• Replicability, understood as the elements that allow the project and its interventions to be carried out in the future, if required. The improvement process has a set of elements that will allow the interventions to be reproduced sequentially based on the results detailed in the territorial management system and the substantive variables that were used for the selection process. In addition, the systematization of the experience through a detailed log will allow the project to be replicated in the future in similar populations through the management procedures that are most appropriate for the educational communities served in each entity, which will guarantee its comprehensive replicability.

The improvement process has a set of elements that will allow the intervention to be reproduced sequentially based on the results detailed in the territorial management system and the substantive variables that were used for the selection process. In addition, the systematization of the experience through a detailed log will allow the project to be replicated in the future in similar populations through the management procedures that are most appropriate for the educational communities served in each entity, which will guarantee its comprehensive replicability. 

The A local app, a global view team will be implementing assessments to constantly, comprehensively and quality assess the state of the situation, the magnitude of the challenges and the size of the learning gaps. There will be two types of assessments: contextual and situational assessment and assessments of essential learning.

• Contextual and situational assessment, aimed at students and their families, teachers and pedagogical leaders. The diagnostic instruments investigate aspects related to learning management, teacher support and the levels and styles of well-being and healthy life of the members of the educational community.

• Assessment of essential learning, aimed at students and teachers. The instruments consist of approaches that are simple and brief instructions assess the application of knowledge, skills and attitudes in the community transdisciplinary projects.

Through these assessments, it is expected that: 

• Students can recognize their strengths, reflect on and refine their practice autonomously and progressivel, and strengthen 21st century skills. 

• Teachers can adapt their strategies to the needs of their students.

• Families can provide active accompaniment.

• Instructional leaders can design and tailor evidence-based improvement plans.

• School communities can ensure the development of fundamental learning in all students through individual attention to their educational experiences inside and outside the classroom, their socio-emotional well-being and their health in an integral way.

We believe that:

1. Students are agents of change who can have a positive impact on their environment and their own well-being, influence the future, understand the intentions, actions and feelings of others and anticipate the short and long-term consequences of what they do (OECD, 2018). 

2. Students need to exercise a sense of agency in their own education and throughout life. Agency implies a sense of responsibility to participate in the world and, in doing so, influence people, events, and circumstances for the better. For this reason, the sense of agency requires the ability to frame a guiding purpose and identify actions to achieve a goal (OECD, 2018).

Activities

1. Carry out the design, implementation and analysis of assessments to identify the needs of users as well as product-market fit of the product and adapt the product in response to the needs of the community.

2. Adapt and redesign redesign and adapt A local app, a global view to address needs of middle school students.

3. Implement A local app, a global view and assessments with students and identify problems to take preventive or corrective measures and ensure the objectives set.

4. Reflection to produce "design principles" and improve solution implementation.

Outputs  

1. Needs assessment report that identifies priorities, opportunities and lines of action in educational communities.

2. Series of infographics with needs assessment results.

3. Sixteen learning guides in mathematics in English and Latinamerican Spanish with a focus on accelerated learning. 

4. A local app, a global view fully functional addressing needs of middle school students.

5. Initial, continuous and final assessment of fundamental learning.

6. Report to support authorities, educational leaders, school administrators, among others, to make decisions based on evidence and data of the intervention. 

Results

1. User-centered design approach based on needs assessment to redesign and adapt A local app, a global view to address needs of middle school students.

2. User-centered A local app, a global view to demonstrate how participants: (1) learn new ideas; (2) learn and retain new information; (3) solve problems; (4) transfer learning to new situations; and (5) his self-determined motivation.

3. Developing socio-emotional skills which will help them understand their place in the world, creating awareness of themselves, others and the community.

4. Applying new knowledge and skills of the 21st century (creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking) to solve problems or meet personal or community needs through a design process.

5. Educational strategies aimed at promoting a culture to recover, strengthen and improve learning, recognizing diversity, equity and inclusion in an ecosystem of essential learning for middle school students.

A local app, a global view is a web-based application that does not need to be installed and can be accessed through any type of device such as mobile phone, tablets, and computers, through any type of web browser (i.e., Chrome, Firefox, Safari).  

At Radix Education we seek at all times to promote the well-being of our collaborators and prevent situations that represent a risk to their physical, mental and emotional health. We have the vision of "inspiring and promoting transcendence and transformation" through our educational innovation projects, both towards the communities for whom we work and towards our collaborators. We seek to promote a pleasant and respectful work environment at all times. We promote the Radix DNA in all our spaces and practices: collaboration and autonomy, adaptability and resilience, collective leadership and communication. We seek an emotionally healthy and safe organizational environment, where trust and mutual respect are key elements of our culture, at all times. 

We believe that diversity and inclusion make us stronger, so we have zero tolerance for any type of discrimination based on: race, color, physical appearance, culture, disability, language, sex, gender, age, social status, economic status, health or legal, pregnancy, marital or marital status, religion, opinions, ethnic or national origin, sexual preferences or immigration status. We value and recognize the talent and contribution of all our collaborators, for which we seek to develop their individual and collective capacities, opening communication channels where they feel free to express themselves and fostering a sense of belonging.

We are committed to combating workplace violence, providing the necessary knowledge to raise awareness among all our collaborators in order to avoid said risks and their consequences. We have means of reporting that contemplate fair attention, retaliation will be sanctioned in accordance with our policies and we seek the confidentiality of all the personnel involved.

We are committed to promoting equal opportunities for all our employees, for which employment decisions at Radix Education will be based on merit, academic training and skills. All Radix Education collaborators and allies are committed to promoting and complying with this policy.

Additionally, Radix Education contributes to the SDGs by carrying out projects and programs to combat not only educational backwardness, but also to reduce inequalities. We support and disseminate relevant issues on the world agenda, we encourage the participation of groups of teachers, students, fathers and mothers, as well as we stand in solidarity with groups in vulnerable situations, to give some examples, migrants and people with disabilities. We believe in the need to educate for sustainable development, we spread environmental, social and ethical values. These values drive and show solution alternatives that reduce needs in the communities we serve.

We reaffirm day by day the power that education has in our lives and in that of our beneficiaries. Our commitment is public, we create alliances with other actors: international organizations, companies, academic institutions, government bodies, among others. These alliances add to the value of the strategy of forming a network, a community network.

Radix Education, legally constituted as Teach 4 All México A.C. Since April 2011, it has been working to ensure that all girls, boys and adolescents have the education, support and opportunity to forge a better future for themselves and for all of us. Over the past 10 years, Radix Education has created a variety of professional learning and professional development programs that:

• Support the performance and training of teachers by positioning themselves as designers, facilitators and leaders of real, rigorous and relevant learning experiences focused on students and their realities.

• Promote professional learning of teachers and directors, aligning themselves with the realities of the educational communities.

• Acknowledge the role of educational leaders as managers and promoters of a culture of continuous improvement in public and private schools and their communities.

• Promote access and integration of educational technology in a meaningful way.

• Promote change initiatives in schools and discussions with leaders of the public education sector to exchange best practices for a culture of improvement and transformation of the educational community.

Over the course of 9 years, Teach 4 All Mexico has operated the Enseña por México program, which has seen the immense potential found in building local strengths through the formation of globally informed and committed leaders to achieve an educational impact. The Enseña por México program is part of the Teach For All network, with a presence in 55 countries. Teach 4 All Mexico currently offers a Master's Degree in Education and Leadership endorsed by the Ministry of Education for more than 240 educational leaders who provide support and academic guidance to more than 15,000 students in more than 12 entities. Studies by the Inter-American Development Bank (2010) and Princeton University (2018) found that Program participants improve student academic results, and the impact evaluation by the World Bank (2017) of Enseña por México found that the program has a positive impact on students' social-emotional skills: such as self-efficacy, self-management, growth mindset, and social awareness. The experience of these years and the impact evaluation, Teach 4 All Mexico has created several programs that support the performance and training of teachers, improve the operation of public and private schools; access to educational technology; and have discussions with leaders of the public education sector to exchange best practices.

During the last years, Radix Education has collaborated with different initiatives. Under Proyecto Nuevo Maestro, Teach 4 All Mexico has trained more than 3,750 teachers in pedagogical techniques and educational leadership with face-to-face, online and hybrid courses. It has created platforms for courses and certifications for various institutions, such as the Children's Hospital for the certification of primary caregivers under the EDI test. Through the Global Alliance for Online Learning (GOLA), it has brought together Secretaries of Education to share best educational practices, challenges and solutions that have emerged during the recent pandemic. It is currently collaborating with the Embassy of the United States in its educational program "Jóvenes en Acción" and English Access, with Knowledgehook to align its platform to the national mathematics curriculum, with companies such as BHP to improve academic results in Altamira Tamaulipas, among many others. other governments, national and international organizations.

Radix Education uses a wide range of sources of income to fund our work. These sources include: 

• Mexican local, state and federal governments 

• International local, state and federal governments

• National and international foundations

• National and international companies 

• National and international grants

• Recovery fees from beneficiaries 

• Donations

With UNICEF, Radix Education has worked with different programs in various regions of the country. In the last 4 years, it has collaborated with the migrant education program, impacting 4,510 children and young people in situations of mobility in Tijuana, BC., Tapachula, Chiapas and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua with an investment of USD 750,000.

In collaboration with BHP, under the Schools that Learn program and an investment of USD 1.5 million over 3 years, it has impacted 15 schools in Tampico, Altamira and Ciudad Madero with a total of 350 teachers, 5,493 students and 5,493 primary caregivers.

In collaboration with the Bailleres Foundation, under the Educational Leadership program, 128 teachers from the State of Mexico were assisted with an investment of USD 400,000.

Directed by the United States Embassy, Radix Education has been operating the Youth in Action program for 4 years, impacting 100 to 200 students, with a total investment of USD 1.3 million.

Under the collective committees of Driscolls - Berrymex, Radix Education in the last year has operated the remote education program impacting 142 teachers and managers, 2,164 students, 1,886 parents and 54 volunteers from Berrymex and Driscolls in Michoacán , Baja California, Colima, Puebla, Jalisco with an investment of around USD 270,000.00, among many other programs.

Radix Education, in collaboration with the Latin American Agency for Evaluation and Public Policy (ALEPH), the Organization of American States (OAS), the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) and the Federal Public Education Secretariat (SEP), and an investment of USD 620,000 was designed and implemented the Learning Improvement Program during the 2020-2021 school year in 605 secondary schools in 14 states of Mexico with approximately 33,000 students.

In collaboration with the Children's Hospital of Mexico Federico Gómez and the National Center for the Health of Children and Adolescents, and an investment of more than $800 thousand pesos, Radix Education designed a Course for the Certification of the Application of the Evaluation Test of the Online Child Development (EDI) seeking to train health sector personnel (ie, nurses, psychologists, health promoters, physicians, pediatricians and neurologists) to apply the Child Development Assessment test.

In partnership with Knowledgehook, Radix Education has designed the Knowledgehook Program at My School, which aims to promote a growth mindset and effective teacher professional development for the teaching and learning of mathematics in each school in Mexico considering the context and realities of educational communities. The Knowledgehook Program at My School is currently being implemented in three states of Mexico. The investment per student is $120.00 pesos per year.