Educar y Crecer

Educar y Crecer is a non-profit organization that supports the schooling  of students who live  socio-educational vulnerability since 2007. We design, implement and evaluate innovative literacy and math after-school programs that have proved effective and easy to replicate. 

Our beneficiaries are children between 6 and 12 years old living in conditions of socio-economic vulnerability; who attend very low-income public schools in a single shift. From an own study of the assisted population (2019): 27% of the students have parents with incomplete primary school; and 48% completed primary school but only 23% completed secondary school. 100% of the students’ parents have no stable income or work. As for the students’ educational level: 23% did not attend preschool, and 25% repeated sometime. Regarding their housing conditions, 52% live in homes with 6 to 9 members; 35% live without sewage, and 67% without internet connection.

From a constructivist approach, our programs aim at promoting literacy within a population whose environment does not facilitate the acquisition of the skill. Our programs derive from pre-selected standards, organize activities following a PBL approach, incorporate emotional education, metacognitive reflection and TICs, and are informed by results of standardized evaluations, designed, administered and sistematized by EyC. 

In order to design our solution, we have implemented a community planning methodology for socially vulnerable contexts. We carefully structured collaborative work between local community actors (Carcova’s neighbors) and our educational experts in order to provide situated-based solutions in terms of educational needs. Specifically, our experts worked for one year (2007) in a local facility (Centro José León Suárez) with a non-structured approach to observe educational needs. These observations led to the formulation of the first edition of our programs and standardized evaluations, which were piloted in 2008. A second edition of the programs was launched in 2009, with adjustments made after the 2008 pilot. Evaluation results of 2009 showed progress in educational achievements. . Even if since 2010 EyC has franchised its programs to multiple communities, our Centro José León Suárez still remains the facility where pedagogical innovations are designed and tested so that they continue to serve the educational needs of our beneficiaries. This way of proceeding has contributed to our identification of relevant social actors and to our understanding of the community dynamics and needs.

EyC designs educational solutions for students in vulnerable contexts with a community planning methodology to address community needs. It escalates its impact through a social-franchising strategy: after evaluating the great numbers of after-school social and cultural centers ran by nonprofits with low-educational impact, EyC decided to offer its programs, including class-books, training and evaluation, to centers that were already operational and ran by other nonprofits rather than opening more of its own. EyC believes that nonprofits have a crucial role in supporting government -in this case schooling- through its knowledge, experience and contact with local communities, which government often lacks. Thus, EyC promotes change by creating educational solutions based on community needs that will support formal education; and expands its impact in network with other nonprofits. 

EyC uses evidence to promote change, as evidence guides EyC into reformulating activities and pedagogical strategies within its programs to better suit community needs. EyC conceives evaluation and data systematization as a central axis in the teaching and learning processes: we clearly and operationally express the learnings to be achieved, effectively communicate the results and use the information obtained to make pedagogical and organizational decisions. In short, the aim of evidence production and analysis is to strengthen the implementation of EyC’s educational program and ensure that all boys and girls can effectively exercise their right to education.

The evaluation team  is exclusively dedicated to the measurement of the impact of EyC’s educational programs. It implements standardized evaluations twice a year   to depict progress of each student and group in relation to standards and achievement indicators from which levels of performance are inferred In march 2022, 563 students from vulnerable contexts were evaluated in reading and writing and math, results of these evaluations were systematized into databases; and we are currently in the process of analyzing data.  

Educar y Crecer since 2007 designs, implements and evaluates high quality support educational programs for primary school-age children living in vulnerable contexts, to enhance performance in math and reading and avoid social exclusion. 

Standardized evaluations were formulated in 2009, with adjustments made three times since. Databases were redesigned in 2021 to reduce error in its completion. 

In 2022, for the first time, we are using Data Studio to enhance data analysis. Until 2021 data analysis was done using excel, as the number of students and centers evaluated was smaller (we received funding to escalate our social franchise model in 2021). We require training and coaching in using data analysis tools to enhance our reports. 

Our methodological approach also needs revision to produce stronger evidence: right now, the program’s impact is not being isolated from school impact and other independent variables; and we need analytical corroboration that indicators in our evaluations strongly reflect standards and levels of analysis.

The potential deliveries that would be useful to our organization is: training in data analysis tools with a model Report on the impact of our programs to be delivered to Organizations that Franchise our programs + donors.

Stronger evidence and analysis would allow EyC to redesign its programs with a more specific focus, to enhance learning. 

Stronger report models would allow EyC to communicate findings of evaluations to organizations that franchise its programs with more effectiveness, to better guide teaching and learning.

Producing stronger evidence would also allow EyC to demonstrate the effectiveness of its programs (for which we hold strong hypotheses), allowing it to reach out to media, businesses and government for fund-raising. This would allow to escalate the network of organizations that acquire an EyC franchise for free.  

In the next five years, EyC aims at expanding its impact on a x2 scale. Hence, effective data analysis and reporting is imperative.