Reporte De Lectura

INTRODUCTION.

This book is called “Reviews of Evaluation and Assessment in Education MEXICO” the authors in this book made a review of the Education, evaluation and assessing in Mexico. They talk about the educational program, the different methods of teaching, evaluating and assessing, the economy related with the education, the different types of school programs, how parents influence in the learning of the students, and the motivation of these students. Also, the authors give some advice to improve the way of teaching, evaluating and assessing for having a better system of education in Mexico. They present many programs that are useful to evaluate and to assess the earning of students.

The first chapter talks about the education in the school, the levels that the educational system in Mexico makes function and the context that relates with an effective or ineffective education. Also presents the structure of the school system, the hierarchy and the role that plays each person of the authorities.

The second chapter talks about the evaluation and assessment in the Mexican school system, and it’s various components such as student assessment, teacher appraisal, school evaluation and system evaluation, the coherence of the whole as well as the articulation between the different components. Also analyses the issues relevant to each individual component.

The third chapter focuses on approaches to student assessment within the Mexican evaluation and assessment framework. Student assessment refers to processes in which evidence of learning is collected in a planned and systematic way in order to make a judgment about student learning. This chapter looks at both summative assessment and formative assessment of students.

The fourth chapter looks at approaches to teacher appraisal within the Mexican evaluation and assessment framework. Teacher appraisal refers to the evaluation of individual teachers to make a judgment about their performance. Teacher appraisal has typically two major purposes. First, it seeks to improve teachers’ own practices by identifying strengths and weaknesses for further professional development, the improvement function. Second, it is aimed at ensuring that teachers perform at their best to enhance student learning, the accountability function.

The fifth chapter analyses approaches to school evaluation within the Mexican evaluation and assessment. School evaluation refers to the evaluation of individual schools as organisations. This chapter covers both internal and external school evaluation. It considers the brief history of evaluation. It sets out the challenges which remain to be faced if Mexico is to develop and implement a comprehensive approach to school evaluation which will contribute to school improvement and hence to improvement in the life chances of Mexican students.

This chapter looks at education system evaluation within the Mexican overall evaluation and assessment framework. It refers to approaches to monitor and evaluate the performance of education at the national and state levels. The main aims of education system evaluation are to provide accountability information to the public and to improve educational processes and outcomes.

Chapter 1. School education in Mexico.

Contex

Mexico, with about 112 million inhabitants, is the 11th most populous country in the world and the 14th most extensive in land area. Mexico is a democratic federal republic made up of 31 states and a Federal District (Distrito Federal or D.F.), which is the political and administrative capital. The economy of Mexico is the 13th largest in the world in nominal terms and the 11th by purchasing power parity. The cultural diversity in the country is extensive. The Indigenous population is approximately 8 million, representing 62 ethno-linguistic groups that speak one of the 68 Indigenous languages and 364 dialectic variations.

The structure of the school system

The Mexican school system is large. The school system is organized in two sequential levels: basic education (typical ages 3 to 14) and upper secondary education (typical ages 15 to 17). Basic education is organised according to three stages: pre-primary education (ages 3 to 5); primary education (grades 1-6); and lower secondary education (grades 7-9).

Pre-primary and primary education are provided in three distinct modalities, each typically associated with a school type: general, communitarian and Indigenous. These seek to adapt the learning to different circumstances such as linguistic and cultural needs, remote locations and migrant groups. General schools are more typical of urban and rural zones and enroll the vast majority of students in these education levels (see Table 1.1). Indigenous schools are characterized by bilingualism/biculturalism: a school where at least one Indigenous language is taught and elements of Indigenous culture are immersed in the school’s activities.

Lower secondary education is provided in five distinct modalities, each typically associated with a school type: general, technical, televised (Telesecundarias), communitarian, and for workers. In this level of education, general schools cater for about half of the student enrolment while about 28% of students attend a technical school. The Telesecundarias system – attended by one out of five students – was created in the 1960s to provide compulsory education in rural or hardly accessible areas in Mexico, even if currently many Telesecundarias are also located in urban areas.

There are also non-school (servicio extraescolar) and mixed modes of enrolment in education. These refer to open or distance learning with no requirement for full time physical presence at learning institution.

Students with special needs (with disabilities and gifted students) attend mainstream basic schools, or receive their education from Multi-Service Centers (Centros de Atención Múltiple, CAMs). CAMs exist from pre-primary to upper secondary education, and cover training for the labor market of students up to 22 years of age.

The governance of the education system.

The decentralisation of provision.

The great majority of students attend public schools. Private schools are not publicly subsidised and derive their resources from student fees. In basic education, in order to operate, private providers need the authorization of state educational authorities. They are required to follow the national curriculum established by the SEP.

The governance of schools is largely decentralized with states taking most responsibility as school providers. About 84% of students enrolled in basic education are in schools under the jurisdiction of states, while about 9% of students are in private schools and less than 7% attend schools under the direct jurisdiction of the federal government.

The Secretariat for Public Education

The SEP is responsible for national education policy and the overall strategy for the education system, in addition to its role as educational provider. Through the ANMEB the SEP strengthened its role as regulator in areas such as funding, evaluation and administration of education personnel.

The responsibilities of the SEP include the supervision, evaluation and development of the education system, establishing student learning objectives (including a national curriculum in the form of study plans and programms) and assessing whether these are met, authorizing textbooks to be used in schools, defining the levels of and principles for federal funding, setting the requirements for the professional and pedagogical competence of educational staff (including the study plans for initial teacher education and the requirements to enter the teaching profession), negotiating teacher salaries, regulating a national system of continuous education for basic education teachers, maintaining a registry of institutions which belong to the national education system, and defining the school calendar.

The role of state educational authorities

As explained earlier, at the state level, the governance of basic education is the responsibility of a state Secretariat of Education or/and a Decentralised Institute of the state government created to govern the transferred federal educational services. State educational authorities take responsibility for the operation of basic (includingIndigenous) and special schools, they run Teachers Colleges (Normal Schools) where most initial teacher education takes place, they provide professional development for basic education teachers, and they authorise private providers of basic education to operate.

The role of municipalities

Municipalities’ role in education remains limited and typically involves the building and maintenance of school infrastructure, equipping schools’ spaces, and participation in some specific education programmes. Their role might be more influential in rural and isolated areas.

The co-ordination of education policy

Educational planning and co-ordination of decision making among the federal government and the states is the responsibility of the National Council of Educational Authorities (Consejo Nacional de Autoridades Educativas – CONAEDU). It was constituted in 2004 by the Federal government and the representatives of the 31 states and state educational authorities, and is chaired by the Federal Secretary of Education. At present, CONAEDU has more of an advisory role when called for by the federation and its influence does not seem to be on aspects of policy design, but rather limited to implementation aspects (OECD, 2010a).

The National Union of Education Workers (SNTE)

The National Union of Education Workers (Sindicato Nacional de los Trabajadores

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