A PARTICIPATORY METHOD FOR SCHOOL EVALUATIONS: THE IACE

The self-assessment tool for quality education, known as the IACE method, was designed and implemented from 2007 until 2017 in 3245 public institutions of the three compulsory levels of education in seven provinces in northwest and northeast Argentina.

This document summarises the method’s characteristics and reports on experiences and achievements from its application in public schools in Argentina.

Cooperation with UNICEF Argentina made these implementations possible through agreements made with the Local Development Support Centre (CEADEL) and respective provincial governments.

It analyses how evaluation, in particular that undertaken by the initiative’s main stakeholders, improves the management and results of educational institutions and transforms them into smart schools. It focuses on learning and their capacity to adapt to the needs of contemporary contexts marked by rapid social and technological changes.

It discusses the design process of the IACE method and gives details on the dimensions, variables and indicators considered for compulsory educational levels in Argentina: infant, primary and secondary. It summarises the scope of successive implementations of the method in public schools. It specifies some noteworthy results and summarises strategies developed by various jurisdictions to make the self-assessment processes sustainable.

Among the many tools included in the method, the evaluative tool aimed at nursery or infant school aged children  was chosen to be presented at the experience exchange fair at the First  EvalParticipativa Gathering, held in Quito in November 2019.  This tool includes several activities:

      • A script suggested for a puppet show (to be adapted as appropriate for each school), where the characters interact with the public (children) to find out what they do at nursery, what they do and don’t like, and what they would like to do;
      • An artistic activity (drawings/collages/murals/paintings) expressing, individually or collectively, what they do, what they like most and least about the nursery; and/or
      • A text to the teacher (letter or story) to explain what the nursery is like, what they do there, what they like most and least and suggestions to help improve it.