USAID/El Salvador and OCE Impact Evaluation Design for the Educational Innovation Project in El Salvador

Background:

El Salvador’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MINEDUCyT) is rolling out its New Pedagogical Model, part of the national educational reform called “My New School.” MINEDUCyT has identified 1,143 pilot schools to prioritize for the New Pedagogical Model. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, MINEDUCyT undertook a strategic rethinking with accelerated changes in certain areas of the educational system, assimilating the lessons learned from the pandemic to strengthen strategic planning. As a result of this, MINEDUCyT created a new pedagogical model that moved from an approach focused on information and teaching to one focused on the development and learning of the child, and it is based on seven steps: from subjects to areas of development and learning; from class schedules to development and learning routines; from classes to learning experiences; from methodologies focused on information to playful and participatory methodologies; from unidirectional organization to multidirectional environments and interactions; from an evaluation associated with grading to an evaluation for learning; and from limited, closed, and rigid educational materials to multiple resources and pedagogical tools of an open and autonomous nature.

USAID/El Salvador’s Educational Innovation Project (EIP), implemented by FHI 360 and a consortium of specialist organizations, supports MINEDUCyT in implementing the New Pedagogical Model in the classroom. One of EIP’s primary goals is to improve the quality of primary education by enhancing teachers’ pedagogical and classroom management skills in language and mathematics classes. To this end, the project helps teachers integrate innovative strategies in language and mathematics teaching, such as social-emotional learning (SEL), universal design for learning (UDL), educational reinforcement or Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL), and multimodal strategies/information and communication technologies (ICT).

USAID/El Salvador, in collaboration with FHI 360 and MINEDUCyT, plans to conduct a randomized impact evaluation of EIP, focused on the integrated teacher training model. The purpose of the teacher training model is to create continuous professional development that is holistic, systematic, pertinent, and meaningful, as presented by the National Directorate of Teacher Training. Evidence from this impact evaluation will inform MINEDUCyT’s plans to expand the model to new schools and grades and will identify ways to improve continuous teacher professional development.

Between 2022 and 2027, EIP will work in 300 public schools, conducting an integrated process of teacher training, educational accompaniment and teacher learning communities, strengthening the practices of more than 2,050 teachers to reach 80,000 students.

In 2024, EIP is working with the first cohort of 150 schools, refining its approach and learning lessons to integrate into the implementation of training in the second cohort. Cohort 2, which will be included in this randomized impact evaluation, will begin in the 2025 school year and will involve another 150 treatment schools. The schools targeted for the Cohort 2 evaluation (both treatment and control schools) will be randomly selected from the approximately 950 remaining MINEDUCyT pilot schools. The second cohort of teachers will receive classroom training days starting in January 2025 and continuing professional development through in-service training.