After an intense day of work, early childhood educators and technicians, principals and UTP heads of municipal schools and DAEM heads from 6 municipalities formed on Thursday, April 4, a learning partnership to contribute together to improving the quality of early education in our country.

In March of this year, the classroom and management teams of 55 classrooms in 40 schools in six municipalities in the Metropolitan and O'Higgins regions joined Fundación Educacional Oportunidad's professional development program for teachers and managers, Un Buen Comienzo, which supports schools in improving teaching and leadership practices so that children can achieve better socioemotional and language development.

The program is developed intensively for two years in each establishment, during which time the entire educational community participates in instances that allow them to share, reflect and provide feedback on their experiences and results in the classroom through collaborative processes. In this way, the teams learn from each other, recognize good pedagogical and leadership practices, adjusting or eliminating those that do not provide the expected results.

Perla Chávez, director of Un Buen Comienzo, was very happy after finishing this first learning session of the year: "We found a highly motivated group, with high expectations in the program and in what they can learn. Today we have formed a new learning collaboration, whose main focus is to deliver quality learning to their children, with the evidence that in order to improve it is necessary to learn new strategies and work collaboratively. This session leaves us with the conviction that it is possible to generate transcendent changes in early education and that with motivation, will and collaborative work, children can learn more and better".

At the end of the two years of program implementation, the teams will be able to join the Un Buen Comienzo Improvement Network, which is currently made up of 56 schools in 12 municipalities in the O'Higgins Region.

This was indicated by the teachers of the We Learn program who attended the first Learning Session of the year of the English Improvement Network, where they shared successful experiences, reviewed progress and delved into the particular characteristics of the students in the area.

The children of the Elqui Valley are characterized by being very attached to traditions; with a great capacity for wonder and openness to learn through experimentation and interaction with nature, games, singing or dancing; they are simple, affectionate and inclusive. These were some of the characteristics with which teachers and management teams defined their students.

"The children have a purity that is not found elsewhere in Chile. Being far away is a disadvantage and also an advantage, since it keeps them in a cultural bubble that enriches them more every day. One is surprised that they go out and play and are not glued to the phone," said Victor Santander, a young English teacher who joined the We Learn program this year.

The analysis was carried out in the framework of the first Learning Session 2019 of the Improvement Network of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, where teachers and directors of 14 municipal schools of Vicuña and Paihuano delved into the learning of children in 3rd and 4th grade, all this to finally generate innovative ideas in the teaching of English. Some of these ideas were: passing assistance by asking a question in English, exchange of students between schools in the valley, students recording their voices and then studying, among others.

Deyanira Neira from the Héctor Manuel Hernández rural school in Quebrada de Paihuano, proposed the idea of "creating a publicity campaign to inform the school and the entire community about the program, so that the students' work can be posted at bus stops and businesses and communicated on local radio. The idea is for English to go beyond the subjects and be inserted in the town".

The activity was attended by the DAEM Chiefs of Vicuña and Paihuano and the Seremi of Education of the Coquimbo Region, Claudio Oyarzún. The regional authority pointed out that: "it is fantastic that a foundation is concerned from an early age with the mastery of the English language, aligned with government policies, training teachers and principals in leadership, especially reaching schools that do not always have the resources".

The learning sessions are instances where teachers and principals analyze data at the classroom, school and Improvement Network levels and share the learning and successful experiences achieved by their peers through the Continuous Improvement methodology. "It is highly positive because we learn about the successes and failures of other schools and teachers, we strengthen the work with our teachers and even share it with those who do not attend," commented Jorge Guerrero, principal of the Juan Torres Martínez school in Diaguitas.

More than 30 attendees, including English teachers, management teams, community teams and English-speaking professionals, shared a day of work on the teaching of English from the early years, exchanging experiences and learning, analyzing achievements and proposing innovative ideas.

Fundación Educacional Oportunidad's program, carried out under an agreement with the Subsecretaría de Educación Parvularia, seeks to contribute to improving the quality of early education (prekindergarten and kindergarten) in 20 schools of the Puerto Cordillera Local Service in the Coquimbo Region, with strategies that have been successfully implemented in nearly 200 public schools in the O'Higgins and Metropolitan Regions.

One of the objectives of the "Learning for a Good Start" program, which will be implemented this year in twenty schools of the Puerto Cordillera Local Service, is to increase the technical competencies of the different actors, promoting continuous improvement in order to contribute to improving the quality of early education.

About 130 professionals from Coquimbo and Andacollo, including kindergarten educators and technicians, management teams and local service professionals, will receive the strategies from Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, through a program developed in conjunction with the Undersecretary of Kindergarten Education.

The first training was received this week by educators and kindergarten technicians on strategies to combat non-attendance, a key aspect in terms of prevention and promotion of rights. . For Jaqueline Vega, kindergarten technician at the Luis Cruz Martínez school in Andacollo, it was a very good training and she hopes to implement it in her school, noting that "I am a technician and we are rarely invited to trainings designed for us, since in many cases they are for basic education and do not apply to the context of early education".

Meanwhile, Victoria Salazar, an educator at the Peñuelas school, highlights the training for using innovative resources, such as Súper Asistencia and the Sinforoso virus, and emphasizes networking. "We need to be trained and have codes among us, I have been working for six years in Coquimbo and I know few educators and these are the instances for early education to improve", says the educator.

The program will last one year and is expected to leave competencies installed in the territory, as a way to strengthen autonomy and the implementation of pedagogical and leadership practices for school improvement.

"Training the educators of these 20 schools allows us to deliver quality in early education, especially in NT1 and NT2, which will benefit from this program, and where emphasis is given to language, effective interactions and something as important as attendance. This agreement is a very innovative instance", says Yanina Erazo, Provincial Chief of Education.

Fundación Educacional Oportunidad has been working in the region since 2006 with its early English teaching program We Learn in the Elqui Valley and this year, in conjunction with the Undersecretary of Kindergarten Education, will implement "Learning for a good start", This program is based on the experience of 11 years of work in nearly 200 schools in the O'Higgins and Metropolitan regions with the UBC teacher professional development program, which has been identified as one of the 44 cases based on evidence from the OECD study on early education and last year was recognized by the Carnegie Foundation as an outstanding experience for the use of continuous improvement in education.  

It will benefit nearly 600 children from NT1 (pre-kindergarten) to second grade of four municipal schools in the commune with three hours of English per week and its objective is to promote quality learning of this foreign language from the first years of age. 

The pilot program that the Undersecretary of Early Childhood Education, PIAP and Fundación Educacional Oportunidad will implement for two years in the Magallanes Region was officially launched with training for English teachers in the curriculum and evaluation for the NT1 to 2nd grade levels of the We Learn program; training for management teams in classroom monitoring and observation strategies; and meetings with the team of the Municipal Corporation of Natales (Cormunat).

The early English teaching program will benefit nearly 600 children from NT1 (pre-kindergarten) to second grade of four municipal schools in the commune with three hours of English per week and its objective is to promote quality learning of this foreign language from the first years of age. 

The schools participating in We Learn in Puerto Natales are Baudilia Avendaño de Yousuff, Coronel Santiago Bueras, Capitán Juan Ladrillero and Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins.

"For the Foundation this is a very important milestone, as it allows us to transfer what we have learned over the past 13 years with We Learn in the Elqui Valley to another tourist town like Puerto Natales, which needs to promote this language. We are very excited about this pilot program," said Marcela Marzolo, executive director of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad.

The government and the Foundation will carry out periodic evaluations to monitor the children's progress and, at the end of the two-year pilot period, measure the program's impact.

In a joint effort between the Municipality of Renca and Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, the commune will join this 2019 the professional development program for teachers and directors "Un Buen Comienzo", which seeks to contribute to the improvement of the quality of early education by supporting schools in improving pedagogical and leadership practices.

For the first time in the 12 years of work of the early education program "A Good Start", Fundación Educacional Oportunidad will implement this initiative in the municipality of Renca, where nine municipal schools will receive the strategies and methodologies proposed by the program for two years.

The objectives of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad's program are to improve children's learning in the area of language, promote quality interactions in the classroom, increase the effective use of time dedicated to teaching and learning, improve attendance and strengthen the leadership of management teams.

To begin this work, 29 educators and kindergarten technicians were trained for three days in language and time use strategies such as: oral comprehension, vocabulary, writing, organization of the day, among others.

 "They have given us very applicable strategies to implement with the children. We had not had such a complete course and it is very good for us and for the community. I loved the vocabulary strategy, we had not worked on it in this way and we are leaving with my technician with many ideas to implement with the children", commented Paula Contreras, kindergarten educator at Rebeca Mate Bello School.

Mariela Allende, kindergarten educator at the Isabel Lebrún school, had a similar opinion: "It was very entertaining, very playful and the trainers were very good, they answered all the questions. The interaction of choices, as part of the vocabulary strategy, where the children cover their mouths for the wrong meaning of a word and when the correct meaning is mentioned, they take their hands out and say the word, was the one that most caught my attention".

The Renca schools that join 30 other establishments in the O'Higgins region for 2019-2020 are: Escuela Juana De Lestonac, Escuela Básica Monserrat Robert De García, Liceo Thomas Alva Edison, Escuela Rebeca Matte Bello, Escuela Gustavo Le Paige, Escuela Domingo Santa María, Escuela Capitán José Luis Araneda, Escuela Isabel Le Brun and Escuela Juana Atala de Hirmas. In total there are nine schools, 16 classrooms (pre-kindergarten and kindergarten), 29 educators and kindergarten technicians and their respective management teams that will seek to provide more and better learning opportunities to nearly 500 children in the commune.

Daniela Eroles, Director of Education of the Municipal Corporation of Renca, commented that it is a joy to join the Foundation's program where the children will ultimately benefit the most and stressed that "our main concern is to provide the best education throughout the educational path of our students and that is why starting from kindergarten education is essential for the future of the children".

A Good Start works directly with the educational teams (educators and kindergarten technicians), management teams (principals and UTP heads), community DAEM teams and also actively involves the parents of the communities in which it is implemented. At the end of the two years of the program, the schools and districts that have graduated from the program become part of a large Improvement Network that shares strategies, work methodology and common objectives focused on children's learning. This network stands out for its collaborative work and is currently made up of 56 schools from 12 municipalities in the O'Higgins Region.

What measures can we implement to promote attendance in the early years? These are the issues that we should be discussing, and that will make it possible to prevent the high dropout rates that alarm us today.

Mr. Director,

It is not important whether 138,000 or 358,000 children and young people have dropped out of school. What is important today is how we prevent more young people from becoming part of that number.

Evidence, both national and international, shows that promoting regular school attendance at an early age has a positive impact on learning and habit formation, which in turn reduces the risk of dropping out of school.

What measures can we implement to promote attendance in the early years? These are the issues that we should be discussing, and that will make it possible to prevent the high dropout rates that alarm us today.

Marcela Marzolo M.
Executive Director
Fundación Educacional Oportunidad

Educational teams and directors of 30 municipal schools join the professional development program for teachers and directors of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, which seeks to contribute to improving the quality of early education, supporting schools in improving pedagogical and leadership practices so that students can achieve better social-emotional and language development.

This year 2019 around 100 educators and nursery school technicians and their respective management teams from 30 municipal schools in five municipalities in the O'Higgins region will join the early education program Un Buen Comienzo (A Good Start).

Improving children's learning in the area of language, promoting quality interactions in the classroom, increasing the effective use of time dedicated to teaching and learning, improving attendance and strengthening the leadership of management teams are the objectives pursued by Fundación Educacional Oportunidad's program, which has been successfully implemented in nearly 200 Chilean municipal schools for the past 11 years.

The new municipalities in the O'Higgins region to join the program are Mostazal, Malloa, San Fernando, Olivar and Paredones. Sammy Ormazábal, mayor of Paredones, appreciates the work that will be done with the Foundation to improve the quality of early education and emphasizes that "the program will not only be related to educators and kindergarten technicians, but also to the management teams, the DAEM and will actively involve the parents".

As a starting point, during the summer, and for 3 days, the new educational teams were trained in the language strategies of Un Buen Comienzo. "It is a structured, organized, well thought-out program that is aimed directly at our children, since we often apply strategies that come from other levels such as basic education, and there is not much language material that we can apply, and the program provides just what we needed," said Rosa Cifuentes, an early childhood educator from the Olivar community, who participated in the training.

Natali Ramírez, an educator from the commune of Malloa, has a similar opinion: "what has most caught my attention are the vocabulary strategies, which have a clear intentionality". In addition, the professional emphasizes that "the program will provide concrete tools to carry out a more systematic work".

A Good Start works directly with the educational teams (educators and kindergarten technicians), management teams (principals and UTP heads), community DAEM teams and also actively involves the parents of the communities in which it is implemented. At the end of the two years of the program, the schools and communes that have graduated from the program become part of a large Improvement Network that shares strategies, work methodology and common objectives focused on children's learning. This network has been working collaboratively for one year and is currently made up of 56 schools from 12 municipalities: Chimbarongo, Codegua, Machalí, Coltauco, Las Cabras, San Vicente, Doñihue, Mostazal, Peumo, Quinta de Tilcoco, Pichidegua and Rengo.

Marcela Marzolo, executive director of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, says that "we are very happy to welcome new communities and schools in 2019 that will participate in Un Buen Comienzo and that will join the Improvement Network in the future, increasing the challenge for the Foundation to achieve the sustainability of the strategies and the collaborative work in the network.

The Zúñiga school in San Vicente has been implementing Un Buen Comienzo for three years now and is part of the network. For early childhood educator Tamara Sepúlveda, "this program is an opportunity for professional growth and a tremendous tool that will strengthen the new teams in every way. In addition, the results show that there is progress, I saw it in my children".

Using innovative and diverse strategies tested by Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, two Fundación Integra kindergartens in the O'Higgins Region were able to increase attendance and reduce chronic absenteeism, providing more learning opportunities for children.

Attendance is a key factor in the learning and development of children in the early education stage. Aware of this fact, and alerted by the reality of high non-attendance of infants, Fundación Integra Región de O'Higgins worked during 2018 implementing a series of strategies to increase attendance.

Missing 10% or more of school days in a year - regardless of the reason - is qualified as "chronic absenteeism" and is associated with lower learning, mainly in language and mathematics in 1st and 5th grade.

Fundación Integra's annual goal is for each child to attend 75% of the school year's school days. At the end of the pilot program in the middle school levels (3 to 4 years old) of two kindergartens in the region and comparing the results between a level that received the strategies and another that did not participate in the pilot program, it was observed that 78% of the children in the intervened level met Fundación Integra's attendance goal and only 60% in the non-intervened level. In addition, the percentage of children with chronic absenteeism decreased by 24% (77% in the non-intervened level and 53% in the intervened level).

These achievements were possible thanks to the systematic and committed work of educators and principals with strategies arising from Fundación Educacional Oportunidad's program, Un Buen Comienzo, which have proven to be effective in municipal schools in the O'Higgins Region. 

"We are very happy to work with Fundación and the progress we have been able to achieve. We believe that the focus on educational quality is achieved when our children are really in educational spaces, which is why each of these tools that we work together with the Foundation are vital for these objectives. We also want families to understand the importance of their children attending classes and that is why we will continue with this program in 2019", said the regional director of Fundación Integra Yenny Villanueva Carvallo.

The Bello Horizonte kindergarten achieved the best progress in meeting the attendance goal of Fundación Integra Región de O'Higgins. Its senior middle level not only achieved a 12% increase in attendance, but also surprised by decreasing a high rate of chronic absenteeism, from 97% in 2017 to 45% in 2018.

Nicol Delgado, kindergarten educator at the Bello Horizonte kindergarten, explains that they are surprised with the good results obtained and points out that "the best strategies were Super Attendance, which motivated the children to attend classes, and the meetings with parents to explain the importance of their children attending kindergarten".

Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, through its early education program Un Buen Comienzo, has been working on school attendance for more than 7 years, designing and testing strategies together with the educational teams and directors of more than 150 schools in the O'Higgins and Metropolitan regions. Yanira Aleé, Assistance Coordinator of the Foundation, points out that "this achievement of Fundación Integra would be impossible without the great involvement of the classroom teams and the directors of the pilot kindergartens, who applied our strategies and also created new ones, achieving these surprising results".

In Chile, attendance is measured as a monthly average per grade, which does not allow the identification of children suffering from absenteeism, so Fundación Educacional Oportunidad proposes a change of look and performs an analysis for each child, detecting important figures of chronic absenteeism. To combat it, both universal strategies are used, aimed at all children, and individual ones, focused on those children who are at risk or are in the category of chronic absenteeism. These include an attendance superhero who motivates children to attend classes, an attendance panel, parent meetings where information is provided to families, incentives and an Attendance Committee, among others.

In the coming years, Fundación Integra intends to implement the strategies in more kindergartens in the O'Higgins region, in order to achieve the institutional goals, but above all to ensure that the children who attend the institution have many more opportunities for learning and comprehensive development.

We know that early education is a key stage in the comprehensive development of children, but its benefits are evident only when it is of high quality. We thank the participating institutions, and we hope that this work will be a contribution to public policies on early education in our country.

Yesterday, 24 civil society organisations linked to early childhood education presented to the Undersecretary of Early Childhood Education a document entitled "Analysis, proposals and measures to contribute to improving the quality of early childhood education processes in Chile".

The document addresses five key areas that have an impact on the quality of educational experiences and therefore on children's learning. These proposals focus on the promotion of effective interactions in the classroom, initial training and professional development of educational teams (educators and technicians), the importance of pedagogical leadership, family involvement in this educational stage and how to evaluate to improve the quality of early education processes.

We know that early education is a key stage in the comprehensive development of children, but its benefits are evident only when it is of high quality. We thank the participating institutions, and we hope that this work will be a contribution to public policies on early education in our country.