About A Good Start (UBC)
Objective of the program: Teacher and management professional development program that seeks to contribute to the improvement of the quality of Early Education, encouraging schools and kindergartens to collaborate and participate in networks that allow improving pedagogical and leadership practices so that children achieve better socio-emotional and language development.
The program is developed intensively for two years in each educational center, during which time, both the educational teams of Middle Major, NT1 and NT2 levels as well as the management and support teams, participate in training and accompaniment instances, which allow them to learn, share and reflect on their practices and results through collaborative processes.
A Good Start promotes collaborative and networked work with a common goal among schools: to improve children's learning at the early childhood level. UBC addresses socio-emotional and language development through good use of time, quality interactions and reducing child absenteeism through evidence-based strategies.
UBC considers all actors in the system: educators and kindergarten assistants (educational teams), technical heads (UTP), directors and other members of the management team, providers and families.
The program uses a methodology of continuous improvement, based on collaboration and the use of data, with the aim of learning in a systematic way, as well as accumulating and disseminating practical knowledge necessary to improve teaching and learning processes.
Since its inception it has been rigorously and systematically evaluated, with external evaluations seeking to measure impact, while at the same time tracking internal data that is used to make timely and informed decisions.
Key elements of the program
-Instructional Time: Its objective is to enhance the effective use of time dedicated to generating meaningful learning in children. It seeks to promote the increase of active instructional time in which the adult is directly involved with the children in the learning task, through strategies such as reading aloud, discussion and conversations, projects, among others. At the same time the aim is to reduce passive instruction times and times devoted to classroom organisation and management.
-Effective Interactions: UBC promotes quality interactions in the classroom, specifically in the domains identified by the CLASS instrument as enhancing children's learning: Emotional Support, Classroom Organisation and Pedagogical Support. Through training and accompaniment in the classroom, the aim is to strengthen the capacity of educational teams to observe their own practices and improve the quality of interactions, as well as the capacity of Heads of UTP to observe and accompany their teams with a focus on interactions.
•Attendance: Attending classes is essential for the development of children. For this reason, the program provides educational teams and managers with strategies aimed at promoting class attendance and reducing chronic absenteeism, which in early education corresponds to missing 10% or more of the school days in the year.
UBC Program Scope 2024
Children
Schools
Rooms
Regions
Communes
Educators
Technical
Directors
UTP Chiefs
"Fundación Educacional Oportunidad demonstrates that in Chile it is possible to have world-class kindergarten education in vulnerable contexts. This type of education substantially improves all areas of child development and the Foundation has made a significant investment to continuously improve".
Ernesto Treviño
Director of CENTRE-UC of the Catholic University.
Improvement Network A Good Start
Objective: To be a space for exchange and collaborative work between Educational Centers (schools and Kindergartens), communes and territories (SLEP) that seeks to promote the continuous development of teaching and management capacities that allow sustaining improvement and thus positively impact the learning of children at the initial level.
About the network
Collaboration is an expanding strategy in different organisations and sectors to increase results and achieve greater benefits. And in education, improvement networks have been the means to promote collaboration between teachers and managers from different schools, in order to generate agreements and improvements, and thus work to respond to the challenges of early education.
This is why Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, through its programs, has promoted the creation of learning networks that aim at sustainability and constant improvement.
The UBC Improvement Network was born in 2018 with 13 communes, 60 schools and 77 classrooms in the O'Higgins Region, and today it has become a space for exchange and articulation of collaborative work between schools and communes in the O'Higgins Region, with the addition of the commune of Renca in the Metropolitan Region, which exists for the purpose of enhancing the continuous development of teaching and management skills in order to sustain improvement and school effectiveness and thus impact on the learning of children at the early childhood level.
Currently, in 2024, the UBC Improvement Network is made up of 8 communes and the Colchagua Public Education Service. Each commune and SLEP has an Improvement Team composed of a preschool educator, a technician in early childhood education, head of UTP, director and community leader. The objective of these teams is to lead the operation of the network (in each territory), develop the Local Improvement Plan, coordinate the Local Network meetings, define the agenda and develop the necessary dynamics to guarantee the effectiveness of the Local Network.
UBC Improvement Network 2024 Scope
Children
Schools
Rooms
Regions
Communes + SLEP Colchagua (4 communes)
Educators
Nursery Technicians
Directors
UTP Chiefs
