College of Education
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Item THE DEVELOPMENT OF GLOBAL EDUCATION POLICY: A CASE STUDY OF THE ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION OF EL SALVADOR'S EDUCO PROGRAM(2013) Edwards, Donald Brent; Klees, Steve J.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The Education with Community Participation (EDUCO) program began in El Salvador in early 1991, near the end of the twelve-year civil war. It not only represented an extreme form of decentralization in that it transferred the responsibility for hiring, firing and supervising teachers to rural communities, but it was also the first reform of its kind in Latin America. During the ensuing 20 years, the program has received tremendous attention. Indeed, within the country it became the central program through which the education sector was rebuilt and expanded in the post-war era of the 1990s and 2000s. Internationally, the program has been widely recognized as a successful and desirable example of community-level education management decentralization. In fact, the program has become a "global education policy" in that it has been and continues to be recognized, promoted and adapted around the world. To date, however, the majority of research on this program has been a-historical in nature and has focused narrowly on whether the program "worked" - statistically speaking and with regard to such outcomes as student achievement. In contrast, in this dissertation, I analyze the dynamics of how the policy was developed. I shed new light on the trajectory of the EDUCO program by focusing, from an international political economy framework, on how the program was developed, scaled up, and internationally promoted. In so doing, I am able to highlight relevant political economic structures that impinge on education reform, as well as the various mechanisms of transnational influence that contributed to its advancement within and beyond El Salvador. In a number of different ways, international organizations are central to the policy development process. Methodologically, I focus not only on the process of development itself, but also on the ways in which actors and forces from multiple levels (local, national, international) interact and intersect in that process. Theoretically, by choosing to analyze EDUCO's origins, I attempt to contribute to our understanding of how (i.e., through which mechanisms of transnational influence) and why certain policies come into existence and subsequently go global.Item Assessing El Salvador's Capacity For Creating Inclusive Educational Opportunities for Students with Disabilities Using a Capacity Assessment Framework(2007-01-30) Hernandez, Glenda Yvonne; McLaughlin , Margaret J.; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Increasing education access for children throughout the world is a frequently discussed topic in the international community. Efforts to meet international goals such as Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals have included providing developing nations with grants, loans and other services such as technical assistance. Despite these efforts, there are many students who still do not have access to an education, with many students being those with disabilities. Through an exploratory case study, a capacity assessment framework was used to assess El Salvador's capacity for creating inclusive educational opportunities for students with disabilities. Interviews with government officials, non-governmental organizations, parents, teachers, and school administrators were conducted. Additional data was collected through observations and document reviews. The results of the study indicate the need for capacity building assessments as such assessments reveal the strengths and needs of a system's ability to provide inclusive educational opportunities for students with disabilities. El Salvador's strengths include the presence of established policies identifying students with disabilities and the presence of an entity (CONAIPD) which brings private and public organizations together to discuss access issues related to persons with disabilities. Furthermore, there are several advocacy organizations trying to increase their involvement and supports for parents and schools in order to increase and improve educational access and opportunities for students with disabilities. The capacity assessment also revealed the areas of need for El Salvador to increase its capacity in providing inclusive educational opportunities for students with disabilities, which included strengthening authority legitimacy, developing a consistent definition and identification process for students with disabilities and increasing teacher training and resources. Collectively, these results imply the need for additional capacity assessments as well as the need to reassess the assistance provided to nations with developing school systems that are trying to meet goals set forth by the international community.