On November 15, the Network of Leading Schools (REL), announced ten new establishments that, after applying in a call and being selected by an expert jury from more than 70 candidacies, became part of this network that exchanges innovative practices for educational improvement, in areas as diverse as mental health and school coexistence. promotion of reading, sustainability and environmental awareness.

The Network of Leading Schools (REL) is a 16-year-old initiative that brings together almost a hundred schools and high schools from all regions of the country that work in contexts of vulnerability, whose purpose is to make visible the educational innovation of the establishments, connect their actors and contribute to the urgencies of the system. through collaboration and collective learning.

After a break due to the pandemic, in April of this year the REL reopened its call to seek and incorporate ten new establishments that were implementing solutions that aimed to solve real and critical problems in their communities. In this way, more than 70 schools, high schools and colleges applied, which presented initiatives characterized by the high participation of their communities in the design and implementation of the project and a view of sustainability.

Thus, on Wednesday, November 15, the network – which is promoted by Fundación Educacional Arauco, Fundación Educacional Minera Escondida, Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, Fundación Chile, and the newspaper El Mercurio – announced its new members, at the entrance ceremony "Innovate to learn: a network challenge", which during its inauguration included the words of the Undersecretary of Education, Alejandra Arratia.

"To address the challenges we currently have in educational matters and for the Educational Reactivation to achieve the objective of improving learning in a comprehensive and profound way, innovation is key; we need to innovate, to do things differently," said Undersecretary Arratia. The authority highlighted the instance and support provided by civil society organizations for the development of projects that different schools in the country work on every day and invited those who join the network to continue raising the voice of innovation from their educational communities, pointing out that "it is important since it illuminates other establishments that see themselves reflected in you to be part of how, through education, we build a better country." 

Innovations

The ten new establishments that were incorporated applied with projects in areas as diverse as mental health and school coexistence, reading promotion, sustainability and environmental awareness. Thus, for example, theFederico Schwager Industrial Bicentennial High School in Coronel, stood out for its project "School Research and Development", an initiative that involves students in a creative and scientific process to address problems at the local, national and international level, through teamwork, the scientific method and Project-Based Learning to find innovative solutions.

Meanwhile, the Alberto Hurtado School in Puerto Octay, stood out with the project "Reading promotion and training of booktubers", which allows its students to love reading through videos shared on YouTube where they describe and recommend books. This initiative, which has been going on for about seven years, has improved the reading comprehension, writing and communication of its students and also school coexistence.

In the environmental field, the G-744 Chiñigüe El Cristo School in El Monte was selected for its "Pachamamita" project, which has helped them to address issues of preservation of human life and the planet, highlighting environmental sustainability to make a conscious and responsible use of resources, bringing its students closer to agroecology, through a greenhouse, composting and recycling area. Similarly, the Leonardo Da Vinci School in Valdivia, with the "Generating Awareness" project, seeks to generate environmental awareness in students, parents and neighbors of the sector, educating them in the separation of organic waste and in the creation of a school compost that works in a community way.

The other establishments recognized at the ceremony and welcomed were: Colegio José Bernardo Suárez de Macul, with its project "Ojo con los niños", a podcast and magazine made by children from Public Education; Numpay Rural Basic School of Maule, with the initiative "The value of collaborative work for the search for common strategies with students with Autism Spectrum Disorder"; Liceo Ciudad de Brasilia de Pudahuel, with the initiative "Educating emotions: Socio-emotional Department"; Luis Cruz Martínez School in Quilicura, with the "My Torch" project of value training for learning; Bicentennial School of Santa María de El Monte, with the project "Let's play to learn, advance and take care of ourselves" and the Bicentennial National High School of Excellence of San Bernardo, with the initiative "Socio-emotional Learning Project (ASE)".

Valentina Quiroga, Human Development Manager of Fundación Chile, in her capacity as representative of the REL's partner institutions, congratulated her incorporation, indicating that "being part of the Network of Leading Schools is not only a recognition, but an invitation to join a network, we want to make visible that behind all this there is a work that is permanent, that it is every year and that today, finally, after the breaks we had after the pandemic, we can learn about and share in person these experiences that solve a real challenge".

A relevant announcement was also made at the ceremony: the Leading Schools Network was invited by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to participate in Schools + Network, an initiative that creates and promotes learning circles with other innovative schools around the world. This means that the establishments in this network will be able to exchange their practices with colleagues from different latitudes, favoring innovation and development in the region.

This benefit for REL members is in addition to access to training instances such as workshops, talks and seminars with renowned national and international experts to address issues of school leadership and educational innovation, along with the priority invitation to courses for the professional development of management and teaching teams. Also, the participation in networking instances for the generation of public products and the high visibility of their school work through educarchile and El Mercurio.   

Within the framework of the existing collaboration between Fundación Luminario and Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, both organizations shared achievements, learnings and challenges of the work of accompanying educational teams.

Members of the Fundación Luminario de Perú team visited our country to learn about the work that Fundación Educacional Oportunidad has done on the ground, through the Un Buen Comienzo (UBC) program, where they accompanied the early childhood education teams of the O'Higgins region and deepened the collaboration that both institutions have maintained for two years.

During its visit to Chile, the team visited schools in the provinces of Colchagua and Cardenal Caro with the purpose of sharing the learning of both programs and nurturing the work of the field coordinations, in order to improve the accompaniment process, and pedagogical practice in early childhood education.

According to Perla Chávez, head of the Un Buen Comienzo program at Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, "this collaborative work has been in development for two years, where we have visited each other, learning together, sharing achievements and raising challenges. The next phase is to integrate the schools we work with into this collaboration, in a virtual format, which allows them to get to know each other and share their pedagogical practice."

During their visit, the Fundación Luminario team, in addition to soaking up the style of work carried out by UBC, participated in a day of reflection where the professionals were able to discuss the views and experiences that both programs have regarding early education.

Rocío Santiago, coordinator of the accompaniment program of Fundación Luminario de Perú, highlighted the warm reception they had in Chile and pointed out that the main learning from this visit was to rescue the strengths she observed from the work carried out by UBC in schools, in order to include them in her accompaniment program. "The idea is to continue having this link that allows us to do collaborative work and, in this way, strengthen the work of Chilean and Peruvian teachers, to achieve a greater impact on the education of girls and boys in each country," she said.

For her part, Sally Fernández, also from Fundación Luminario, rescued the role of UBC's field accompaniment team. "They feel confident in the work they do and therefore, I would like to be able to multiply what I was able to learn in the field and transmit it to the companions in our country. The objective is to continue reflecting on the accompaniment practice that we carry out in both programs and that is not seen much in the region, since we are one of the few organizations that carry out this work that is based on evidence," he concluded.

International and national experts made presentations on innovative approaches to support educational communities to reduce learning lags in the context of educational reactivation.

On Tuesday, October 10, in the auditorium of the Nicanor Parra Library of the Diego Portales University, the International Seminar "Learning to implement school improvement: An urgent task" was held. The activity, co-organized by the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, through the Center, C Líder, and Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, was attended by Donald J. Peurach, Ph.D. of the University of Michigan and the former Superintendent of the Unified School District of the City of Sacramento, California, Jorge Aguilar. In addition, three local initiatives that are developed within the framework of the work carried out by C Líder were shared at the event.

The Undersecretary of Education, Alejandra Arratia, participated in the conference and highlighted the importance of offering instances such as these, which bring together different spheres of the educational system. "The challenges in education are great and if we do not do them jointly, articulated, and consistently, they become even bigger and even more difficult. It is essential that we can come together, actors from different levels and sectors, to have this country perspective, especially at this time when we are addressing the challenges of educational reactivation."

Donald J. Peurach, Professor of Educational Policy, Leadership and Innovation at the School of Education at the University of Michigan, in his presentation "Continuous and Collaborative Improvement: Reimagining Local Educational Innovation" highlighted that currently in education, we are in a stage of empowerment. "It is a stage in which it is recognized that the need to provide high-quality education to increasingly diverse students requires that education professionals at the local level are empowered to face complexities and challenges, and that they receive support to learn to do their jobs better."  We must have a historical look that allows us to see "an evolution from school systems that provide access, to educational systems that support teaching and learning, to learning systems that support adults in the joint development of knowledge and skills to do more, for more students. Therefore, the important thing is to understand that, by doing this work, you are part of a historical expansion of what we know and understand about what local changemakers can do."

For his part, the former Superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District, Jorge Aguilar, presented "Improvement Sciences at the Service of Educational Equity: From Early Childhood Education to Access to College." "For me it is important to be a leader and show a lot of humility, because before having an expectation about the work that your staff must do, one has to train and know how to do the same thing that is asked of them. Having experience, maybe not being an expert, but knowing how to do the job with a lot of confidence so that your staff sees you as an example that you are learning, that you are demonstrating humility in the face of very complex problems," said Aguilar about his role as a leader of an educational center supporter.

In addition to the international guests, the seminar was attended by various professionals from C Líder, who presented different initiatives in panel mode. Mónica Cortez and Felipe Aravena, from PUCV Educational Leaders, presented "Thinking about educational improvement planning in short cycles: The challenge of building a collective improvement mentality". Carlos Eugenio Beca, together with Alejandra Acevedo, from the Diego Portales University, presented "Training of systemic leaders: Learning to work collaboratively for a better education". Finally, Yael Codriansky, from Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, presented "In search of continuous improvement oriented to the Quality Assurance System in Early Childhood Education".

The event was attended by authorities such as the Superintendent of Education, Mauricio Farías, the Executive Secretary of the Education Quality Agency, Gino Cortez, the Dean of Education of the Diego Portales University, Paula Louzano. In addition to the executive directors of C Líder and Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, Carmen Montecinos and Marcela Marzolo, respectively.

The Superintendent of Education, Mauricio Farías, emphasized the importance of having international voices in the national experience, "the knowledge they bring from outside stresses the knowledge and practices of what we are doing. It helps us to rethink ourselves, to relook at what we are doing, how we do it, looking for new mechanisms. It helps us to open up the range of opportunities we have."

For his part, the Executive Secretary of the Education Quality Agency, Gino Cortez, pointed out that "in order to make effective changes in the educational system, the energies of the different groups are required within a cycle of continuous improvement. The commitment of academics, of those who are in the educational communities, of those who are today in public service or in the State and, also, of those who are in middle positions is important. I believe that the meeting of all these actors, and the synergy that must exist between each of them, is vital to be able to install a process of continuous improvement in the educational system."

The Dean of the Faculty of Education of the Diego Portales University, Paula Louzano, welcomed the attendees, highlighting that, "we tend to expect solutions to come from research, that people who are working in the field do not have time to reflect and think about these problems and challenges; and we know that doesn't work. So I want to celebrate the fact that here we are bringing reflection, regarding research and practice, which is represented by the two international researchers."

"All the exhibitors have reinforced the idea that to solve problems we need innovation. Therefore, what we are doing today is sharing innovations that are being carried out in Chile, but that are also innovations that are being carried out in other countries. The reform today is not enough, we need to restructure and transform how we are addressing the processes of educational improvement and this is a transformation that has to come, both from the design of public policies, and from the actions that are carried out at the level of educational centers," said the Executive Director of C Líder and PUCV Educational Leaders. Carmen Montecinos.

For her part, the Executive Director of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, Marcela Marzolo, pointed out that, "when listening to the different presentations, both national and international, of this seminar, I am left with the feeling that we are talking or beginning to speak a common language. Everything we work on at the Foundation: continuous improvement, collaboration, innovation, practical problems, all these concepts are already being worked on with greater emphasis here in Chile, but also abroad. Finally, we are all focused on a common purpose, which is the learning and integral development of students."

At the end of the day, the Undersecretary of Education, Alejandra Arratia, together with Juan Pablo Valenzuela, Director of the CIAE of the University of Chile, addressed how innovation is promoted and key aspects to address the challenges of educational reactivation.

You can review the seminar at this link:

https://www.youtube.com/live/dpjlUuGa2Yg?si=Fz3YOH1DWQ_W0QqB

International and national experts will hold presentations in order to support educational communities to reduce learning lags in the context of educational reactivation.

In the auditorium of the Nicanor Parra Library of the Diego Portales University, next Tuesday, October 10 between 09:00 and 14:00 hrs., the International Seminar "Learning to implement school improvement: An urgent task" will be held. The event, co-organized by C Líder: Associative Center for Educational Leadership and Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, will feature the participation of Donald J. Peurach, Ph.D. of the University of Michigan and former Superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District, California, Jorge Aguilar. In addition, the event will share three initiatives that are developed within the framework of the work carried out by C Líder.

Donald J. Peurach is Professor of Education Policy, Leadership, and Innovation in the University of Michigan School of Education. He is also a member of the Carnegie Endowment for the Advancement of Teaching, an associate professor at the Center for Positive Organizations at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, and a senior research fellow at the University of Michigan's Consortium for Policy Research in Education.

For his part, Jorge Aguilar served as Superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District until June of this year. There, he was responsible for more than forty thousand students, leading processes that managed to improve learning outcomes and graduation rates, reducing non-attendance and repetition.  Previously, he served as Associate Superintendent in the Fresno Unified School District and was Associate Vice Chancellor for Educational and Community Partnerships. He currently serves on the board of the Carnegie Endowment for the Advancement of Education.

"Based on the principles and practices of the science of improvement, at C Líder we are carrying out various innovative initiatives to support educational communities and their supporters in the work they do to reduce learning lags, mobilize subjective well-being, and enhance the educational trajectories of students. In this Seminar we want to share these experiences and our learnings from their implementation," said the executive director of C Líder and PUCV Educational Leaders, Carmen Montecinos.

In addition to the international guests, the seminar will feature the participation of various professionals from C Líder. Mónica Cortez and Felipe Aravena will present "Thinking about educational improvement planning in short cycles: The challenge of building a collective improvement mentality". Carlos Eugenio Beca will present "Training of systemic leaders: Learning to work collaboratively for a better education". Finally, Yael Codriansky, from Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, will present "In search of continuous improvement oriented to the Quality Assurance System in Early Childhood Education".

About the event, the executive director of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, Marcela Marzolo, pointed out that "when we talk about school improvement we refer to an entire system that must be able to identify changes that result in an improvement and at the same time sustain those changes and make them part of the system. This is not achieved from one day to the next. It requires new skills and this is what the speaker Jorge Aguilar will share. Their experience in developing these continuous improvement skills, from the intermediate level, and the impact this can have on improving student learning. We are sure that it will be a tremendous contribution to education in our country."

 We are very happy to announce the names of the winners of the Haz que Despeguen contest.

Knows the technical-administrative specifications for the preparation of the proposal.

The bidding will be publicly announced on September 8, 2023. The requested documents must be submitted in electronic format (PDF) and sent to pmunoz@fundacionoportunidad.cl.

✔ Documentation submission date: September 20.

✔ Results delivery date: September 22.

✔ Download the terms of reference at this link https://fundacionoportunidad.cl/wp-content/uploads/tdr-licitacion-prueba-de-ingles.pdf

The activity, organized by Fundación Educacional Oportunidad and C Líder: Centro Asociativo para el Liderazgo Educacional, brought together about 50 professionals and had the objective of analyzing the progress of the projects that are being developed in the educational establishments.

Nearly 50 education professionals, directors and their respective deputies, from kindergartens in the Valparaíso region, participated in the Learning Session of the Diploma in Leadership for Continuous Improvement for Directors of JUNJI VTF Kindergartens. The activity was organized by Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, in the context of its partnership with C Líder: Centro Asociativo para el Liderazgo Educacional. The objective of the meeting was to analyze the improvement projects developed in the diploma course, focusing on the testing process and to deepen the contribution of the continuous improvement methodology in the implementation of the Quality Assurance System in Kindergartens.

Carmen Montecinos, executive director of C Líder, valued the positive reception of those attending the learning session and emphasized that Fundación Educacional Oportunidad carries out innovative work that precedes the demands of today's kindergarten education. "The work carried out by this institution is not only innovative, but it has also prepared various communities to face new challenges. In fact, they have been working beforehand on the subject of the network, cycles and tools for improvement, even long before other early education establishments," he said.

Marcela Marzolo, executive director of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, emphasized the commitment and enthusiasm of the kindergarten principals and staff, who shared with their peers what they had learned during the course in terms of improving the practices and learning of the children, and how continuous improvement is already part of their institutions.

"This methodology is key for the foundation because what we have been learning over the years allows us to adjust our interventions and observe, through the data, whether what we are doing really implies an improvement," she explains. She added that "in this way, we have been able to carry out interventions, develop strategies and transmit the methodology to the directors and teams of VTF kindergartens".

Elizabeth Vega, a professional from the Leadership and Management for Improvement area of the Ministry of Education's General Education Division, valued the event and "the commitment of the educators to be trained and improve their performance and that during the day they were provided with tools for their daily work, such as the continuous improvement methodology, which provides concrete information that helps them to obtain more immediate achievements".

Elisa Ibieta, a professional from the Education Policy Division of the Undersecretary of Kindergarten Education, said that the learning session was a very enriching experience for the pairs. "I was struck by the analysis and reflection that was done when evaluating the process of the projects, which then allows us to make cycles of improvement and make decisions with this information. This is very important to have an impact on learning," she said.

Established in December 2022, the initiative addresses learning gaps in reading. Currently, organizations from all over Chile are part of the network, which held its fourth meeting this Tuesday at the La Moneda Cultural Center, where different institutions shared their experiences and addressed the challenges that the network will face in the future.

With the presence of more than 40 organizations that are part of the alliance[CAF(C1] and more than 90 attendees, the fourth meeting of the Network "For a Chile that Reads" was held, an initiative that seeks to contribute with proposals to address the learning gaps in reading among students and is preparing to become a corporation with the objective of formalizing itself as an organization.

In addition to giving an account of the work carried out by the seven working groups that make up the network, the focus of the meeting - held at the La Moneda Cultural Center - was to reflect on and define the future challenges that this alliance must face and how to have a concrete impact on the reading levels of the country's children. Thus, some of the roundtables are already working on the generation of instruments that allow the measurement and evaluation of different aspects of reading in students in early stages.

Among the initiatives being worked on by the network are the creation of a reading teaching manual for pedagogical schools and the development of instruments to measure reading fluency, with the intention of piloting it with students. In addition, the initiative led the massive campaign "1000 photos, 1000 readings to share".

Carolina Andueza, president of the Executive Committee of "For a Chile that Reads" and executive director of the CMPC Foundation, highlighted the importance of the network and of these meetings to define the road map and the resources to be used. "The truth is that there is a historical debt with the reading of children and adolescents in Chile, but now we are in an even more critical situation after the pandemic. We want to set ourselves up as a corporation and, through this legal personality, access funds, memberships and financing to be able to project ourselves with long-term sustainability and thus be able to promote new initiatives, seminars, manuals. The idea is to be able to share all the knowledge that is installed in each of these organizations and transform it into collective knowledge as a country". Currently the network "For a Chile that Reads" is made up of more than 120 organizations from all over the country.

For her part, the coordinator of the Education area of Fundación Olivo, Constanza Severín, who is also part of the Financing and Alliances Committee of "For a Chile that Reads", explained that "this network in particular has been very broad and democratic. Tables have been formed according to the themes and objectives of each of the organizations and this has meant the creation of new tables. This has led to many motivations, because many institutions from different fields are convened and the central objective is very clear. That is why it is sustained over time".

The meeting also included the panels "Reading Experiences" and "The tables talk". In the first, the foundations AraucaníAprende, Belén Educa, Alma and La Fuente, shared their learning in this area and then moved on to the second discussion, in which different actors of the Network were able to present the future challenges faced by the organization, among them, to establish a mechanism to know where the most urgent cases of children with problems in learning to read are, strengthen public-private work, position "For a Chile that Reads" as a national reference in reading and materialize the initiatives in the classroom that are developed in the network.

The objective of the initiative and of these meetings is to continue the work of generating synergies and initiatives to ensure that children understand what they read and enjoy reading. The event took place at the La Moneda Cultural Center, after three previous meetings at the Center for Advanced Research in Education (CIAE) of the University of Chile, at the Catholic University and at the University of the Andes.

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The work between the Corporación para la Infancia de Santiago and Fundación Educacional Oportunidad aims at transferring strategies and learning to increase attendance, through the installation of practices, accompaniment processes and collaboration between educational teams and directors. 

The Corporación para la Infancia de Santiago, an institution that has been administering free kindergartens and nursery schools in the same commune for nearly 50 years, averaged nearly 70% attendance during the first half of 2023. 

Seeking to increase attendance at its 21 schools, the Corporation entered into a strategic alliance with Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, an institution that for more than 12 years has tested various strategies and now has an impact study on reducing chronic absenteeism thanks to the continuous improvement methodology, which provides it with a set of successful interventions. This will make it possible for them to jointly develop a pilot program. 

This alliance will seek to improve the attendance levels of infants in the kindergartens and nursery schools that are part of the pilot program, through the installation of practices in the Corporation's professionals, educational teams and managers. To this end, accompaniment processes and instances of collective learning will be developed.  

In addition, Fundación Educacional Oportunidad will make available its attendance platform that allows visualizing the data of each child in a cumulative way, that is, the percentage of attendance that each one presents from March to date, which allows for assertive and timely intervention for those who present recurrent absenteeism.  

This platform generates several graphs that help to visualize attendance data and improve individual attendance, since it does not only focus on the average attendance, but also on the attendance percentage of each child. 

Evelyn Sánchez Arenas, Executive Director of the Corporación para la Infancia, said that "the alliance that we are going to implement with Fundación Educacional Oportunidad in kindergartens and nursery schools in Santiago, aims to promote and improve daily attendance at our educational centers, by strengthening practices around attendance, the use of platforms, integrated data for measurement and the incorporation of training and generation of skills for our educational teams. We expect it to be a great partnership, which fills us with excitement to implement during this second semester and also with effect for the year 2024". 

Yanira Alée, head of the attendance program at Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, said that "we are pleased with the collaboration that we have established, as it will allow us to detect new learning and challenges to increase attendance in kindergartens that are financed through the transfer of funds". She added that "we hope that the 21 educational centers will test our strategies, but also that they will be able to create and apply new interventions with the tools of the continuous improvement methodology and then measure their effectiveness in reducing absenteeism". 

Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, an organization associated with C Líder: Centro Asociativo para el Liderazgo Educacional, led by the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, is executing the third version of the Diploma in Leadership for Continuous Improvement for JUNJI VTF Kindergarten Directors. In this opportunity, the program is training a total of 49 professionals, of which 22 are part of the Local Public Education Service of Valparaíso. In addition, professionals from DAEM San Felipe, Santa María and San Esteban are also participating.

The objective of the program is to develop leadership skills for continuous improvement in directors and educators of kindergartens and nursery schools via transfer of funds (VTF) and coordinators of kindergarten education, belonging to the participating sponsors. The Diploma is developed in hybrid mode, with virtual and face-to-face meetings.

"Educational communities face important challenges in this stage of learning reactivation. This diploma course allows us to broaden the tools available to principals and their teams to prioritize these challenges. By addressing an urgent challenge, new learning is achieved that allows them to move forward to address the next priority," said the executive director of C Líder and Líderes Educativos PUCV, Carmen Montecinos.

Currently, the participants are executing the second module of the program. In the first module, they worked on the identification of a real problem and carried out an analysis of the causes, using institutional instruments of kindergarten education. In the current module, they identify ideas for change or actions that will allow them to improve a pedagogical need in their kindergarten or nursery. In addition, they create indicators to monitor their implementation and make decisions that promote the gradual but sustained improvement of the prioritized needs.

According to Lorena Espinoza, academic coordinator of the Diploma Course of the Transfer Area of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, "it is not possible to improve that which cannot be measured, this is a phrase from the book "Learning to Improve "*. Decision-making based on data is fundamental, from the interpretation of these data, reflections are generated, lessons are learned and planning is promoted to generate adjustments and changes. Therefore, we believe it is important for the directors to have the tools to interpret the data, make decisions and promote change".

The course lasts 75 chronological hours and the directors participate in theoretical and practical sessions, mentoring and reflection and design activities. The 3 face-to-face sessions, which take place throughout the program, allow participants to strengthen reflection on the progress of their improvement projects, and to share experiences in order to make adjustments based on the learning that emerges from the design and execution of the projects.

According to Solange Fredes, technical pedagogical coordinator of the VTF kindergartens and nursery schools of the Local Public Education Service of Valparaíso, the diploma course is an excellent opportunity for the educational teams "because, as educators, we must be constantly improving our educational practices, whose impact will directly benefit our children".

The call is for schools and high schools working in vulnerable contexts to present innovative projects that they are currently implementing. Among the benefits of being part of the network is the access to training instances on educational innovation and leadership with recognized national and international experts, the participation in collaborative instances and the high visibility of their school work through El Mercurio. 

The purpose of the Red de Escuelas Líderes (REL), a 15-year-old initiative promoted by Fundación Minera Escondida, Fundación Educacional Arauco, Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, Fundación Chile and El Mercurio, which brings together schools and high schools in a context of vulnerability throughout the country to work on educational improvement, is to make visible the innovative solutions that schools have deployed in multiple dimensions.  

After a break due to the pandemic, this year REL is reopening its call to seek and incorporate new schools that are implementing projects that solve critical problems and, at the same time, seek to influence good practices that are sustainable over time and can serve as inspiration to other educational communities.  

"The Network of Leading Schools trusts in the innovative capacity of the schools and their vocation to work collaboratively. The great value of this call is that its focus is not only to recognize the efforts of new members, but also to seek practices that can be replicated by other schools and, in this way, provide more and better learning opportunities for the students of the country", says Nadiezhda Yáñez, coordinator of Educational Leadership in Learning for the Future at Fundación Chile . 

Marcela Sáez, Director of Development and Evaluation at Fundación Educacional Arauco, adds: "We see a great need to continue to make innovation visible in the country's schools. Innovative education is a key factor, because it allows us to put student learning at the center, changing routines, activities and processes, to achieve greater interest and connection with students".  

José Antonio Díaz, executive director of Fundación Minera Escondida, points out that "promoting effective collaboration between educational establishments is fundamental in order to advance in practices that improve educational processes. We are living in times of profound changes, therefore, it is important to make visible and recognize innovative experiences that inspire and motivate educational communities to join the new challenges of education". 

Along the same lines, Marcela Marzolo, executive director of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, adds that another valuable factor of REL is that it promotes innovation and collaboration in pursuit of a common purpose: the reactivation and transformation of education. In his opinion, this collaborative work "constitutes a tremendous opportunity to overcome the challenges left by the pandemic, through peer learning and the generation of collective intelligence that will undoubtedly make possible the generation of more creative and effective ideas and solutions for the benefit of the children and youth of our country. We also believe that they favor the generation of new teaching practices, the adaptation to collaborative work and, therefore, the development of new professional competencies", he emphasizes.  

Benefits of REL 

Among the benefits of being part of REL are access to training opportunities such as workshops, lectures and seminars with recognized national and international experts to address issues of school leadership and educational innovation, along with priority invitation to courses for the professional development of management teams and teachers. Also, participation in networking instances for the generation of public products and high visibility of their school work through educarchile and El Mercurio.   

"Education has been a leading topic of public debate in recent decades, but in many cases it has lacked the value of the real experiences of educational communities. For a newspaper like El Mercurio, it is of great interest to inform readers about the best practices and initiatives that are promoted -from the educational establishments themselves- to face the challenges of teaching, especially in vulnerable environments", says Carlos Schaerer, director of El Mercurio. 

The application must be made through this form on the website of the Network of Leading Schools until August 15. Schools that receive state subsidies, belong to the "low", "medium low" or "medium" socioeconomic group, according to the last SIMCE measurement and that have innovative initiatives in execution that are relevant to the territorial reality may participate.  

Projects can be assigned to one of the four categories of the call for proposals: Pedagogical Innovation, which includes strategies of acceleration of learning for educational reactivation; School and Community, which groups initiatives of revinculación and promotion of educational trajectories, strategies for teacher welfare, school coexistence and mental health; School and Citizenship, which classifies initiatives to promote participation, global citizenship and/or cultural diversity, and Transversal Themes for the 21st Century, such as projects for the development of transversal skills.  

It should be noted that the selected schools and high schools will receive public recognition at the ceremony for joining the Network of Leading Schools to be held in October, a milestone where they will be welcomed and will meet the other members of the network. 

On Friday, June 30, the registration process to participate in the Fundación Educacional Oportunidad contest that will reward 16 children with outstanding attendance in kindergarten education with a visit to the Kennedy Space Center in the United States ended. The drawing will be held on August 8 and will have one winner for each region of Chile. 

On March 15 of this year, Fundación Educacional Oportunidad launched the campaign "Haz que despeguen" (Make them take off), whose objective was to encourage children to attend school and to make society aware of the benefits of kindergarten education.  

The initiative was associated with a nationwide contest and more than 8,700 children attending kindergarten education were registered by their families for a chance to win a trip to the Kennedy Space Center in the United States during the summer vacations of 2024. 

This campaign was born after observing the figures of school absenteeism in Chile. In 2022, 61% of prekindergarten and kindergarten children missed 6 weeks or more of school during the year, a disturbing figure, since repeated absenteeism is the greatest predictor of school exclusion.  

Marcela Marzolo, executive director of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, an organization that promotes the importance of early childhood education, highlighted the enthusiasm shown by educational teams from kindergartens and schools across the country, who from the beginning of the campaign promoted the contest among children and their parents.  

"We are tremendously grateful for the support we had during the campaign in terms of dissemination of the contest, not only by the schools we work with, but also by the institutions with which we collaborate and with whom we share the purpose of early childhood education, such as Junji, the Undersecretary of Kindergarten Education, Fundación Protectora de la Infancia, among others," he said. She added that "thanks to them it was possible to amplify our message and motivate, not only the application, but also the awareness of the importance that this level of the educational trajectory has in the development and learning of children". 

Let's touch the stars! 

On August 8, the drawing will be held, with one winner per region of Chile to travel with his or her mother, father and/or responsible adult to Nasa. The results will be announced at a later date at www.hazquedespeguen.cl.  

It is important to remember that the guardian of the winner of the prize must prove that the child has the required attendance percentage: 90% or more attendance from March 15 to June 30, 2023, justifying the absent days as stipulated in the contest rules. 

Knows the technical-administrative specifications for the preparation of the proposal.

Deadlines:

☑️ Deadline for submission of documentation: May 2, 2023.

✅ Results delivery date: May 8, 2023.

In the following link you will find the terms of reference with all the details and ways to apply:

https://fundacionoportunidad.cl/wp-content/uploads/tdr-licitacion-lenguaje-nt1-nt2.pdf

Knows the technical-administrative specifications for the preparation of the proposal.

Deadlines:

☑️ Deadline for submission of documentation: May 2, 2023.

✅ Results delivery date: May 8, 2023.

In the following link you will find the terms of reference with all the details and ways to apply:

https://fundacionoportunidad.cl/wp-content/uploads/tdr-licitacion-lenguaje-medio-mayor.pdf

We launched the "Haz que despeguen" campaign to encourage attendance in kindergarten education. Each region of Chile will have a winner of a contest that will reward those with outstanding attendance.

In 2022, 61% of prekindergarten and kindergarten children missed 6 weeks or more of school during the year, a worrying figure because repeated absenteeism is the biggest predictor of school dropout. Faced with this reality, Fundación Educacional Oportunidad launches the campaign "Haz que despeguen" to raise awareness in society of the benefits of early education for the present and future of children.

"Repeated absences in early education jeopardize the comprehensive development of children and, for that reason, families should make the most of educational opportunities. If students have a poor foundation, we will not achieve good results when they finish the educational cycle. The repercussions are tremendous in terms of learning and comprehensive development," says Yanira Alée, head of the assistance program at Fundación Educacional Oportunidad.

In addition, he points out that due to the serious attendance crisis that Chilean education is going through after the pandemic, the institution devised the "Haz que despeguen" campaign, "because we want the children of Chile to touch the stars through early education, in addition to motivating families to take their children to kindergarten and school every day," he says.

The executive director of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, an organization that has been dedicated for more than 20 years to promoting the importance of early childhood education and working on attendance issues, was very emphatic in pointing out the negative effects that repeated absenteeism in kindergarten education can have on infants.   

"Research has shown that absenteeism in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten has a negative impact on language and mathematics results in 1st and 5th grade, and that children can have progressive consequences, such as exclusion and definitive school dropout, seriously affecting their life projects," explains Marcela Marzolo.

Let children take off to the stars

Fundación Educacional Oportunidad hopes to make a contribution to break the trend of absenteeism that has been observed in Chile after the pandemic.

The initiative will run from March 15 to June 30 of this year and will reward one child and one adult in each region of the country. Children between 2 and 6 years old, who are in kindergarten education, from junior high school to kindergarten, in kindergartens, public schools and/or subsidized private schools throughout Chile, and who have outstanding attendance, may participate.

The contest prize [www.hazquedespeguen.cl] consists of a 4-day trip [3 nights accommodation] for the winners and a companion of legal age, to NASA's Kennedy Space Center, located in Orlando, Florida, USA. The trip will take place on a date to be defined in January or February 2024.

The winner's guardian must prove that the child has the required attendance percentage: 90% or more attendance from March 15 (start of the contest) to June 30, 2023, justifying the absent days as stipulated in the contest rules found on the page hazquedespeguen.cl.