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Chile

Chile

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Carolina Soto

Carolina is an education professional with experience in school attendance and continuous improvement. She currently leads the National School Attendance Network in Chile (2023-present) and works as a researcher and advisor for the Opportunity Educational Foundation. Her work analyses attendance data and supports educational teams to reduce absenteeism. Carolina has held leadership roles in academic improvement and has contributed to various programs to strengthen early education. She has also published research on absenteeism and the use of attendance data in prestigious journals.

The menus below were updated in March 2023. If you have information to share with others in your country, please contact your country’s hosts.

Not for profit

  • Fundación Educacional Oportunidad (Opportunity Educational Foundation) is a civil society organization that promotes the development and learning of children and adolescents, from early childhood, innovating and working collaboratively with others. Its programs focus on the continuous improvement of pedagogical practices and leadership of teams in public schools in Chile. For more information about the foundation contact.
  • Since 2012, “The school attendance program” of the Fundación Oportunidad has provided educational teams and leadership in public schools with tools and strategies to increase class attendance and reduce chronic absenteeism in early education. Currently, 151 schools and 839 kindergartens participate in the program, benefiting 13,785 children in Chile. For more information contact the head of the program Yanira Alee
  • Fundación Presente (Presente Foundation): “Cada día cuenta” initiative of Fundación Presente was born in 2014 aiming to increase the involvement of students in their learning and thus reducing the high levels of chronic absenteeism. A team of professionals who are experts in education and educational psychology advise school communities by working directly with all members of the school team. To date, they have advised more than 150 schools and high schools in different regions of the country. For further information about the foundation contact.
  • Catedras UNESCO, a project of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization aims to advance and improve the development of research, training, and programmes in higher education, through the construction of university networks and the promotion of cooperation between universities through the transfer of knowledge across borders. 


Government:

  • Chilean Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) is the governing body of the State in charge of promoting the development of education at all levels, through a democratic humanist education of excellence, open to the world at all levels of education. The mission of the Ministry of Education is to ensure an inclusive high-quality education system that contributes to the integral and permanent formation of people and the development of the country. This is accomplished through the formulation and implementation of different policies, norms, and regulations in different areas. Through a system of registration, analysis, and decision-making for the promotion of school attendance, the reduction of chronic absenteeism is achieved. 


Academic institution:

  • Centro de Investigación avanzada en Educación (CIAE)(Centre for Advanced Research in Education): Since 2008, The Centre has sought to provide an interdisciplinary and integrating perspective through a fruitful dialogue between researchers from different areas of knowledge. Educators, sociologists, economists, engineers, mathematicians, doctors and psychologists from different faculties and institutes of Chilean universities participate in the Centre’s activities. Its mission is to produce and disseminate knowledge in the field of education and provide scientific support to the discussion and design of public policies in the educational area. Thus, national policies, local educational management and classroom teaching are based on the evidence generated by research. Additionally, it contributes to preparing the new generation of young researchers in the field of education. 


Chilean academics and specialists in the field of school attendance:

  • Juan Pablo Valenzuela, associate researcher at CIAE and Adjunct Professor of the Department of Economics at the University of Chile. His main research areas are the economics of education, social inequality and school attendance. 
  • Mahia Saracostti Schwartzman, Social worker and PhD in social welfare. Director of the Catedras UNESCO on children/youth, education and society. Full professor, University of Valparaíso, researcher at the University of La Frontera. 
  • Fundación Educacional Oportunidad:
    For fifteen years, the academics and specialists from the team at Fundación Educacional Oportunidad have worked to improve the quality of education in Chile. Through the implementation and evaluation of educational programs focused on language and school attendance of children in early childhood:

Activities:

  • 2023 January 10-13 ICSEI Conference: A team of experts of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad shares the achievements, lessons learned, and challenges obtained from the implementation of the school attendance program in 15 regions of the country, to contribute and generate collaboration to improve education. 
  • 2022 December 10: Yanira Aleé, director of the school attendance program of the Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, explains a new perspective on school attendance to prevent school dropout, a problem that is becoming more and more prevalent in the nation's educational system. Visit the following link to hear the interview. 
  • 2022 October 5-7, the 3rd INSA Conference: On this occasion, a Fundación Oportunidad team shares the process of recording, analysing, and processing school attendance data in the Chilean educational system and the innovative experience of the school attendance network in Chile (Un Buen Comienzo UBC). 


Achievements:

  • 2023, Fundación Presente is awarded a social impact contract (CIS) to implement the "Cada día cuenta " (every day counts) program free of charge in 20 schools in the country during the years 2023 and 2024 to promote attendance and address chronic school absenteeism and promote retention by ensuring positive school trajectories.
  • 2022: A paper led by Carolina Soto from Fundación Oportunidad describes the context of Chile and its educational system; the definition, recording, reporting and use of attendance data; and the methods, results and lessons learned by the Regional Learning Network UBC, which is a special edition published by the International Network for School Attendance (INSA) and the academic journal Orbis Scholae.   
  • 2022 December: A group of researchers from Harvard University and Fundación Educacional Oportunidad used the data provided by the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) of more than 60,000 children between the years 2011 and 2017 and compared the differences in the evolution of absenteeism and chronic absenteeism between schools in the VI region of Chile. Mary-Catherine Arbour 
  • Since 2022, The school attendance program of Fundacion Oportunidad begins the animated series that is aimed at children in early education. The protagonist of the series is the character Super attendance, who promotes class attendance using the motto "You have to be there to learn".
  • In 2022, a team from the CIAE of the University of Chile and the School of Government of the Catholic University developed a national survey to monitor schools during the pandemic, aiming to gather information on how the year is going from schools in initial, primary and secondary education, in order to provide information on school attendance to the educational community and education policy teams for decision-making.  
  • In order to reverse the high levels of serious absenteeism in Chilean students, since 2022 MINEDUC is implementing the attendance and permanence promotion program in all schools in the country. Through this programme, superintendents and educational teams will be able to receive bimonthly reports on each child's absences and academic disengagement. As a result, the knowledge will make it possible to develop work plans based on data, fine-tune targeted actions, and receive assistance from MINEDUC educational teams. 
  • Since 2020, the “Desafío trayectorias Escolares Positivas (TEP)” (Positive School Trajectories Challenge) initiative has been carried out, an alliance made between Servicio Local de Educación Pública Andalién Sur, Fundación Educacional Arauco y Centro de investigación Avanzada en Educación (CIAE) de la Universidad de Chile to mobilize capacities and practices for the planning, implementation and definition of strategies that promote school trajectories. It is hoped that this project will influence their engagement and school attendance, keeping them engaged and participating in quality learning experiences.
  • Promoting positive educational trajectories has been an enormous challenge for schools in Chile. To support this challenge, from 2020 to 2022 a research team led by Dr Mahia Saracostti designed the Integrated System for Evaluation, Monitoring and Strategies for the Promotion of School Engagement and Contextual Factors (SIESE) inspired by evidence on ways to promote School Engagement in the student body. 
  • Since 2020, the Fundación Oportunidad has been working with La Junta Nacional de Jardines Infantiles (JUNJI), one of the largest and most significant providers of public early childhood education in Chile, with the aim of transferring the strategies and methodologies for promoting assistance that have been tested by the foundation. The institution has incorporated and adjusted the model at a national level. Currently, 333 kindergartens participate, benefiting 6,468 children. For further information about this local experience visit the following. 
  • 2019: The "School Attendance" course is launched for all educators, early childhood education technicians, and principal teams from all over the country in order to disseminate the school attendance programme of Fundación Oportunidad to other organisations in the country. To sign up for the course, click on the following link.

Activities:

  • 2019 October: Mary-Catherine and Carolina Soto attended the 2nd INSA international conference in Melbourne, where they presented the implementation, successes, and difficulties of the school attendance program of the Oportunidad Educational Foundation. Look at the presentation at the link provided.
  • 2014 November: "Reducing Absences to Improve Achievement: The Effects of Chronic Absenteeism in Early Childhood," presentation at the 4th International Early Childhood Education Seminar.


Achievements:

  • 2019, The programme “Cada día cuenta” of Fundación Presente reduced the percentage of students with chronic absenteeism by an average of 30% and increased school attendance by 2%. This has been through a team of specialists who accompany, guide, model, and design strategies and actions with the attendance committee of each school. The programme aims to change the committee's attitudes towards participation and work with them to lead the cultural transformation of the school community by establishing management practices and promoting school attendance. Memoria 2019
  • In 2015, the "Inter-institutional Table for School attendance," organised by Fundación Oportunidad in collaboration with other educational institutions, focused on developing practical recommendations that would affect the educational policies of the Chilean educational system. Many strategic work sessions were held to accomplish this, resulting in various official documents being produced and sent to the authorities related to the field.
  • 2015 June: In order to combat "chronic absenteeism" in kindergartens and raise awareness of the value of daily attendance, Fundación Educacional Oportunidad launched the "Basta de yo no fui" campaign in June 2015. To learn more about the campaign, visit the following links.

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The International Network for School Attendance (INSA) promotes school attendance and responds to school attendance problems. We compile, generate, evaluate, and disseminate information, assessment, and intervention strategies.

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