Enseña Chile (Spring 2023)

Enhancing Leadership Development in Chilean Schools

Partner Background

The non-profit educational organization, Enseña Chile is promoting a movement to transform opportunities for public school students in Chile. Inspired by Teach for America in the US, Enseña Chile works to develop educational leaders committed to improving access to excellent educational opportunities for students regardless of socio-economic circumstances. Founded in Santiago in 2007 by Enseña Chile CEO Tomas Recart, the organization works to provide quality education for high school students by bringing outstanding university graduates with leadership skills into under-resourced schools. Through its Colegios que Aprenden (CQA) consulting unit, Enseña Chile is working to produce a system-wide impact on issues of educational quality, leadership, and equity.

 

Definition of Opportunity

Over the past ten years, Enseña Chile has partnered with Notre Dame’s International Development in Practice class and the i-Lab Master of Global Affairs program to evaluate best practices and key aspects of supporting educational leaders in Chile. The 2022 i-Lab project examined the role that school leadership plays, and focuses on the key role of principals for enhancing outcomes for students.  In the process, the i-Lab team developed a leadership development tool for principals. This DAT project aspires to explore models that can help disseminate and actively use the tool to promote activities that can support the sharing of good school leadership practices in Chile.  It is critical to define how the tool can be used within the framework of Enseña Chile CQA’s coaching sessions, and more generally to promote leadership and teacher development. 

Definition of Success

Enseña Chile seeks to implement the findings from the i-Lab team report, and find the most effective way principals might use the tool which focuses on three overarching themes: Build Trust, Be Coherent, and Develop a Learning Culture.

Meet the Team

Final Deliverable

Ensena Chile Presentation F23 by Joseph Drey on Scribd

Attracting Young Professionals To Teach - Enseña Chile (Fall 2017)

Client Profile

Enseña Chile is based on the successful Teach for America model, recognized for creating a critical mass of leaders committed to improving access to excellent education regardless of socio-economic circumstances. The organization works in Chile to provide quality education to 14- to 18-year-old high school students by bringing for two years outstanding university graduates with leadership skills into classrooms of under-resourced schools. Enseña Chile was founded by Tomás Recart in 2007 in Santiago, Chile.  

Definition of Opportunity

Throughout the past few years, Enseña Chile has noticed a rise in the applicant numbers of young professionals who have completed two or more years of work and want to refocus their careers. Despite not having a formal recruitment strategy to address this specific population, early evidence suggest that young professionals with a few years of professional experience are more successful teachers than those who join immediately after graduating from university. While Enseña Chile is primarily focused on recent graduates, this initial evidence has Enseña Chile interested in learning ways to promote, create an interest, attract and select young professionals with work experience.

Initial ideas & Options

·      Assess the current Enseña Chile recruitment strategy for people with professional experience. Analyze existing data regarding socio demographic characteristic of applicants to gather additional insights and understand better their overall profile.

·      Research best practices in organizations with similar missions (both inside and out the educational arena) to understand how to better increase Enseña Chile's young professional applicant base.  One organization worth analyzing is Teach for America in the U.S.

Definition of Success

Identify a strategy to promote, interest, and attract young professionals to Enseña Chile. If successful in the short-term, the organization believes teacher turnover will be reduced and student achievement will improve. Ideally, many of these young professionals will continue to meaningfully fight educational inequality throughout their careers either directly or indirectly as a result of their Enseña Chile experience.

Development Advisory Team

Recommendation

Enhancing Effective Learning Loops - Enseña Chile (Fall 2016)

Client Profile

Enseña Chile is based on the successful Teach for America model, recognized for creating a corps of leaders committed to improving access to excellent education regardless of socio-economic circumstances. Many join straight after finishing college, but others have gathered professional experiences outside the education sector. All applicants need to have demonstrated skills in leading and motivating teams, such as campus initiatives, community organizations or sports teams. Enseña Chile was founded by Tomás Recart in 2007 in Santiago, Chile. The organization provides quality education to 14- to 18-year-old high school students by bringing outstanding university graduates with leadership skills into classrooms of low-quality schools in poor areas for a period of two years. 

Definition of Problem

Enseña Chile provides quality education to 14 to 18 year old high-school students by bringing outstanding university graduates with leadership skills into classrooms of schools in poor areas for a period of two years. Enseña Chile founder Tomas Recart is convinced that to achieve social and economic equality it is necessary to systematically incorporate new leadership into the educational system, and build broad and diverse networks in doing so. Enseña Chile is based on the Teach for America model, recognized for creating a corps of leaders committed to improving access to excellent education regardless of socio-economic circumstances. Many teachers join Enseña Chile straight after finishing college, but others gain professional experiences before working as teachers. All applicants need to have demonstrated skills in leading and motivating teams, such as campus initiatives, community organizations or sports teams. On a long-term basis Enseña Chile is promoting a movement/network of Enseña Chile alumni who will form a critical mass and serve in key leadership positions in society to positively influence change in Chile’s educational system, providing opportunities to bridge Chile’s enormous inequality gap.

Enseña Chile began with 29 teachers in 3 regions in 2009 and today in 2016 has 191 teachers in 8 of the 15 regions of Chile.  This growth has led to the current need to establish more systematic processes and protocols to ensure regular analysis and sharing of key data (such as the student/classroom impact measurements, teacher satisfaction surveys, principals and school administration surveys, alumni impact, etc.) Working with “Learning Loops,” we have identified these cycles, but have struggled to implement clear and concise processes with responsibilities for each step.

Initial Steps and Options

• Contact members of former ND Enseña Chile DATs who have successfully worked with the organization in the past (some who now serve as part of an Enseña Chile international advisory board).

• Identify the experiences of relevant non-profits around the globe who do an excellent job sharing data and information on their work and building community with key shareholders.

• Compare Enseña Chile’s use and sharing of data (including its Learning Loop cycle) with other relevant non-profits.

Definition of Success

• Informed by best practices of other relevant organizations, design a process for the 2017 academic year that allows relevant stakeholders of the organization (from teachers in the classroom to our CEO, including Regional Managers, staff members, the board of directors, principals and students) to be informed of the status of each instrument and its progress.  Ensure that this process allows them to have a say in analyzing the data and proposing changes and strategies for the future in a timely manner. 

• For example, this might be a coherent framework (with suggested documentation, diagrams and dashboards) that can help the organization to learn and improve from the current cycle of “Capturing Data > Analyzing Results > Establishing insights or strategies > Sharing results > Executing proposed actions and Repeating,” Propose effective ways of keeping track of each of these stages, linked to the framework of Enseña Chile’s yearly schedule.

Development Advisory Team

Final Report

Networks for Social Development - Enseña Chile (Fall 2015)

Client Profile

Enseña Chile is based on the successful Teach for America model, recognized for creating a corps of leaders committed to improving access to excellent education regardless of socio-economic circumstances. Many join straight after finishing college, but others have gathered professional experiences outside the education sector. All applicants need to have demonstrated skills in leading and motivating teams, such as campus initiatives, community organizations or sports teams. Enseña Chile was founded by Tomás Recart in 2007 in Santiago, Chile. The organization provides quality education to 14- to 18-year-old high school students by bringing outstanding university graduates with leadership skills into classrooms of low-quality schools in poor areas for a period of two years. 

Definition of Problem

On a long-term basis, Enseña Chile is promoting a movement/network of Enseña Chile alumni that will be active at key positions in society with the possibility to positively influence a change in the educational system of Chile. Enseña Chile has adapted the model for the Chilean and Latin American context. By bringing bright college graduates and professionals to teach in underprivileged schools, they provide a significant contribution to bridging the inequality gap. Although Enseña Chile believes that good teachers have similar characteristics independent of culture, the organization has been adapting the Teach for America model both in the way these competencies are measured and trained, as well as in teacher training.

Founder Tomás Recart is convinced that in order to achieve social and economic equality it is necessary to systematically incorporate new leadership into the educational system and build broad and diverse networks in doing so. 

Initial Steps and Options

• Enseña Chile is currently working to develop a network in which principals and ECh regularly work together and foster long-term relationships in which ECh would continue to supply the same schools with teachers. ECh feels they hear all the time how OECD and US schools and school systems share work/information and build networks.
• Additional advisors: Stephen Zerfas and Mitch Kochanski, Bridgespan, San Francisco & Andrew Weiler, McKinsey and Company, Minneapolis

Definition of Success

An operational guide on best practices for building effective networks in the educational sector from other countries. Which are the best ideas that might be directly related to Chile?

Recommendation

Presentation

Measuring Teacher Effectiveness - Enseña Chile (Spring 2014)

Client Profile

Enseña Chile is based on the successful Teach for America model, recognized for creating a corps of leaders committed to improving access to excellent education regardless of socio-economic circumstances. Many join straight after finishing college, but others have gathered professional experiences outside the education sector. All applicants need to have demonstrated skills in leading and motivating teams, such as campus initiatives, community organizations or sports teams. Enseña Chile was founded by Tomas Recart in 2007 in Santiago, Chile. Enseña Chile provides quality education to 14 to 18 year old high-school students by bringing outstanding university graduates with leadership skills into classrooms of low-quality schools in poor areas for a period of two years. On a long term basis Enseña Chile is promoting a movement/network of Enseña Chile alumni that will be active at key positions in society with the possibility to positively influence a change in the educational system of Chile. Enseña Chile has adapted the model for the Chilean and Latin American context. By bringing bright college graduates and professionals to teach in underprivileged schools, they provide significant contribution to bridging the inequality gap. Although Enseña Chile believes that good teachers have similar characteristics independent of culture, the organization has been adapting the Teach for America model in the way these competencies are measured and trained, and in teacher training.

See all Development Advisory Team projects with Enseña Chile

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