DRAFT LEGISLATION

AND FACT SHEET

Juan Martn Fernndez

UNI: jmf2244

Advocacy and the legislative process

Legislation draft1
Bill LSE #8

Education Information Bill

An act to assess the resources and performance of the education

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Republic of

Argentina

Sec. 1. Declaration of purpose. The purpose of this bill is to regulate the

Education Statistical System of the province of Corrientes. It
establishes informational rights and duties for every participant of the
mandatory education system, including all private and public schools,
education workers including teachers and principals, parents or tutors,
students and public agencies.
Sec. 2. There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this bill such
sums as may be necessary for fiscal year 2017 and for each of the 5
succeeding fiscal years.

Title 1 Educational Information Agency

Sec. 3. There is hereby established as an independent agency in the
Ministry of Education, the Educational Information Agency (EIA). It
shall be in charge of all the functions concerning the present act.
Sec. 4. The EIA shall be headed by the Educational Information Council
(EIC) conformed by 5 members: 2 designed by the party that has the
largest representation in the Representative House, 1 for the party
with the second largest representation, 1 appointed by the teachers
union with the largest list of affiliates and 1 appointed by parents
through a procedure that shall be determined by the Ministry of
Education. The EIC shall dictate the norms that regulate the
administrative functioning of the EIA. It shall also appoints the
Executive Director, that shall be in charge of coordinating the
operations of the EIA.

1 The report style was emulated from several federal laws and statutes, like the
Reorganization Plan N 3 of 1978 (Federal Emergency Management Agency),
the Central Intelligence Act of 1949 and the No Child Left Behinf Act of 2001.
Juan Martn Fernndez UNI: jmf2244

Title 2 Data collection

Sec. 5. The EIA shall conduct yearly assessment of proficiency of every

student enrolled in grades 3, 6, 9 and 12. The subjects assessed
shall include, but not be limited to, Mathematics, Reading, Natural
Sciences, History, Geography and Computing. Evaluated standards
shall be determined by the EIA. Assistance is mandatory for students.
Sanctions for absence shall be stablished by the EIA.
Sec. 6. Every school shall provide the information required by the EIA
regarding teachers, their personal, professional and education
background, infrastructure, organizational practices, students profile
and every other information required and as required.
Sec. 7. The EIA shall carry on an infrastructure and human resource
census every 4 years. The particulars of the census shall be defined
by the EIA and shall contain at least the following aspects to be
surveyed: teacher training, motivation and confidence; pedagogical
practices, organizational culture and worker satisfaction; infrastructure
adequacy, ICTs availability, physical accessibility, financial situation,
community involvement and parents participation.
Sec. 8. Performance feedback shall be required to
educational workers, principals, parents and students.

teachers

and

Title 3 Freedom of information

Sec. 9. All data gathered by the EIA shall be made public no more than 6
months after collected. Open access data shall not suffice to identify
personal, professional or any other information of a particular person.
Sec. 10.
The EIA shall release an open access assessment report for
every school in the province, containing the performance of every
grade evaluated the previous year and an assessment of human and
physical resources available at the institution.
Sec. 11.
Every principal shall receive a report on the performance of
each student and teacher of the school under her responsibility. Every
teacher shall receive a report on the performance of her students.
Every parent or tutor shall receive a report on the performance of her
child or tutee.
Title 4 Research grants
Sec. 12.
The EIA shall award grants to public and private
organizations for research on best educational practices, assessment
Juan Martn Fernndez UNI: jmf2244

of performance, education organization management and any other

topic that may generate knowledge useful to the improvement of the
educational system.

Juan Martn Fernndez UNI: jmf2244

Fact sheet
Support the Education Information Bill (#8)
Education statistics have not been available for many years in Argentina. Lets
put education on the spotlight.

Background
There is a widespread consensus about the efficacy of a good education policy
to promote economic growth, reduce inequality and encourage citizenship.
However, in Argentina, we do not really know where we stand in regard to
educational matters. There is no satisfactory information about performance
and there is almost no data at all regarding the resources of the system. That
prevents us from making decisions to improve such a critical issue.
What is this proposal about?
The Education Information Bill promotes the establishment of an integral
education statistics system for Argentina. It also creates an agency in charge of
the policy, commanded by a council with minority party, teachers and parents
representation. The proposal includes:
1) Annual comprehensive assessment of every student in grades 3, 6, 9 and
12. Topics assessed include math, reading and science, among others.
2) Full assessment of human, organizational and material resources available
at every school.
3) Open access to surveyed data within 6 months and detailed school reports
assessing performance and resources available.
4) Promotion of education research to find the most cost-effective practices to
improve results.
Why should you support the initiative?
1) The overall performance of our education system is not good. Argentina
ranked 59 out of 65 in Math in PISA survey 2012. Its position has been
deteriorating since the start of the test in 2003.
2) Before implementing solutions, we have to assess what the situation is;
not only to draw a baseline but also to identify the most cost-effective
solutions.
3) Current performance assessments are not satisfactory. Tests take place just
every 3 years in Argentina 2 and they only survey knowledge in Maths,

2 DINIEE. 2016. Evaluacin de la calidad educativa. Accesed September 24,

2016. http://portales.educacion.gov.ar/diniece/evaluacion-de-la-calidadeducativa/
Juan Martn Fernndez UNI: jmf2244

Reading and Science. Most OECD countries 3 and even Brasil, Mexico and
Chile have more comprehensive assessments 4.
4) The topics covered by current statistics are narrow. The only information
that is consistently gathered every year is the enrollment of students and
the size of the workforce. We hardly know the training of the teachers, their
motivation, the material condition of classroom and several other key inputs
for education. The last teacher census was completed in 2004 and the last
school infrastructure census has 18 years old, way before the disruption of
ICTs into the classroom 5. Outputs indicators are not heavily measured either.
Argentina ranks 56 out in 65 regarding the existence of internal or external
evaluations and students feedback6.
5) Most important, there is a lack of publicity of information. Argentina ranked
59 out of 65 regarding whether or not the achievement data of the school is
made public7. This turns into very low accountability. Parents have no
grounds to make educators accountable through voice or feet.
6) The Education Funding Act (n 26,075) requires the educational spending to
reach 6% of GDP. The recent change in base year in national accounts
means that spending has to increase massively to meet that requirement.
The current proposal is expected to cost $20 million a year, just a 0.8% of
those extra funds.
Addressing this issue is be the first step into start delivering a 21 st century
education that promotes growth and social inclusion in Argentina.
Supporters

Parents of the Future (advocacy group of parents promoting education

improvement)
2,000 school cooperation funds.
1,500 student associations.
UNICEF Argentina
Chamber of Private Educative Entities of Argentina (ADEEPRA)
Policy for Social Justice Center (think tank)
Centro de Implementacin de Polticas Pblicas para la Equidad y el
Crecimiento (think tank)

3 OECD. 2013. PISA 2012 Results: What Makes School Successful?. Paris: OECD.
4 Duro, Helena. 2015. La autoevaluacin educativa en Argentina y la regin
LAC. Ponencias IV Conferencia ReLAC. Lima: ReLAC.
5 DINIEE. 2016. Op. cit.
6 OECD. 2013. Op. cit.
7 Only 8% of students attend to schools that provide open access to that
information. OECD. 2013. Op. cit.
Juan Martn Fernndez UNI: jmf2244

Argentinas education situation

1. Argentina is performing very badly in education. It ranked 59 among 65
in last PISA tests.
What do we have to do about it?
1. To improve it, we first have to know how bad it is and what s going
wrong. There Is no information available

What is the current situation of the education statistics system?

1. Standardized tests take place every 3 years and for some grades, while
most succesful countries test every year and many subjects.
2. There is no information about the inputs of education: last teacchers
census dates back to 2004 and last infrastructure census has 18 years
old.
3. There is no systematic feeback from teachers, principals, students nd
parents to evaluate the performance of the system.
4. There is an agency, DINIECE, but is not independent.

What can be done to improve it?

That is why this proposal is about a new information and evaluation system
1. Test students on a more regular and broad basis
2. Collect data about the state of schools, the human resources they have
and other organizational issues regularly.
3. Not only outputs, but inputs. Not only objective but also subjective
opinions.
4. Publish that information so every stakeholder can have access to it with
no delay.
5. Supporters
5.1. Parents of the Future (advocacy group of parents promoting
education improvement)
5.2. 2,000 school cooperation funds.
5.3. 1,500 student associations.
5.4. UNICEF Argentina
5.5. Chamber of Private Educative Entities of Argentina (ADEEPRA)
5.6. Policy for Social Justice Center (think tank)
5.7. Centro de Implementacin de Polticas Pblicas para la Equidad y el
Crecimiento (think tank)

Juan Martn Fernndez UNI: jmf2244