Maria Jose Guevara Duque

Six+ years of domestic and international experience in project management, monitoring and evaluation, research,
knowledge and information management, strategic planning, performance management, research, quantitative and
qualitative data analysis. MSc in Gender, Development and Globalization. Fluent in English and Spanish. Capable of
leading teams and of working as part of a group or alone. Experience working in government, international, private, and
academic organizations. Adaptable and able to transfer knowledge and work in multiple sectors. Passionate about
international development, international cooperation, human rights, women s rights, child protection and public policy.

mj.guevara.d@gmail.com Luis Alcivar OE4-134 y Avenida Brasil - Quito, Ecuador.

/mjguevarad/ + 593 2 243 1615 / +593 9872 90343

Writing sample

PISA for Development: lessons from Ecuador

Education has been a priority in Ecuador for more than a decade. In 2006, Ecuador approved a 10-
year educational plan by national referendum, and the 2017-2021 National Development Plan sets
forth an ambitious objective related to the education sector: “To guarantee a decent life with equal
opportunities for all people”. Access and equality are priorities in the education sector, but the quality
of education, infrastructure and the availability of resources are concerns, as well.

In order to understand if we are making progress toward our objectives, we need comprehensive,
reliable and rigorous evaluation processes. That is why Ecuador’s Ministry of Education decided to
participate in the PISA for Development (PISA-D) initiative. In joining PISA-D, the ministry aimed to
improve our understanding of the major challenges that students face in the final years of formal
education, and to complement the results of our national assessments – Ser Estudiante, Ser Bachiller
and Ser Maestro – with a more global perspective. Our organization, the National Institute of
Educational Assessment (Ineval), was appointed to carry out PISA-D throughout Ecuador. We
conducted the field trial of the school-based assessment in 2016, carried out the main data collection
in 2017, and spent 2018 analyzing and reporting the results.

Results from PISA-D will not lead to overnight changes in Ecuador, but they do provide us with an
important starting point. Results for Ecuador were mixed. Students said they feel safe and happy at
school, but the results underscored a need to improve the quality of education they receive. The
average 15 year-old in Ecuador only reaches PISA proficiency level 2 in reading, and math scores
are low, as well – particularly among girls and underprivileged students. One of the main challenges
for our educational system today is to not only provide children with the knowledge they will need
throughout their lives, but to ensure that the most vulnerable populations are not excluded from the
system.

Participating in PISA-D has provided Ecuador with valuable data about our educational system, and
with perspectives that could not be gained through national assessments alone. The program has
also helped strengthen our national capacity to carry out large-scale educational assessments in the
future.

The PISA-D results will allow us to better assess the effectiveness of Ecuador’s education system, in
terms of achievement and learning, and to identify areas to concentrate our efforts. Participating in
international programs will also allow us to closely track our progress toward both national and
international objectives.

Nevertheless, assessments alone cannot improve the quality of education. Policy makers should now
use these results to develop concrete actions, and to evaluate the effectiveness of policies that have
already been implemented. Researchers, meanwhile, should use our PISA-D findings to develop new
lines of enquiry, which can then inform future policy making. Results from PISA-D and national
assessments will not lead to overnight changes in Ecuador, but they do provide us with an important
starting point.