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.

Title 2 Data collection

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

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 teachers and
educational workers, principals, parents and students.
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 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

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, Reading and Science. Most OECD countries 3 and even Brasil,
Mexico and Chile have more comprehensive assessments 4.
2 DINIEE. 2016. Evaluacin de la calidad educativa. Accesed September 24,
2016. http://portales.educacion.gov.ar/diniece/evaluacion-de-la-calidadeducativa/
3 OECD. 2013. PISA 2012 Results: What Makes School Successful?. Paris:
OECD.
Juan Martn Fernndez UNI: jmf2244

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 feedback 6.
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)

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