Initative for proximity schools
Objective: Guaranteeing public school places in a distance of 15 minutes walking from home
City: Barcelona
Description
Proximity is one of the guiding lines for planning the school supply in Barcelona. Proximity schools are defined as those below 15 minutes walking from pre-school kids’ houses and they are the goal of this political measure that departs from an unbalanced supply scenario in the city. The proposal has different lines of action: First, locating new schools in Catchment Areas (CA) of insufficient supply to enrol students living in the same area and, second, merging close schools when there is over-supply in one CA (two primary schools, a primary and a secondary school).
Opportunities
- Previous research shows the positive impact that enrolling in the closest school would have on the school segregation in the city, as far as residential segregation levels are lower than the school segregation ones.
Limitations
- Families can be reluctant to change when it comes to their children’s school. Measures directly affecting their choice-set could predispose them against other measures aim at improving students’ distribution in the city.
- The distribution of schools in the city is unbalanced, specially with regards to private schools. There are many schools in the less dense districts, with also have more spaces to build new schools but less need for school places. Planning the supply according to each district demographic needs implies long term transformations (new schools where school places are needed; closing schools where there is a surplus).
Resources
https://www.edubcn.cat/ca/alumnat_i_familia/informacio_general_matriculacio/arees_influencia/que_son
Merging schools
Objective: Transforming low-demanded schools (infraestructures) to make them more attractive for middle class families
City: Barcelona
Description
Barcelona has promoted several actions addressed to the transformation of low-demanded schools. This transformation has been the result ot the merge of two or more schools to create a new one, aiming at ending the bad reputation of some of the original schools. Sometimes a primary school and a secondary school have been joined to create a “3-16 school”, a model that emulate private schools that offer primary and secondary education in the same school. Closing schools have been a most extreme action, when schools concentrated high level of students of lower socioeconomic background and low demand, so many schools’ seats remained available during the school year. In recents years, some private schools have been absorbed and converted into public schools.
The proposal has different lines of action:
- Merging primary and secondary schools;
- Absorbing publicly funded private schools;
Opportunities
- Modifying the existent supply by merging schools could contribute to solve some imbalances in the supply as well as to renew the image some schools have that make them unattractive for some families.
- These measures have a lower cost than those implying the construction of new schools and are not subject to the availability of physical space in the city.
Limitations
- The merge of different schools could face the resistance of both families and staff. In fact, it needs the approval of the School Board, and all involved actors need to be informed and be committed with the objectives of the change.
Resources
Improving low-demanded schools’facilities
Objective: Improving low-demanded schools’ infraestructures and facilities to make them more attractive for middle class families
City: Barcelona
Description
Barcelona has promoted several actions addressed to the improvement of low-demanded schools. In recent years families have increased their co-financing of furniture, devices and material in schools. Differences among schools according to socioeconomic compositions results in differences of capacities of schools to renew their materials and facilities. Thus, educational authorities have launched a plan to better finance facilities in low-demanded schools to avoid the rise of these visible differences.
Opportunities
- Investing in low-demanded schools allows to renew the image some schools have that make them unattractive for some families and improve educational opportunities linked to the provision of materials and devices.
Limitations
- These measures may have a high cost
- It could be understood as the acceptance of the copayment of families in public education
Resources
Pedagogical transformations of low-demanded schools
Objective: Transforming low-demanded schools (pedagogical projects) to make them more attractive for middle class families
City: Barcelona
Description
Magnet Schools programme is a measure oriented to increase the demand of low-demanded schools. It is inspired in the US experience. Adapted to the Catalan context, it is based on the settlement of an alliance between a segregated public primary school (high percentage of vulnerable students) and a public or private institution of reference and excellence in a specific field of knowledge (Picasso Museum, National Theatre of Catalonia, National Museum of Contemporary Arts, Science Museum -CosmoCaixa-, Mathematics Research Centre, The British Council, among others).). These alliances are aimed at contributing to the development of innovative and quality education projects by the schools with the objective to attract new families by providing high quality education. Three different promoters work developing such alliances in the city, two private foundations (Fundació Jaume Bofill and Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera) and the Institute of Culture of Barcelona). This iniciative is supported by other public administrations such as the Catalan Department of Education, Barcelona Regional Council and Consorci d’Educació de Barcelona.
Opportunities
- The impact on the schooling conditions of those attending to a Magnet school is clearly positive.
- These programmes materialise the collaboration among many different organisations at the political level (promoters) and at the school level (alliances).
- The programme provides participant schools with training and support for 3 years that can contribute to the maintenance of the improvement beyond the schools’ participation.
Limitations:
- Magnet schools’ impact on demand behaviour is uncertain and therefore their ability to tackle school segregation is limited.
Resources
https://magnet.cat/
https://www.fundaciocatalunya-lapedrera.com/en/tandem-schools
https://www.enresidencia.org/ca
Transitions between primary and secondary schools
Objective: Providing pedagogical coherence to the transition from primary to secondary education and reducing segregation
City: Barcelona
Description
Several primary schools are administratively attached to a number of secondary schools. Therefore, students attending primary schools attached to a certain secondary school have priority of access to this secondary school over those students enrolled in other primary schools. In this context, the process of linking primary and secondary schools is aimed at providing pedagogical coherence to the transition from primary to secondary education and, at the same time, to fight school segregation. As far as secondary schools are much bigger than primary ones and they will welcome students from different schools, the possibility of mixing students from schools with different social composition must be considered when designing this “Units of Reference”.
Opportunities
- Linking public primary and secondary schools can increase families’ confidence in public supply (a percentage of families move to private schools for secondary education) as well as facilitate the transition from one school to another.
- The definition of strategic bonds between primary and secondary education can be a mechanism to orient families’ choices in order to improve students’ distribution, and therefore to tackle school segregation.
Limitations
- Changes in the adscriptions between primary and secondary schools may reduce the number of options and this may increase their preference for private secondary schools
- Linkage between primary and secondary schools may promote the strategic election of primary schools based on their attachment to secondary schools.
Resources
https://www.edubcn.cat/ca/centres_serveis_educatius/centres_educatius/consulta_adscripcions
Reduction of ratios
Objective: Increasing control over students’ distribution and limiting vacancies in low-demanded schools
City: Barcelona
Description
This measure consists in reducing the maximum number of students per group. This strategy is aimed at avoiding oversupply in the different catchment areas (when there is oversupply, most of the instruments to distribute students become useless). It also seeks to facilitate the learning process in schools with higher proportions of students with special needs. Reducing the maximum number of available seats is translated in a reduction of vacancies in low-demanded schools and it can be a useful strategy to prevent that new arrival students enrol in schools that have already a high concentration of at-risk students.
Opportunities
- Reducing ratios in schools placed in CA with more available places than students to enrol avoids problems of oversupply of school places. Oversupply makes other potential measures to reduce school segregation ineffective, as students have opportunities to enrol where many vacancies exist.
Limitations
The distribution of schools in the whole city is not balanced and thus some CA need to offer seats to students living close but not in the catchment area.
Rebalancing public and private supply
Objective: Increasing the public school supply in the city
City: Barcelona
Description
Converting private schools into public ones if schooling needs are unsatisfied is possible according to the legal framework. The regulation of the school supply both at the State level (LOMLOE) and at the Regional level (DECRET LLEI 10/2019) prioritise the obligation of the public administration to respond to educational needs over families’ school choice priorities. These regulations provide legal tools to reduce publicly funded private supply and to include them into the public system.
Opportunities
- Absorbing private schools to make them public increases the public control over the supply and may make increase the availability of public schools’ seats in areas with insufficient public supply.
Limitations
- This strategy requires an increase of the public expenditure for making the schools’ facilities equivalent and for absorbing the salaries of the schools’ teachers -which are higher in the public than in the private sector-.
- Conversion from private to public needs private schools to apply for this change, it can not be forced by the public administration
Resources
LOMLOE: https://www.boe.es/eli/es/lo/2020/12/29/3
DECRET LLEI 10/2019: https://dogc.gencat.cat/ca/document-del-dogc/?documentId=850613
District Planning Boards
Objective: Improving the planification of the school supply according to the territorial needs.
City: Barcelona
Description
The District Planning Boards work in two different spaces. First, a Commission is designed for the whole city to define the School Map of the city. This is replicated for the 10 districts. It gathers representatives of all the sectors including neighbours and families. Its objective is to build up a mid-term prospective for the future and it has a consultive character rather than executive.
Second, technical planning tables are set prior to the setting of educational supply for the following academic year. These planning tables are compounded by policy makers from the districts, technicians of the educational local authority and the educational inspectorate (Catalan Department of Education). These tables carry out a shared analysis of the territorial needs based on data on the school population and the current picture of schooling in each area. In addition, a projection of the supply is submitted for the consideration of participants. The planning tables work on a proposal, that will be approved by the Board of School Principals.
Opportunities:
- The participation of several actors in diagnoses of the supply situation and in the design of plans may increase the acceptance of changes.
- Collective definition of the needs and the potential solutions may increase their adjustment to the contextual realities.
Limitations:
- District level proposals may have difficulties to maintain a city level perspective and may be more focused on particular than on general needs.
- The city level planning may collide with that of the districts and transmit the idea that the District Planning Boards have no real voice in defining the School map neither in the present nor in the future.
Centrality of the public system
Objective: Dealing with the demographic growth trough the offer of new public schools, instead of supporting new form of educational markets.
City: Oslo
Description
Primary and lower secondary education are founded on the principle of a unified school that provides equal and adapted education for all students. The main tool to develop the local school system is the “school needs plan”, an attachment to the yearly budget. It is possible to apply to private schools, but Norway has relatively few private schools. Almost all private schools are approved by Government and are grant-aided. A private school must constitute a religious or pedagogical alternative, or follow an internationally recognised curriculum, in order to be approved. Hence, there are no private schools parallel to the public schools; they are subject to pedagogical (Steiner Montessori), religious, or linguistic alternative (international schools, german school, french school). The municipality has a duty to offer a school place to all children in school age living in the municipality, also those who quit the private schools.
Opportunities
- In 2020, more than 95% of the children were attending a public local school. In 2015 the percentage was 96.5%. The very high percentage of children attending a public school in Oslo has remained relatively stable during the last 20 years.
Limitations
- Some argue that parents lack the freedom of choice to choose an alternative school to the local public school.
Resources
- The municipalities are responsible for basic welfare services, including primary and lower secondary education, and have substantial autonomy in allocation of resources between sectors and in provision of services. Primary and lower secondary education is founded on the principle of a unified school that provides equal and adapted education for all students. Almost all private schools are approved by the National Government and are grant-aided. These private schools can only charge limited fees and are not allowed to select children according to ability or other subjective criteria.
The school needs plan
Objective: Ensure the right capacity at new and existing schools through good studies and precise orders and ensure functional and safe school facilities, which also meet other municipal needs, by involving the school’s users and other actors in the assessment and planning of new schools.
City: Oslo
Description
The School needs plan is a general plan for fulfilling the municipality’s duty to offer all students a high-quality building based on formal regulations and to lay the ground for good pedagogical practice. The plan uses statistics on demographic indicators like cohort size, general and historical moving patterns among the population in general and for families with children in school age specifically. The school needs plan is an attachment to the yearly budget. The amount in the yearly budgets varies depending on the need for new school buildings and for renovation. The education agency monitors closely the need for new buildings/classrooms and calculate the costs and the need for investments in new land and or buildings.
The plan is presented every year and it covers a period of ten years into the future. The plan adopted in 2019 covered the years 2020-2029. The changes in the next year’s plan include the new developments and evaluation of the preceding plans.
Opportunities
- The new primary school projects are largely located in development areas. This involves more complex and time-consuming regulatory processes and necessitates that municipal sectors collaborate in a new way that challenges the traditional sector approach. Although these projects are more time-consuming to realize than traditional school projects is the assumption that the long-term gains, both economically and based on the importance for the local environment, will make up for this.
Limitations
- The main criticalities are related to the school needs in some new developed areas of the cities. For example, Oslo has developed large new residential areas on the waterfront during the last 15 years. However, most of the apartments are small and families with young children usually move to other areas before school starts. This may be also driven by some concerned in relation to the school environment. For this reason, it is very difficult to have a good planning in these areas.
Resources
https://www.oslo.kommune.no/skole-og-utdanning/skoleutbygging-i-oslo/skolebehovsplanen/#gref
The local school principle
Objective: to make sure all pupils are entering a municipal school within walking distance from their home.
City: Oslo
Description
The national and local legislation state that students have the right to go to their local school. The municipality decides and adjust the catchment areas on a yearly basis. Catchment areas are strictly defined by address, according to the number of pupils in the relevant cohorts, regardless the household income, parents’ education, mother tongue etc. The assignment of a local school is based on the distance to the school from the student’s place of residence, but also other factors are considered (safe school roads, sibling affiliation, overall local environments, the capacity of the school or special individual considerations).
In the municipality of Oslo, indicative catchment areas have been prepared, which link each individual address in the municipality to a primary school. The indicative catchment areas are designed in line with the local school principle. When new schools are built, or a school has too many students, the Education Agency can change and/or adjust the catchment areas. In some rare cases, there are more students in a school’s catchment area than the school can accommodate.
Opportunities
- More than the 90% of the pupils in Oslo attend the local school defined by the catchment area. However, this percentage is not homogeneous and in approx. 20% of the schools attract less than 80% residents, while 25% of the schools attracts more than the children resident in the local catchment areas.
Limitations
- The strict geographic catchment division makes the system sensitive to residential segregation. Oslo is a divided city with considerable differences in house prices. The desire to change schools is related to the economic possibility to buy a house in another part of town or another catchment area.
- Some schools located in areas with a high share of immigrant population, experience a very low share of native pupils. In some schools the share of immigrant students are as high as 98 per cent.
- There are limited alternatives to the local public schools. Some critics wants more alternatives and possibilities outside its own residential neighborhood.
- Since the most effective way to change school is to move to another catchement area, it could be argued that the system is a possible driver of residential segregation. An evidence of this criticality is that the main site for buying and selling properties in Norway (www.finn.no) includes a Neighborhood Profile where potential buyers get detailed information about the local area, including the perceived quality of the local schools according to some parents’ survey.
Resources
Public Tender to schools, for the funding of the creation of an Innovative Learning Environment (ARREDI INNOVATIVI)
Objective: promoting educational projects related to innovative decor and furnishing in schools, especially targeting les attractive schools
City: Milan
Description
Comune di Milano has launched a call to promote innovative educational projects having a focus on decor and furnishing in schools in order both to innovate the educational and refurbishing some schools and make them more attractive. The first call has been launched in 2020 and the second one in 2021. The award can reach a maximum of 39.500 for each school selected. The ranking takes into account: 1) the quality of the project; 2) the share of involved students; 3) teachers’ skills update process and impact evaluation; 4) segregation index; 5) attractiveness index. In the second edition and evaluation of the spaces and standardized test results (the lowest ones compare to the regional average obtained more points) have been taken into consideration.
Opportunities
- The segregation index among the ranking criteria gives a special opportunity to win this award to those school that are likely to be the less attractive
- Space “as a third educator” is especially relevant for those children coming from low-educated and low-income background families, more likely to attend segregated school
- The call awards especially project where also students are involved in planning and implementation, putting students at the centre of the process promoting integration and socialization
Limitations
- Despite the extra points given to segregated schools, the one more segregated risk anyway to be left apart from this call in a process of self-selection (as often happens with these kinds of calls)
- The evaluation of the project is in the hand of the school itself, so it is very hard to understand the impact of the call and the projects implemented
Resources
Establishment of Method Schools Rinnovata Pizzigoni
Objective: Establishing a Method School in a segregated primary school in order to increase the attractinevess for the catchment area residents
City: Milan
Description
The Project Method School Rinnovata Pizzigoni is the result of an agreement between the city of Milan, a primary school, a comprehensive institute and the Opera Pizzigoni Association. The primary school is highly segregated and is located in one of the catchment areas with the highest rate of non-italian families in Milan. The Method promoted is based on several open air activities, a strong reduction of frontal lectures and a preference for empirical ways of learning. Children coming from low-income and low-eduated families are the ones who seemt o benefit the most in learning and acuquiring skills from these kinds of approaches.
Opportunities
- The new method has been proved to be attractive: the school seems to have reversed the trend of segregation in the recent years
- These methods are acknowledged for their capability of providing a positive environment for socialization
- Children coming from disadvantage families are more likely to improve their cognitive and social skills with these methods rather than the traditional ones. This is also true for foreign students
Limitations
- The success of the project is self-evaluated by the school itself
- Because the Pizzigoni implies several outdoor activities, it can be properly applied only in schools having proper outdoor spaces
- The lack of resources for the implementation at the city level has also contributed to the fact that this experience has remained unique
Resources
https://www.calasanzio.edu.it/pagine/metodo-pizzigoni
https://cspace.spaggiari.eu/pub/MIME0081/Altro/Presentazione_openday_radice_2020-2021.pdf
Redesign of Catchment Areas
Objective: a territorial pact between schools providing the redefinition and re-design of catchment areas in the 6th District of Milan
City: Milan
Description
In the period 2019-2021, the 6th District (Municipio) of Milan promoted a working table with the District Schools’ Principals for the tackling of the segregation in the district schools. One of the strategies elaborated was the redesign of the catchment areas and the strengthening of their role in managing enrollments. The Comune worked with the Municipio for the elaboration of proposal that has resulted in a Territorial Pact. The re-design of catchment areas, alongside with the promotion of the proximity criteria, would re-balance the composition of students in schools in terms of ethnic and social background.
Opportunities
- The re-design of the catchment areas would take into account also the socio-economic composition of the area in order to avoid the concentration of similar population and the segregation, and promoting instead a more mixed composition.
- The focus on the “territorial principle” conceives the school as a local point of reference for the families living in the territory, strengthening the relationship between school and families.
Limitations
- The territorial pact which provides the re-designing of catchment areas has been replied in a much softer manner only from another District, while the process has not yet been considered at city scale.
- The strong presence of private school (not following any residential criteria for their enrollments) risks to weakening significatively the potential impacts of the territorial pact
Resources
https://istitutonarcisi.edu.it/images/Regolamenti/PATTO_TERRITORIALE_SEGREGAZ_SCOL_CON_FIRME.pdf