Chapada Institute for Education and Research

The core of the Chapada Institute is the Chapada Project, an initiative to establish mechanisms for accountability so that parents, teachers, administrators and elected officials take ownership of the education system. The Chapada Project identifies partner communities and works with these communities to select a pedagogical coordinator. The coordinator serves an important role in ensuring the implementation of the Chapada Project’s different components. The coordinator organizes Chapada’s monthly teacher training sessions. Teachers are required to participate in the sessions. In addition to the monthly training, teachers receive feedback and support during regular classroom visits where lessons are recorded and then analysed.

Chapada has established metrics for success that are linked to student improvement. Each semester teachers receive an evaluation based on their performance on the various metrics. The Chapada Project also offers training and evaluation for school administrators and supervisors.

The Chapada Institute recognized early on that accountability must extend to the municipal governments whose officials change regularly, allowing education programmes to be ignored. Chapada Project organizes multi-day public forums where teachers, parents, school administrators and community members can voice education needs and priorities. Also in attendance at the public forum are all candidates running for municipal office. At the close of the forum, participants vote on the most pressing issues and candidates must pledge their support. Through the public forum, the community selects representatives to serve on an oversight committee. The committee is crucial to ensuring that the government follows through on its commitment to address the community’s education priorities.

The impact of the Chapada Project on students is clear: the percentage of first graders performing at grade level increased from 33% to 74%. Data also shows that 90% of first graders had achieved full literacy. In 2012, Chapada Institute trained about 4,000 teachers, impacting over 72,000 students.