Leveraging the middle-tier of education systems for teaching, learning, and equity in Latin America

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Nearly 90 percent of the world’s population of children and youth live in countries where per capita incomes are below USD 4,255. Many of these low and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) have made progress in ensuring near universal access to primary and lower secondary school. However, recent estimates reveal that 70% of children in these contexts cannot read at age 10; and that children from the poorest 80% of households are half as likely to reach minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics as those from the richest 20% (World Bank et al., 2022). The goal of ensuring that all children are learning in LMICs is a central challenge in achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4).
Research from North America identifies school districts as important middle-tier players in enhancing and improving the outcomes of schooling (Ford et al., 2020; M. Honig & Rainey, 2023; Spillane, 1996). Scholars such as Honig and Rainey (2023), Coburn (2008), and Leithwood (2019) have shown that district offices and leaders play critical roles in school improvement and improving teaching and learning, beyond their traditional functions in managing human and material resources in education systems. Yet a recent systematic review shows that there is a dearth of empirical research on the role of districts and middle tier leadership in LMICs (Author et al., 2023). Recently, however, there is growing interest by scholars, governments, and development partners in understanding role of the middle tier in improving policy implementation and teaching and learning in schools in contexts that are resource constrained (e.g., Tournier et al., 2023; Author et al., 2014; Cilliers et al., 2023).
In this panel we will present emerging evidence on the role that middle-tier actors play in Latin American countries specifically, the conditions that enable or constrain their day-to-day jobs, and if the renewed interest in leveraging these actors and organizations (e.g., Tournier et al., 2023) as catalysts for change in educational systems is warranted. The first paper builds on the systematic review described above and synthesizes literature from Latin American countries to describe the variation in the middle-tier leadership in the continent and proposes a theory of change through which districts can be studied and understood. The second paper analyzes how positive and negative outliers’ municipal governments in Brazil support schools with the goal of improving primary student achievement. The third paper presents the preliminary findings of an ongoing comparative case study investigating the middle tier's role in implementing Chile's New Public Education Law (NEP). Finally, the fourth article presents the preliminary results from case studies investigating support between middle-tier advisors and school principals in the new Local Public Education Services (SLEP) in Chile.
Together, these four papers unpack the role of the middle-tier in different Latin American contexts, highlight the ways in which the middle-tier can be leveraged to improve leadership and management, and how can they be strengthened to improve teaching and learning outcomes for students.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Organizer

• Minahil Asim, University of Ottawa

Chair

• Karen Mundy, University of Toronto

Individual Presentations

• What do we know about the middle-tier from low-and middle-income countries in Latin America? - Minahil Asim, University of Ottawa

• A comparison between the primary school support provided by positive and negative outliers municipal governments in Brazil - Leite Dalmon Danilo, Kobe University

• Practice-Based Leadership in Educational Policy: Exploring the Role of the Middle Tier during the New Public Education Law Implementation - Isabel Nunez, OISE - University of Toronto

Discussant

• Axel Rivas, Universidad de San Andres