The potential contribution of the intermediate level of educational systems to school change. An empirically based conceptual framework.

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Re-Scaling School Governance: New Spatial Perspectives on Autonomy, Assessment, and Accountability in Post-neoliberal Education

Proposal

The intermediate level of educational systems, or "middle tier," is increasingly recognized as a critical factor for school improvement (Anderson & Rincón-Gallardo, 2021), yet the theoretical foundations for understanding its role remain fragmented. Existing literature often provides lists of best practices without an integrated framework to explain how and why middle-tier agencies contribute to educational change (Tournier et al., 2025). This paper addresses this gap by proposing an empirically-based conceptual framework that emphasizes the multilevel and multimodal nature of the middle tier's action. We argue that to effectively foster school improvement, intermediate agencies must operate across three fundamental dimensions of change - technical/rational, cultural/symbolic, and political - by strategically combining four distinct modes of coordination: command and control, steering, negotiation, and supporting.
This framework moves beyond simplistic top-down or bottom-up views, conceptualizing the middle tier as a strategic agent that must simultaneously manage resources, build a shared ethos, and mediate power dynamics. The technical/rational dimension involves aligning systems and using data for efficiency. The cultural/symbolic dimension focuses on creating meaning, trust, and a collaborative culture to ensure the legitimacy and sustainability of reforms. The political dimension addresses the negotiation of interests and the adaptive implementation of policies in complex local contexts. The modes of coordination represent the repertoire of actions - from enforcing regulations to fostering autonomous innovation - that middle-tier leaders can deploy across these dimensions.
To test and illustrate the framework's analytical power, we apply it to the case of Chile's ambitious New Public Education (NEP) reform, which is replacing 345 municipal administrations with 70 new, professionalized middle-tier agencies known as Local Public Education Services (SLEPs). The analysis of the SLEPs is grounded in data and observations from a rigorous external evaluation and several studies in which the authors have participated to analyze the implementation process and initial results of this reform. Our findings reveal that while the NEP's design is theoretically robust and aspires to multimodal action, its potential is severely constrained by the country's "hybrid governance" system (Bellei & Muñoz, 2023). The new SLEPs are designed to be agents of support and steering, but the legacy of a precarious municipal system, coupled with the persistent logics of market competition and performance-based accountability, forces them into a reactive mode dominated by crisis-driven command and control. Their capacity to negotiate is limited by a lack of cooperation from other actors, and their political power is insufficient to reconfigure a playing field that continues to favor competition over collaboration.
Ultimately, this paper makes a significant contribution by offering an applicable framework for analyzing the complex role of the middle tier. It demonstrates that the effectiveness of these agencies depends not only on their internal design but, critically, on the systemic coherence and professional capacities of the broader educational ecosystem.

Author

• Gonzalo Muñoz, Diego Portales University