Regional decentralization vs. school
autonomy: a look at Spain in the
international framework
Miguel Ángel Sancho. European Foundation Society and Education
e-mail: masancho@sociedadyeducacion.org
Fort- Lauderdale, Davie. Florida.2nd Annual International
School Choice & Reform Academic Conference
Regional decentralization vs. school autonomy
1. Decentralization vs. School autonomy
2. The concept of autonomy: decision making capacity.
Who, how, what.
3. International trends: some findings about autonomy
from McKinsey 2010, Euridyce 2007 and Education at
a glance 2012.
4. Challenges and opportunities of the legal education
reform.
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Regional decentralization vs. school autonomy
Territorial decentralization
School autonomy
Higher decentralization
in educational matters
one of the lowest levels of
school autonomy on
international scales.
Regional decentralization vs. school autonomy
•
•
•
•
•
Regional decentralization in Spain.
1978 Constitution: the Spain of autonomy. Transfer of
competences from a unitary state to one that is
autonomous. Exhausted Model: Transition to a federal
model.
Attitude sovereignty and independence of Catalonia.
Public consultation: risk of secession?
Time of economic and social crisis.
Last week judicial review for state regulation of the FP.
The Catalan Statute speaks about exclusive
educational competencies, but it is not possible for our
Constitution.
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Regional decentralization vs. school autonomy
• A greater degree of decentralization, although
centered on decision-making as regards the
place and people affected, does not
necessarily bring about an increase in schools'
autonomy.
• In fact, Spain, with considerable
decentralization in educational matters, shows
one of the lowest levels of school autonomy
on international scales.
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Regional decentralization vs. school autonomy
degree
freedom and
flexibility
teacher's level
of
commitment
the quality of
schools
the quality of
education
Regional decentralization vs. school autonomy
mobile, living, intelligent structures
the educational
organization's versatility
and the administration
of economic resources
according to the
diversity of
circumstances.
Autonomy
moving away from a long
tradition of regulation and
"bureaucratization" that
prevents team training and
people management
decision-making so as to improve and adapt to
students' reality
Regional decentralization vs. school autonomy
Model of Autonomy, as clasified acording to the type of supervision
exercide over procedures and results
Tipe of supervision over
Model of
Autonomy
Procedures
Results
A
ADMINISTRATION
ADMINISTRATION
B
ADMINISTRATION
C
SCHOOL
D
SCHOOL
SCHOOL
ADMINISTRATION
SCHOOL
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Regional decentralization vs. school autonomy
• It is therefore necessary to approach the issue of
schools' autonomy regardless of how decentralized
educational competencies are set up among the public
authorities, and analyzing the external and internal
factors upon which it depends:
 a legal framework avoiding excessive regulation;
 a school that assumes autonomy, involving
participation from the whole school community.
 the conviction to achieve qualitatively and
quantitatively better results by those in charge of
putting it into practice.
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The concept of autonomy. Abstract concept. Autonomy as the
competence to making decisions
who
• Outside school:
• Central government,
state government,
provincial or local
government
• Inside school:
• principals,
• team,
• board of directors,
• school boards,
• teacher's assemblies,
didactic departments
what
• organizational
of instruction,
• personal
management,
• planning and
structure,
• resources
management
how
• full
• share with
internal
bodies
• with
dependency
on external
organs.
International trends: How the world’s most improved school
systems keep getting better. McKinsey & Company.2010
• This report analyzes twenty systems from around the
world, all with improving but differing levels of
performance, examining how each has achieved significant,
sustained, and widespread gains in student outcomes, as
measured by international and national assessments.
• Based on over 200 interviews with system stakeholders
and analysis of some 600 interventions carried out by these
systems this report identifies the reform elements that are
replicable for school systems elsewhere as they move from
poor to fair to good to great to excellent performance.
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International trends: How the world’s most improved school
systems keep getting better. McKinsey & Company.2010
2nd Annual International School Choice &
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International trends: How the world’s most improved school
systems keep getting better. McKinsey & Company.2010
• There is a strong, correlation between a school system’s
improvement journey stage and the tightness of central
control over the individual schools activities and
performance. Systems on the poor to fair journey, in
general characterized by lower skill educators, exercise
tight, central control over teaching and learning processes
in order to minimize the degree of variation between
individual classes and across schools.
• In contrast, systems moving from good to great,
characterized by higher skill educators, provide only loose,
central guidelines for teaching and learning processes, in
order to encourage peer led creativity and innovation
inside schools, the core driver for raising performance at
this stage
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International trends: How the world’s most improved school
systems keep getting better. McKinsey & Company.2010
2nd Annual International School Choice &
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International trends: How the world’s most improved school
systems keep getting better. McKinsey & Company.2010
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International trends School Autonomy in Europe
Policies and Measures. Eurydice, 2007
• It shows that although policy contexts change – from the need for
more democratic participation to more efficient public
management and, today, the concern to improve quality of
education – the overall result has been more responsibility and
decision-making powers for schools. Reforms working in this
direction have generally been imposed on schools in a top-down
legislative process.
• this study looks with some detail at the content of school autonomy
within three broad fields(the first two being the use of public and
private funds respectively and the third being human
resources).The degree and type of autonomy that schools have are
analysed with respect to specific parameters, as are different
categories of decision-making responsibilities within schools. The
role played by school management bodies in this connection is also
highlighted, together with a brief description of who is represented
on these bodies in different European countries.
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International trends School Autonomy in Europe
Policies and Measures. Eurydice, 2007
2nd Annual International School Choice &
Reform Academic Conference
International trends School Autonomy in Europe
Policies and Measures. Eurydice, 2007
2nd Annual International School Choice &
Reform Academic Conference
International trends School Autonomy in Europe
Policies and Measures. Eurydice, 2007
2nd Annual International School Choice &
Reform Academic Conference
International trends School Autonomy in Europe
Policies and Measures. Eurydice, 2007
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International trends: Education at a Glance 2012. OECD.
Spain and the United States both fit under the latter category, indicating greater
centralization, and consequently less overall autonomy in the system in relation to the
average for OECD countries.
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International trends: Education at a Glance 2012. OECD.
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International trends: Education at a Glance 2012. OECD.
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International trends: Education at a Glance 2012. OECD.
Spain
OCDE
USA
•
Chart 2 presents the subdivision of
domains in which educational decisions are
made by different entities in Spain, the
United States, and the average of OECD
countries. Pertaining to the organization of
instruction, both countries follow the global
trend depicted in the OECD average bar of
high decision making capacities for schools.
This category includes decisions regarding
instruction time, teaching methodology, the
choice of textbooks, etc. Additionally, it is
important to point out that even if most of
these decisions are taken at the school level,
they must conform to nationally established
standards, or are subject to the approval of
higher levels of authority.
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International trends: Education at a Glance 2012. OECD.
•
In the domain of personnel
management there is usually less
delegation of competences to schools
across OECD countries. In Spain, this
fact is specially marked, with schools
accounting for less than 5% of the
decisions made in that area.
Teachers’ status as civil servants
grants national and state
governments great margin in the
making of decisions regarding a
school’s personnel. Similarly, labor
unions grouping a large percentage
of the teaching staff in the United
States hinder individual schools’
decision making abilities, and make
the local entity a more natural
decision maker in this area because
of its capacity to negotiate and enter
into contracts with the unions.
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International trends: Education at a Glance 2012. OECD.
• Contrary to the norm in OECD
countries, where schools
account for over a fifth of the
decisions taken, neither
Spanish nor American schools
wield influence over the
planning and structure of
education. In both countries
the subjects offered, the
qualifying examinations for a
diploma, and the composition
of the program of study are
largely decided by the national
and state government.
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International trends: Education at a Glance 2012. OECD.
•
With regards to resource
management, both Spain and the US
lag behind the average in terms of
school autonomy –it is non-existent
in the United States, and minimal and
highly conditioned in Spain. For
example, Spanish schools have
decision making powers over the
purchase of furniture and, within a
framework set by the state
government, the allocation of
resources for operational
expenditures. In the United States
the totality of these decisions are
made at the local level, indicating a
high degree of regional
decentralization with respects to
decision making, but also the
absolute lack of school autonomy
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International trends: Education at a Glance 2012. OECD.
• Many countries have strengthened the influence of central
authorities in setting standards, curricula and assessments. For
example, a loosening of “process” and financial regulations has
often been accompanied by an increase in the central level control
of outputs.
• The most common reasons to decentralise decision making are
increased efficiency and improved financial control; reduced
bureaucracy; increased responsiveness to local communities; more
creative management of human resources; improved potential for
innovation; and the creation of conditions that provide better
incentives for improving the quality of schooling.
• Some of the shift towards more centralised decision making can be
explained by the heightened interest in measures of accountability
that involve national assessments and national examinations that
are based on centrally established curricula or frameworks.
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International trends: Education at a Glance 2012. OECD.
• In 16 of 36 countries, decisions are most often
taken at the school level
• In 12 of 36 countries, decisions made at the state
or central level were the most prevalent
• Decisions on the organisation of instruction are
predominantly taken by schools
• half of the decisions taken at the school level are
taken in full autonomy
• Schools are least likely to make autonomous
decisions related to planning and structures.
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Challenges and opportunities of the Spanish legal
education reform
Draft of the new law (LOMCE):
• Strengthen the management capacity of the centers
giving to the headmaster the opportunity to exercise
greater management and instructional leadership.
• Professionalization of the management function
through a prior certification for the post of principal.
• Establishes a protocol to account for the decisions,
actions and quality of the results achieved.
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Challenges and opportunities of the Spanish legal
education reform
Article 6 bis. Distribution of competences.
2.c) Within the limits set by regulation and education authorities according to
the above, schools can:
1) Complete the contents of the blocks of core, speciality and specific, and
configure its training.
2 ) design and implement their own teaching methods.
3) Determine the workload corresponding to different subjects
Article 6. 4. The education authorities encourage and foster the autonomy of
schools, evaluate the results and require them, if necessary, to adopt
appropriate measures for improvement.
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Challenges and opportunities of the Spanish legal
education reform
• ART 122. BIS. Quality actions. Competitive. Autonomy of
schools for implementation.
a) Establish requirements and specific merits for the jobs
offered civil servant teaching staff and for the filling of posts
in interim.
b) Reject, by reasoned decision, joining in interim positions of
teachers from centralized lists.
c) Where there is vacant and suitable and sufficient to
propose the appointment of teachers, having worked in
quality projects, necessary for the continuity of them.
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Challenges and opportunities of the Spanish legal
education reform
• Let me conclude by saying that Autonomy is not a
magic word that improves educational system by itself.
It is not an end but a means. It needs to be efficient to
fix good quality standards as a reference of educational
achievement and accountability to know the level or
the consequences of our action.
• Charter school or free school are fitting references to
other countries particularly to Spain. I hope to advance
in the future in that direction marked by freedom,
accountability and higher achievements.
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