“Sustainable school effectiveness enhanced: the development and implementation of free
bottom-up school management software for public schools in Costa Rica”
ABSTRACT
This symposium will provide firsthand experience and evidence of how sustainable school
effectiveness and inclusiveness can be achieved by using a school management software
named PIAD as a continuous organizational learning and improvement tool in public schools
and educational districts, something which in turn sets the stage for developing more useful
teaching/learning contents and measuring their s impact along the way. PIAD is a five year old,
bottom-up, school based, custom made, free, official, public-private initiative for developing
and implementing a management information system for achieving high organizational
performance in public schools by increasing productivity for teachers, school directors and
educational district supervisors. PIAD also provides information for taking care of each
student´s individual needs as they arise (most often in the face of the consequences of poverty
in the classroom) and by measuring the impact of school-generated improvement action plans
based on PIAD generated data on each student, at an individual, school and educational
district wide level, on academic, class attendance and equity indicators reports during the
school year. PIAD has been adopted and is being used by over 50% of the public schools
population in Costa Rica.
1. Objectives or purposes of the symposium
To share the experience of a five year old, bottom-up, school based, custom made, free,
official, nation-wide, public-private initiative for developing and implementing a management
information system named PIAD (“digitalization program for high organizational performance”)
which increases productivity for teachers, school directors and educational district supervisors,
provides information for taking care of each student´s individual needs as they arise (most
often in the face of the consequences of poverty in the classroom), and measures the impact
of school-generated improvement action plans on academic, class attendance and equity
indicators during the school year.
2. Educational importance for theory, policy, and/or practice
PIAD makes it possible to create a measured and continuous process of organizational
learning and improvement for each public school during each period of the school year thereby
significantly enhancing school management effectiveness in a sustainable way. PIAD has
been adopted and is used by over 50% of the public schools population in Costa Rica, will be
extended to 100% of the public education system and its experience can be transferred to any
other country which may find it useful.
3. For each presentation or participant: perspective on the symposium topic, sources of evidence,
conclusions
Luis Daniel Gonzalez, Ph.D. Head of Project PIAD at the Association for Social Innovation
(ASIS, in Spanish), will present the development and scope of Project PIAD in Costa Rica from
this NGO´s perspective on software development, user´s training and the political
institutionalization process. Sources of evidence are software and data generated by PIAD,
direct reports and experiences of trained schools, direct involvement in the politics of adopting
PIAD by the Ministry of Public Education. Conclusions will be that a profound transformation of
school management effectiveness can be achieved in public schools which directly and
continuously can improve academic performance, class attendance and equity issues such as
student nutrition, economic scholarships and basic health problems.
Dr. Felix Barrantes Ureña, Head of the Management and Evaluation of Education Quality Unit
of the Ministry of Public Education of Costa Rica (MEP), which is the unit officially in charge of
implementing PIAD across the public education system in Costa Rica, will present his unit´s
efforts to implement PIAD for the last five years and plans for the future. He has been directly
involved in education quality for over 25 years. Sources will be his firsthand account of heading
the public-private partnership joint committee´s meetings, and of leading a year and a half long
pilot project to fully implement PIAD in a densely populated educational district. Conclusions
will be that a long-term public-private partnership is what has made it possible to achieve a
nation-wide sustained effort to develop and implement PIAD and thus school management
effectiveness and that a district-level integrated implementation of PIAD has an even more
significant impact in educational effectiveness and quality in each public school because of the
additional institutional support it carries and the synergies between schools it creates.
4. Explanation of how the symposium session will be organized
The session will consist of two 30 minutes oral presentations with multimedia tools and a 30
minute question and answers period.
5. Connection to themes of the conference
This symposium will provide evidence of how sustainable school effectiveness and
inclusiveness can be significantly enhanced by using this management software as a
continuous organizational learning and improvement tool at public schools and educational
districts, something which in turn sets the stage for the development of more useful teaching learning contents and measuring their impact on each student along its way.
A General Description of PIAD
Costa Rica´s PIAD is an innovative program that combines software and data to improve
management, educational outcomes, and access to social services in public schools. PIAD was
developed by a public-private-partnership comprised of ASIS and AED, civil society organizations;
ANDE, a teacher´s union; and the Ministry of Public Education. The program provides and maintains
digital infrastructure that tracks educational indicators, student characteristics and other parameters at
public schools. PIAD feeds this information to specialized software that generates reports for directors,
teachers, and other beneficiaries. These reports are used by beneficiaries to identify areas for
improvement, guide administrative decisions, and improve resource allocation as a permanent
process. PIAD´s infrastructure also allows beneficiaries to monitor student and teacher attendance,
academic performance, and other outcomes via digital records generated by the program. Finally, the
program also serves as an administrative tool as it automates and digitizes several processes and
records including matriculation and test scores.
PIAD currently is being used in over 2,000 Costa Rican public schools where it has been celebrated
on several fronts. PIAD´s digital records and registrar have jointly saved yearly the Costa Rican
government 700 million colones (1.3 million USD); and digital matriculation has saved 1, 000 million
colones (1.9 million dollars). The program has also been credited with bolstering schools´ ability to
match eligible students with social programs, particularly school meals, basic healthcare, and
scholarships. Finally the program has streamlined officials´ access to the information required to report
school needs and generate response strategies and enhance public policy. PIAD success on these
and other fronts has earned it push within Costa Rica´s public education system.
Objectives, Components and Output
The following table contains a list of areas PIAD aims to improve and the corresponding components
and outcomes the program sponsors to reach these aims.
Objective
Components / Output
Process Automation and Digital Record
Keeping
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Digital Attendance records
Digital Matriculation and student
records and files
Digital Student and Teacher
Reports
Improving Administrative Processes
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Digital Financial Records
Structured Scheduling
Structured Curricula
Balanced Group Formation
Bettering Educational Outcomes

Creating and measuring the impact
of evidence based school
improvement action plans which
specifically aim at improving
academic performance, school
attendance and social services
Bolstering Parental Involvement

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Automated truancy alerts
Quantitative Progress Reports
Social Services

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Student Social Economic Profiles
Digital “matching” of students to
social programs promoting basic
health, school lunches, and
scholarships
Improving access to these programs
Verification of student usage of
social service
Report generating correlations
between these services and student
performance
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More information at:
Facebook: Proyecto PIAD Asis
Website: www.piad.or.cr