Beneficiaries
Practitioners, to learn new ways of identifying and preventing Early School Leaving (ESL).
Countries
Country/ies or organisation that developed the tool
Date of creation of toolkit and periodicity of updates
2008
Purpose of the toolkit
Guidance on what works (to help improve the design of policies and practices)
Guidance on how to identify and monitor early leavers or those at risk of early leaving
“[…] to help […] identify which of their students are at risk of early school leaving and to provide them with some useful skills to prevent or reduce the problem”.
Description of each of the tools
The training tool is divided into 5 modules, each created by a different partner:
- Identification of students at risk - the module is divided into 5 chapters. These are: ‘educational factors’; ‘personal factors’; ‘the family and its influence’; ‘the community and social factors’ and ‘after identification’. The module is based on a small number of case studies and information comes from interviews with students, parents, teachers, headmasters and other relevant stakeholders.
- Communication - focuses on effective teaching strategies that foster the active involvement of all students in productive educational pathways.
- Teaching methods - focuses on effective teaching strategies that foster the active involvement of all students in productive educational pathways.
- Educational evaluation and early school leaving prevention – this module attempts to approach educational evaluation in a theoretical and practical way. Its aim is to acquaint teachers with the modern meaning of evaluation, evaluation types and forms, evaluation models, techniques and tools in order to be able to use them effectively in their school classes to achieve, among other educational objectives, the prevention of early school leaving. The module is divided into 10 chapters which include a bibliography and a test.
- External support and cooperation - examines external resources and supports for teachers and students to help them in the prevention of early school leaving.
Type of indicators used in the identification of learners at risk of early leaving
Numerous factors are identified in Module 1 of the tool as potentially influencing a student’s chances of progressing academically. These are divided into 4 groups: educational factors; personal factors; family influences; and community and social factors.
The following personal factors are mentioned:
- Attendance – this is identified as one of the most obvious indicators of being at risk of ESL. In the UK a persistent absentee is typically defined as someone with more than 20% absence.
- Behaviour – ongoing ‘poor’ behaviour is also considered a strong indicator of potential ESL.
- Health.
- Peer Group.
- Bullying.
- Lack of self-esteem.
- Other Personal Factors
Type of guidance given to users
Teaching methods are provided in module 3 and these give a series of options through which to change/improve the way students are engaged and to solve the problem at an early stage.
Source of information of the different tools
Created by the partners involved (education institutions)
Link/s to the toolkit and further information
http://schoolinclusion.pixel-online.org/training_package.php?tr1=EN&tr2=pre
The tool is accessible online.
Downloads
School inclusion.pixel-online website