The Brazilian Educational Project – Salvador, Brazil

The Baiano Instituto de Acadêmicos is a non-profit organization that was formed to address the compelling educational needs of disadvantaged, underprivileged, Brazilian students and to create and improve continuity in their educational opportunities.

Our mission:

• To expand access to educational opportunities for students attempting to gain entrance into colleges and universities;

• To provide academic preparations for the Brazilian Vestibular Examinations (ENEM); and

• To promote awareness of the importance and value of higher education.

Introduction

• The Vestibular (ENEM) is a competitive examination and is the primary and widespread system used by Brazilian universities to select their students;

• The exams often span several days, with different disciplines being tested each day;

• Throughout the last decades, there has been a gap between vacancies offered and the overwhelmingly high and growing demand for high quality and tuition-free public universities.

• *Brazilians of African descent constitute almost 45% of the country's population, yet recent studies indicate that only about two percent attend Brazil's public universities.

• The Vestibular (ENEM) was implemented primarily as a way to prevent nepotism or some other form of unfair or beneficial selection of candidates.

• The Instituto Baiano de Acadêmicos is dedicated to increasing attendance by disadvantaged, underserved students by working to improve access through test preparation for the vestibular.

*Ramos, Italo. (2006). Affirmative Action in Brazil

Project Summary

• *Demonstrating that 28.7% of the children in the region of Northeast Brazil are reported suffering from illiteracy, our institute will feature outcomes-based curriculum that will initiate and reinforce academic skills;

• The objectives of this institute will show how strong professional development, parent/community interaction along with components of learner-centered tutorial programs will achieve student success.

The objectives are: • Academic Achievement• Student Achievement in Course Preparation • Academic Support• Professional Development• Educational Outreach

Problem Statement

*IBGE - PNAD (1996). World Education Forum

1. Academic Achievement - to offer a high quality tutoring program for students that experience difficulty in academic classes and test taking;

2. Student Achievement in Course Preparation - students will be trained extensively in test preparation techniques meeting standards as measured by the Ministêrio da Educação - MEC of Brazil in Literature, Math, History, Geography, Biology, Chemistry and English toward taking the Brazilian Vestibular (ENEM) exams;

3. Academic Support - With the annual completion of the institute and each year thereafter, students will increase their academic skills so that all students are prepared for work to achieve challenging content standards and student academic achievement standards;

4. Professional Development - Institute staff will be prepared to facilitate test taking instructional activities that promote literacy, content standards and academic achievement;

5. Educational Outreach Program - Parents and institute staff will develop a plan that will assist parents in personal literacy goals; a Parent/Community Advisory Council will be developed to facilitate communication between the institute and the home.

Objectives

Key Benefits• A yearly two-day summer institute will hallmark resource sharing

for professional development focusing on "lessons learned," effective practices and processes resulting from institute implementation and evaluation;

• Focus groups will collect implementation and outcome data from staff and families;

• The institute includes a strong dissemination component with documented implementation processes to serve as a consortium model for replication by other organizations;

• A dissemination toolkit with video clips on the institute and other visuals for promotion and adoption will be developed for sharing with other organizations serving children from disadvantaged families.

Project Timetable• The institute’s timetable will be divided into three semesters;

spring – summer – fall (in the US);• The fall will be reserved for a two-day seminar to hallmark

resource sharing for professional development focusing on "lessons learned," effective practices and processes resulting from institute implementation and evaluation;

Description Start Date to Completion Date

Phase 1

Content March - May (12 weeks)

Phase 2

Question Types June - August (12 weeks)

Phase 3

Test Taking Strategies

September - November (12 weeks)

Evaluation

The institute’s project evaluation plan is process and product oriented, practical and

accountable. Implementation data will answer questions such as:

1. How did community partnerships strengthen the institute’s project design?

2. What attributes of the project contributed most to improving educational opportunities and services to support and accommodate the learning needs of students and their families?

3. What collaborative strategies were most successful for community partners?

4. What were the implementation barriers and how were they overcome?5. Which innovative supports and methods were key to the success of our

project?

Evaluation (con’t)In concert with the implementation data, the collection of performance data is of equal importance. Examples of performance data includes:

1) test and assessment results; 2) successes of students in acquiring developmental skills; and, 3) changes in how staff perceive the benefit and quality of services

Performance data questions are:

– Did our students meet outcomes at the expected rate through institute-based and home-based programming?

– Did parents increase knowledge to support instruction in the home?– Were teachers able to effectively apply student-centered principles

correlated with institute objectives?

Note: The annual evaluation report for the institute will summarize all project information by objective. Use of evaluation information for continuous improvement is one of the tenets of our project.

ContactThe Instituto Baiano de AcadémicosRua Cristovão Ferreira, No. 59 3 Travessa, Nordeste de AmaralinaSalvador, Bahia 41905-480 Brazil

Telephone: (55) 71-9898-8130Email: ibaeducacional@hotmail.comWebsite: http://www.wix.com/levodis/ibaeducacional

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