Search

This article aims to analyze first drafts of a coaching service to schools (SATE, for its acronym in Spanish) in the context of current educational reform in Mexico. To this end all legal documents and various program documents that have been released throughout 2013 and 2014 relating to basic education were analyzed. The paper is organized in three sections. The history of this type of service in Mexico is presented first; the second section includes information on the SATE as included in the legal documents of the current educational policy. In a third section some comments on what have to be taken into account for the proper implementation of a service of this nature are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scholar drop out is not an individual decision. It is conditioned by contextual factors which are identified and analyzed in this research paper among high school students. A survey was applied to 147 high school students to know their family situation, scholar history, reasons why they drop out and their future plans, among other relevant reasons. The results indicated that 86% of the surveyed students abandoned the school between the first and the third semester. Their grade average during the last semester studied was 7.49. The main reasons of the desertion of these students were: economic factors, failure in some subjects, and the lack of interest in their studies. 93% of the participants were not satisfied with the academic level they reached. Nonetheless, they did not plan to resume their studies. The results demonstrated the necessity of an intervention model based on educational policies with higher incentives to add to the school system, flexibility of the transit among subsystems and restructuration of the communication network among the principal actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with four of the Mexican government' educational policies derived from the National Accord to Modernize Basic and Normal Education (Acuerdo National para la Modernización de la Educación Básica y Normal-ANMEB-) signed in may, 1992. These are: the decentralization of basic education; curricular renovation and the production of textbooks and educational material; reforms to teachers' working conditions; and society's participation in education. The study was done by means of documentary research and interviews with the Department of Education's head officials. Among the main findings are: the continuity of consensus between the federal and the states governments; the promotion of the states' initiatives in substantive subjects by the Department of Education and the acknowledgement of limitations encountered in basic education caused by the predominance of the central federal power; the qualitative innovations in textbooks and educational material; the postponement of pre-school and secondary education reforms; the great unbalance of teachers' initial education; the high degree of endogamy and political fiefs within the teachers' community; the wide variety of projects at different levels and institutions to promote parents' participation in schools and to make principals and teachers sensitive to such participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]