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Vol.24, No. 02 Sept. 11, 1998

Teachers College Launches Cooperative Program with Chilean Public Schools

By Mary Crystal Cage

The Chilean Ministry of Education and Teachers College (TC) have agreed to develop a series of pre-service and in-service training programs for Chilean teachers and exchange programs with college faculty.

At a recent press conference in Grace Dodge Hall, Eduardo Frei, the president of Chile, said that the agreement with TC could play an important role in education reform in his country.

The agreement was the product of negotiations coordinated by Peter Comeau, Associate Director of the Center for Educational Outreach and Innovation and representatives of the Chilean Ministry of Education.

Said TC President Arthur Levine: "Chile has been one of the most visionary countries in the world in bringing about reforms."

The quality of education and access to education have become important issues in Chile. Since 1990, government spending on social programs, primarily health and education, has doubled. At the same time, the proportion of Chileans living in poverty has declined by almost 50 percent to one in four people.

Under Frei, Chile has lengthened the school year, has linked nearly 3,000 schools to the Internet, and has increasingly turned control of schools to local communities. But the Chilean leader wants to build upon the progress his country has already made.

"All the efforts for these reforms take place in the classroom," he said. Now, it is time for those reform efforts to focus on the teachers themselves. Too many teachers lack specialization and suffer from low wages and low morale. "That is why we are sending them to centers of excellence in teachers education in North America, South America, Europe and Asia."

Although he is sending teachers to some of the best schools of education in the world, he is especially pleased that TC is going to play a key role because of TC's long history with Chile.

Indeed, Frei left Teachers College with more than a pledge to provide further assistance. Dean Karen Zumwalt presented Frei a bound copy of the dissertation written by the first Chilean graduate of Teachers College, Irma Salas. Her 1930 dissertation was about the need to develop a high school curriculum to serve the children of common and skilled laborers. Secondary schools were geared to students from educated and wealthy families. The children of working class parents often dropped out and there was no network of vocational programs to train them for commercial or industrial jobs.

The Chilean government was so impressed by her work that it encouraged the private publication of her dissertation. She returned to her homeland after graduation and became an advocate for education, using John Dewey's philosophy as a guide. In the 1960s, she designed a regional "community" college system for Chile to increase educational opportunities for Chileans. The regional college system was adopted during the presidency of Eduardo Frei's father.

Today, one of the greatest educational challenges in Chile - and in the United States - is giving school children the skills they need to participate in a modern economy. Mott Hall School, located on the edge of Washington Heights and Harlem in Manhattan, is an example of how to accomplish that. Students and administrators from the school made a presentation to Frei.

Mirian Acosta-Sing, principal of Mott Hall, explained that it is a science, technology and math magnet school with the largest proportion of bilingual students of any school in New York State-90 percent. The students learn how to use computers as creative research tools and use them routinely for course assignments.

For example, this year students started using laptop computers for mathematics projects. For one project, Kelvin Then, a sixth grader, asked his classmates to complete a survey - pick one of five colors as their favorite color. After he compiled his results, he used Microsoft PowerPoint software to make a multimedia presentation that featured bar charts, graphs, pie charts and text to explain what proportion of the students liked which colors.

Frei was so intrigued by the students' presentation that he told his staff to wait a little longer than scheduled before they whisked him off to his next meeting.

The technology program at Mott Hall was developed with the assistance of the Institute for Learning Technologies at TC. The Chilean government is interested in placing apprentices to work with "master" teachers at the school.

Acosta-Sing understands Chile's interest in training teachers and students to use technology in the classroom. She said: "We feel it is a very important way to enrich the curriculum."