Evidence for school inclusion

On September 3, the favorable resolution for the execution of the project "EIPSI - Evidence Informed Practice for School Inclusion" was made public by the Spanish Service for the Internationalization of Education (SEPIE), in charge of managing the funds of the Erasmus program + in our territory. Specifically, the EIPSI project will be financed from the School Education line, key action 2, aimed at generating strategic partnerships by 2020, with a total endowment of € 371,181.00 (Ref. 2020-1-ES01-KA201- 082328).

The project aims to design, prototype, and test innovative solutions for teachers and stakeholders (such as educational advisors, inspectors, public administrators, delegates) to improve equity and inclusion of students through the use of Evidence-Based Practices.

To address these priorities, the project proposes a holistic approach, which includes a 360º Intervention Plan that addresses three pillars: (1) capacity building for teachers; 2) school development; 3) networking with stakeholders and raising awareness. Derived from these three areas of intervention, the project will produce tangible results in five domains by producing five intellectual products, including: 1) Systematic data sets of criteria and indicators for teachers, school leaders, and policy makers on evidence and practices informed by research for school inclusion; 2) a database with resources (effective and innovative teaching practices) for various classrooms and a digital prototype to engage teachers with quality and validated evidence and facilitate the creation of multidisciplinary associations and networks, as well as a workspace interactive for school cooperation and information; 3) training materials for teachers, school leaders, and educational counselors / tutors and educational policy makers to address school diversity through EIPA; 4) school development plan that includes intervention guidelines, materials and structures; 5) European guidelines for policy makers and community stakeholders on how to foster networking and awareness of evidence-based decisions in the field of school inclusion and equity.

Our target group are highly complex schools, those schools with a high number of immigrant students, children with special needs, children with high levels of school mobility, and those with poor socioeconomic family backgrounds.
The project involves a methodological strategy to maximize collaboration and co-design to reduce the transfer gap, as a system of co-leaders and mixed teams made up of professors, inspectors, and research and school councilors. The project will directly involve a pilot sample of 10 highly complex schools in each partner country. In each school, “impulse groups” will be formed that include teachers and leaders responsible for the implementation of EIPI strategies at the school level and for developing the organizational conditions for their sustainable implementation.

EIPSI will be coordinated by Professor Georgeta Ion (CRiEDO-UAB), and will have the participation of researchers and educational technicians from: Universza V Ljubljani (Slovenia), Subdirecció General de la Inspecció d'Educació (Espanya), Stichting Hogeschool van Amsterdam ( Netherlands), Centrul Municipilului Bucaresti de Resurse si Asistenta Educational (Romania), Universitatea din Bucuresti (Romania) and University of Durham (UK).