Academy for Educational Development

The Civic Engagement for Education Reform in Central America (CERCA) Project builds support for better education in five countries: the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The project identifies conditions and develops tools that promote the active engagement of parents in supporting schools and in holding schools and policy-makers accountable for education quality. It involves researchers, education sector leaders, and civil society representatives in examining how the operational tools of education policy and management (laws, policies, availability of information, incentives, financial responsibilities, organizations, and structures that express “client voice”) can best be used to engage the school community in improving the quality of education. Through studies of successful cases of community participation leading to improved quality, field-testing of a school report card, and a collaborative regional workshop, the project helps create a shared knowledge base for policy-makers and education constituencies at all levels to use in developing policies and practices that support the sustained involvement of parents and other local stakeholders.