The project SMART – Second-chance schools working with systematic measurement of outcomes is now coming to an end after a two-year joint work which involved 7 partners from Denmark, Ireland, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands, representing University, second chance schools, regional authorities and civil society organisations.
The objective of the SMART project is to help education providers evidence their success factors, enhancing the quality and relevance of the learning offer in education, training & youth work, thus contributing to prevent school drop-out and promoting participation of disadvantaged groups in society.
The project outputs, which were developed in order to reach this goal, have been finalised and made available on the project website www.edu-smart.eu as well as on CESIE’s digital library.
The first phase of the work carried out within the project led to the delivery of the Literature Review report, giving an insight of the existing practice of measuring and evidencing success factors in second chance education, highlighting good practices and identifying gaps and making recommendations. Later on, a Needs Analysis report was prepared in order to analyse the needs of the teachers/trainers working with disadvantaged groups in second chance education provision.
Based on this, the Systematic Measurement System e-platform started to be developed as a tool for organisations to conduct self-monitoring and self-evaluation to measure performance in second chance education and non-formal learning, suggesting methods, tools and a menu of quality indicators to be used in order to implement the Systematic Measurement System.
In addition to this, three handbooks were developed and are now available in English, Italian and Danish, addressed to 3 different target groups:
- The Handbook for Policy Makers, includes policy recommendations and guidelines to support policy makers in making informed decisions about funding for second chance education or the adoption of its methods into mainstream education.
- The Teachers’ handbook is a guide which complements the teacher training module delivered during two training events held in Ennis (Ireland) and Palermo (Italy), with a view to enable teachers and trainers to implement self-monitoring and self-evaluation of their teaching practice providing guidelines for implementing the process, good practices, templates and tools.
- The Guidelines for Organisations describe how organisations can integrate the measurement of soft skills in second chance and non-formal education settings. Key aspects addressed include self-reflective practice, the logic model as an educational planning tool and the use of the SMS E-platform.
The SMART project was launched under the Erasmus+ Programme, Key Action 2, Strategic Partnership with a duration of 24 months – from September 2014 to August 2016.
For more information please visit our website: www.edu-smart.eu, join us on Facebook or write to francesca.vacanti@cesie.org
Partners:
- Copenhagen Youth School (Denmark – Coordinator)
- EURICON (Netherlands)
- Art 27 (Belgium)
- Esbjerg Ungdomsskole (Denmark)
- CESIE (Italy)
- Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board (Ireland)
- Aalborg University (Denmark)
