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Elements for a Diagnosis of the Spanish Educational System![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Methodological linesThe Report issued by Committee III under the name of School functioning contains abundant preliminary information on the methodology used (preparation of the questionnaire, selection of the sample, application, analysis, drafting the report, etc.). We refer readers who are interested in further details to the actual report. For the purposes of this global report, it will be sufficient to provide some brief particulars to give an idea of the main lines agreed by the Committee. As to the diagnosis instrument, a questionnaire was drawn up with 51 items, chosen from the more than 200 that initially comprised it. It consists of three parts: the management function, participation and life at schools, plus the complementary sheet of questions for the principal. It contains two introductory parts to identify the groups surveyed and the school, respectively. As to the specific persons involved, the questionnaire was anonymous, although it requested some personal particulars required for research purposes, such as the post held, age, sex and seniority at the school. The population studied was comprised of all the state and endorsed private schools in the State of Spain where at least one year of Obligatory Secondary Education is taught. The state and private schools have a homogeneous organisation and functioning that allows joint study at these of the chosen theme cores. The data was provided by the Ministry of Education and Culture and by each one of the Autonomous Regions with full competencies in educational matters. To set the sample service, the consideration was for the number of schools to be sufficiently large to guarantee a representative sample nationwide, although, in turn, to keep it within reasonable limits to make the process of administration of the diagnosis instrument, data collection and later processing feasible. The Committee expressly excluded the sample representing each of the Autonomous Regions, because it preferred to deal with the study in general terms, without breakdown to Regional results or comparisons between the Regions. With these criteria it agreed that the sample would consist of six hundred centres where Obligatory Secondary Education is taught, which is equivalent to 7.4% of the population of schools. To achieve adequate representation of the different types of schools included in the population studied, it decided to stratify the sample, considering the three variables relevant: territorial scope, juridical regime of the school (state/private) and educational level (primary/secondary). As to the territorial scope, the strata were formed by area of management by the Ministry of Education and the Autonomous Regions with competencies in educational matters, except for Andalusia, which decided not to participate in the study. Within each territorial scope, it was agreed to perform a proportional distribution of the sample in each one of the provinces, according to the respective numbers of centres. Once the questionnaires and the administration instructions were prepared, the Autonomous Region of the Canaries decided to withdraw from the study, so 35 schools were removed from the original sample. The resulting sample of 565 schools was considered sufficient from the technical point of view to represent the scope of the study: the set of the territory managed directly by the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Autonomous Regions of Catalonia, Galicia, Navarra, the Basque Country and Valencia. For intervals with a reliability level of 95% considering each school as a sample unit, the new size of the sample gave rise to sampling errors of ± 4.0% in the percentages. Also after designing the sample and preparing the questionnaires, the Autonomous Region of Catalonia decided to participate only in the aspects related to the management function and participation, but it withdrew from the studies related to life at schools alleging it could interfere with the studies on academic atmosphere being carried out by the Higher Council of Evaluation of Catalonia. Thus, the sample was limited to 495 schools for the study on school life. Due to this, the sample of schools to which the questionnaires were finally applied was the following table: |
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After determining the number of schools in each stratus in the different territorial scopes, the selection was performed by a random procedure among the schools fulfilling the specific categories for each stratus. It was decided that each school would administer the questionnaire to ten persons from each of the sectors of the educational community. This number would provide knowledge of the opinion of all the sectors represented on the School Council, and also that of teachers who are not members of the Council , in order to compare the different points of view as to the matters studied. Specifically, the ten people selected in each case were the following:
As to the procedure to administer the surveys, this was assigned to the Inspectorate Service in the scope of MEC management, and also in the Autonomous Regions, except in Catalonia, where it was performed by mail. The Committee prepared the instructions to administer the questionnaires, which were sent to all the persons in charge of administering them. Versions of the questionnaire were prepared in the relevant regional languages by the Autonomous Regions of Galicia, the Basque Country, Navarra, Catalonia and Valencia. The deadline to administer the questionnaires was 20th June 1997 and 30th June to return them to the INCE. |
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