The EFFEct project (Enhancing Effectiveness and Efficiency in Education) convened its second consortium meeting alongside the 10th International Workshop on Efficiency in Education, Health, and other Public Services in Milan on September 4-6. This groundbreaking research initiative unites education and economy experts to tackle critical challenges and explore solutions for equitable, high-quality education across Europe. The meeting showcased substantial progress in key areas, including early childhood maths education, the impact of religious instruction, and digital literacy. The consortium’s efforts have already yielded significant research advancements and broad public outreach, setting an ambitious trajectory for the remaining three and a half years of the project.

In parallel with the EFFEct meeting, researchers presented at the 2-day workshop, with a spotlight on themes such as well-being, ICT use, and non-public education outcomes. A standout keynote by Roberto Ricci from Italy’s National Institute for the Educational Evaluation of Instruction and Training confronted a core issue—the disconnect between policies and the realities on the ground, notably the underachievement of boys in European schools. EFFEct’s contributions were complemented by the International Parents Alliance (IPA), which highlighted the global learning crisis and the troubling trend of students not returning to school post-closures. The consortium’s next steps are set, with forthcoming meetings in Leuven and Budapest in 2025.

Stakeholder perspectives on school performance

The Symbiotic Relationship Between Schools, Families, and Communities 

There is a crucial and symbiotic relationship between schools, families, and communities that we often overlook. Schools are both a reflection of our communities and fundamental to the development of our communities (Dewey, 1953; Freire, 1974; Perry, 2020; Serpell, 1993, Strike, 2004). One thing that the global school closures of 2020-2022 and other ongoing crises around the world has taught the formal education sector is that schools, families, and communities depend on each other to support students’ learning and well-being, and that education systems transformation must involve families.

Furthermore, it is of crucial importance that parents and families perceive the performance of school systems as satisfactory or better in order to make positive decisions about their children’s school attendance. Around the world, a frighteningly high percentage of children have not been allowed to return to school due to the lack of such satisfaction (Studin, 2024).

The Global Learning Crisis and School Performance 

The world has been facing a global learning crisis (World Bank 2018.) even before the school closures that has a number of surprising, but shocking characteristics. It is not only about children with no access to school anymore, but about those who do attend formal education, even receive some kind of school leaving certification, but do not acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills, not to mention other skills necessary for the 21st century.

School has little to do with real life which is a multifaceted phenomenon. First of all, school curricula are often overcrowded with skills and academic content that is outdated and without consensus on why they are necessary to teach and learn. School is also often sheltered from the outside world meaning that it provides little support and skills development in the field of everyday life situations – present and future – especially for those whose parents are less able to provide such necessary education at home struggling with aspects of everyday life themselves.

Parental Engagement and Legislative Frameworks 

There is a need to mention two factors beyond teachers in establishing parental engagement practices and finding solutions for the need to change schools. Legislative frameworks should be in place that makes it necessary for schools to engage parents and also the students themselves in all procedures. This in itself will not ensure meaningful participation. An extensive research done in 23 European countries on participation (Salamon-Haider, 2015, 2019) clearly uncovered a pattern that it only provides for structures and thus participation is often restricted to formalities. This is a dangerous trend as schools that only wish to tick the boxes will find ways to involve ‘tame’ parents, resulting in representation of white middle class only in decision-making structures.

School Leadership and Its Role in School Performance 

This is the reason why the other important factor is the school leader / principal in implementing inclusive participatory structures at school level. Research (Salamon-Haider 2015, 2019) shows that there is no school system in Europe that forbids school leaders to engage parents and students, so inclusive participatory practices can be implemented even in systems where there is no legislative requirement for that.

An equally important task for school leaders is to change existing practices in school boards, parent committees and similar structures to provide engagement opportunities for all students and teachers. It depends on the school leader most of all if existing formal structures become meaningful or not. For a short period of time the driving force behind such changes can be a small group of committed parents, but for lasting changes the school leader needs to take a lead in this field, too. According to very recent research (Kelly, 2019 and Salamon, 2019) school heads understand the importance of collaborating with parents and engaging students, but they have little professional help in doing so.

Research and Methodology 

Parents International conducted research in collaboration with the Brookings Institution in 2023-24. The main aim of the research was to understand what makes parents, teachers, school leaders and the students themselves satisfied with school provisions, what they think the other groups prioritise, and how much they are satisfied with what schools offer.

Another aspect of the research was to explore the opportunities and barriers in equal partnerships of the main educators of children, their parents/families and professional educators. The research was conducted in 16 countries using different research methodologies and tools. Parents International carried the research out in three countries: Hungary, Kazakhstan and the Netherlands, using the same tools with very little modifications trying to accommodate the realities of school systems.

We have explored and mapped beliefs about education in the process of determining what needs to change in a system. Mapping beliefs and making families contributions to education systems visible is another thread throughout this research. The research measured how important the different actors consider the following four main goals of education: gaining academic/subject knowledge, preparation for the labour market, social-emotional learning, and citizenship education.

There is a clear mismatch not only between these expectations and curricula, but also what teachers think about parental expectations. At the same time, in all 16 countries teachers have perceived parents as un-interested in the schooling of their children while not a single parent or student indicated the lack of interest on the parents’ side. The workshop presentation is aiming at presenting the research findings in more detail, and to engage the researchers in the conversation using the tools of the research.

Methodology

– A large-scale survey was conducted in two steps in all three countries. In the first round, the questionnaires were tested with a small sample and discussed in focus groups to fine-tune them to the realities of the different education systems. In the second round, data was collected in a certain number of schools anonymously.

– After the statistical analysis of the survey results, the overall data for the given country and the outcomes of the specific school were brought back to each school and discussed using the so-called Conversation Starter Tools developed by the Brookings Institution. The main aim of these school-by school meetings, involving all key stakeholders, was to discuss the outcomes and to start establishing strategies for better collaboration for the necessary transformation.

Bibliography

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Strike, K. A. (2004). Community, the missing element of school reform: Why schools should be more like congregations than banks. American Journal of Education, 110(3), 215-232.

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