Indicators and Evaluation

PRIE

Recognizing that good data are essential to good policy making the Regional Education Indicators Project (PRIE) has been an important mechanism since 2000, for monitoring countries' progress toward meeting the education goals of the Summits of the Americas. In doing so, it continues to strengthen national education information systems and contribute to greater dissemination and use of information in education.

Political leadership of the project is provided by the Public Education Secretariat (SEP) of Mexico, and project coordination of the Organization of American States (OAS). Since its inauguration, the project has benefited from the technical support of UNESCO, thus assuring international and regional collaboration through its Institute for Statistics (UIS), and the Regional Information System (SIRI) of the Regional Bureau of Education for Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC).

The Hemispheric Educational Evaluation Forum

Since the Second Summit of the Americas Brazil created the Hemispheric Educational Assessment Forum to coordinate efforts underway, create a space for exchange, channel the competences and technical skills of the countries, and optimize financial and human resources in the hemisphere. Its main functions are to generate networking mechanisms, systematize actions and regulate procedures, in order to meet the needs indicated by each OAS member country.

In general terms and as the result of all activities previously carried out, the structure of the Hemispheric Forum, now called Hemispheric Educational Forum, shall also be maintained to meet the Educational Indicator component, working on the four major lines of action established at the meeting in Brasília, in 2002. The relevance of these lines of action was ratified at the Hemispheric Forum, in June 2005. They are:

•  Strengthening National Assessment Systems by organizing regular meetings of the Hemispheric Educational Forum according to the needs of member countries.
•  Providing technical assistance by coordinating organizations that provide training or financial resources to countries that have expressed any needs in this regard.
•  Participation in Compared International Studies to further the study of the results of countries' participation in comparative international studies, linking students' performance and development of competences to the quality of education and associated factors.

More information at www.prie.oas.org/ingles/cpo_home.asp