The campaigns of attacks against the research center that created the Schools as Learning Communities (SLCs) have been heavily exploited in an attempt to stop the educational improvements they are achieving for all students. One example is this school, which decided to begin implementing Successful Educational Actions (SEAs) in the 2014–2015 school year. The graphs show the improvements in core competencies achieved in just one year: increased levels in English, Catalan, Spanish, and mathematics among its students. These improvements were interrupted when the campaign of attacks against CREA in the 2015–2016 school year prevented further collaboration with the center.
In the current campaign against CREA, some individuals —who had already targeted the teachers of the SLCs for implementing these actions— are now taking advantage of the media spotlight to try to dismantle these schools, which freely chose to adopt these actions and are seeing clear educational gains. It is not hard to see that one of the goals of this campaign is to stop the ongoing progress being made by the SLCs.
The professionals working in these SLCs are well aware of the reasons behind this goal. A comparison of standardized test results between schools that implement SEAs and the overall results from all schools in Catalonia shows that the former surpass the regional average, even in schools with low socioeconomic status and high levels of immigration. These improvements are also accompanied by advances in achieving zero violence, a documented result of the SEAs.
Both on social media and in the public statements made against CREA, we can examine whether those promoting these claims have ever achieved any real improvements in education. While some may have been misled, the individuals leading these accusations —and most of those signing on— have never improved educational outcomes in any school. What they refuse to accept is that the progress being made by the SLCs exposes the failure of their own projects to do the same.
In addition to the documented impact of SEAs, their implementation has never depended on economic resources, nor has it served the profit-driven interests of individuals or organizations. This has consistently provoked rejection from those who are not interested in improving children’s education, but in gaining visibility and financial benefit through the commercialization of actions that have never demonstrated a positive impact in any school.
Alba Crespo López, one of the eight victims who reported her case to CREA’s Zero Violence Equality Commission.
Graduada en psicología en la Universitat de València e investigadora predoctoral en la Universitat de Barcelona