A different culture of record keeping

Today, I am supposed to be picking up data from the schools regarding attendance records and national exam scores for the past 6 years (the three years before the start of the Uji project and the three years since).  This proves to be much harder than expected.  Upon my initial visit I discussed with them some of the records that would be available for me and after some extra thought, I outlined in a later phone conversation the types of data that I would need (through a translator, of course).  This was almost all lost in translation.  The first school had a packet ready for me, produced by the district education office outlining the scores and rank of the school for 2008…only 2008.  Turns out they were numero uno that year in the district but were not for 2009 and 2010, so I have a feeling that they only wanted me to see that one year.  The next school’s product is even more pitiful, only giving me a sheet of paper with the number of students who took the exam.  Although each of these documents is helpful and shows good trends for the evaluation, it’s not enough.  Thanks to my faithful Rosie, we’re able to explain again everything that we need and confirm with them that they can provide it.  They explain to me, however, that much of it will have to come from the district office, as they don’t keep a lot of those records on file.  I have quickly realized how different the systems of reporting are here.  Turns out, even though all students take national exams, the only schools that receive their results in paper form are the top ten schools in each district.  The others are informed (I guess by phone?) and that’s it.  Also, they do not keep student-by-student attendance records, only total amount and only calculate annual averages.  In no way do I intent to bash this system because they do the best they can with the resources and lack of technology that they have.  But I have learned a lot about the flexibility I must maintain in conducting an evaluation here, and it’s good to recognize these road blocks in trying to develop practices that will help VLOP monitor the Uji project.  My next step is pursuing if there’s any possibility of working directly with the district office…we’ll see how that goes.