Under the program, implemented since 2000, comprehensive activities based on the best foreign models have been carried out to improve quality of Polish education. The quality of education at Polish schools, especially those in rural areas and small towns, is enhanced primarily by improving teaching techniques.
Over 20 years about 5,000 schools have taken part in the program. Training sessions offered as part of various components of the “LES” Program covered 120,000 teachers.
The “LES” Program introduces an original quality assurance system into the daily practice of schools, which ultimately increases the skills and autonomy of teaching staff, bolsters the position of the principal as the leader of the school transformation process and improves teamwork. All that results in improved teaching effects. It is a broad program – it encompasses teacher on-line training sessions and courses, staff workshops, post-graduate courses and conferences for principals, and a systemic program of support for schools introducing the formative assessment and other innovative educational practices. Schools participating in the program develop organizational solutions that professionalize teaching, monitor the results of their efforts, and share best practices. The program has resulted in quality improvement in key areas of a school activities such as teaching and learning effectiveness, organization of a school as learning institution, and cooperation of a school with its outside community.
Over 20 years about 5,000 schools have taken part in the program; almost 3,000 of them participated in the core part which is aimed at comprehensive development of the school thanks to introducing the formative assessment tool. Training sessions offered as part of various components of the “LES” Program covered 150,000 teachers.
Since 2017/18 school year the “LES” Program has been implemented in new situation at schools resulting from profound changes introduced by the Ministry of National Education. Having adjusted its activities to that new situation, the program continues to be very popular among teachers and at schools all over Poland.
Apart from held on a large scale training and workshop sessions for school staff under On-line Teachers Academy (N@I), offered are also e-learning courses for teachers of various subjects in different types and levels of schools and kindergartens. They prepare teachers to use modern information technologies in their work with pupils. N@I offers seven year-long courses for ca. 800 teachers. The most popular of them is the OK Notebook course on a new tool that supports formative assessment.
The extensive experience gained during many years of “LES” Program implementation is used in various educational initiatives financed from EU funds, such as completed in 2015 the Students’ Academy Program or the Digital School, as well as inaugurated in 2019 School for Innovator. The objective of those programs is to develop the competence and skills students will need as adults and it is achieved by promoting innovative teaching and assessing methods, and by organizing work at school in an innovative way. To date the projects have been participated by more than 20,000 people.
In 2019, the Learning School Academy of Education Leaders (LES AEL) was completed. It was a two-year post-graduate course of studies for 900 school and kindergarten principals and vice principals from Mazowieckie and Świętokrzyskie provinces. The objective of the course was improving educational institution managers’ qualifications in educational leadership aimed at developing key skills in students. The course was based on experience gained in “LES” Program and run in cooperation with Collegium Civitas and the Maria Grzegorzewska University-Academy of Special Education. It was financed from EU funds.
PAFF is a partner of the School with Class 2.0 initiative, promoting innovative educational solutions based on information and communication technologies and the design thinking method. By the end of 2019, more than 9,000 schools from all over Poland and about 150,000 teachers had participated in its implementation. It was supplemented by such initiatives as Teacher with Class; Lego, Cogito, Ago; Student with Class; and School of Thinking. The presently implemented initiative stems from the School with Class project launched in 2002, inspired by the “LES” Program and managed by the Center for Citizenship Education Foundation in cooperation with the Gazeta Wyborcza daily. The current School with Class 2.0 initiative is managed by the School with Class Foundation established in 2015.
The Foundation has disbursed $13,858,857, including $833,847 for the current edition of the program.
