Over 8,000 teachers and almost 129,000 students in Romania benefited from the projects and programs run by AVE in the 2022-2023 school year

• AVE has allocated approximately 1.9 million euros for the projects and programs carried out between September 2022 and August 2023
• 112 school principals were supported by 112 business-mentors within the School Leadership and Management Academy
• More than 750 teachers used the Alfabetar.ro digital platform in the 2022-2023 school year
• 1,500 students improved their social-emotional skills thanks to the HumanKind program
• 14 grants for the development of autonomous projects were implemented in Edu Networks schools

AVE (Asociatia pentru Valori in Educatie) contributes year after year to the transformation of the educational system in Romania through the projects and programs it develops and implements in schools at the national level. Thus, in the 2022-2023 school year, over 8,000 teachers, from 805 schools, were involved in the AVE programs: Academy of School Leadership and Management, Alfabetar, HumanKind or Edu Networks. They had an impact on almost 129,000 students from the whole country. According to the Annual Activity Report, the total budget allocated to the projects and programs carried out between September 2022 and August 2023 amounts to approximately 1.9 million euros.

The business sector supported the AVE activity both financially and through the direct involvement of business people, over 500 participating in at least one AVE initiative, event or project. “Through the projects and programs we run, we aim to reach as many schools as possible in Romania because we want our involvement to be one with concrete results, through which we support the Romanian educational system on the way to the top 10 in Europe, until 2035. To make this transformation possible, we consider the most important vectors of change: school principals and teachers. The results of the last school year show us that our projects produce real effects: almost 129,000 students have better learning experiences, which gives us confidence to continue”, said Silvia Toth, Director of AVE Educational Programs.

More than 100 school principals have developed their leadership skills through the School Leadership and Management Academy

For a school, the principal vector of change is the principal, which is precisely why, through the School Leadership and Management Academy, AVE supported school principals who wanted to generate change both professionally and personally. 112 directors, supported by 112 business-mentors, created, between September 2022 and August 2023, action plans to improve results and the conditions in which students and teachers work. At the same time, 4,500 teachers were involved in achieving the objectives set at the level of the school unit, with an impact for 60,000 students studying in these schools. The program was held nationally in schools from 29 counties, most of them being from Ilfov (14 schools) and Iași (12 schools). The School Leadership and Management Academy had two directions of action.

The first aimed at recognizing and developing the skills specific to the role of principal, and the second at identifying and improving an aspect of the school that requires more attention. For the first directorate, a tool called the Director Standard, a self-assessment of leadership and management capabilities, was created. In terms of identifying areas for improvement, principals chose 31% for improving school culture and increasing community involvement, 30% for teacher professional development and engagement, 27% for improving student outcomes, and 12% for increasing access to education and school participation of students.

Each director was accompanied throughout the program by a business mentor, who had an essential role in the process of acquiring management and leadership skills, identifying problems, resources and creating an implementation plan. The business mentor complemented the training and transformation experience of the executives in the program, and an important focus was also placed on recognizing and celebrating their progress, effort and achievements.

Alfabetar – the online platform for preventing and reducing literacy gaps Teachers play a critical role in developing the reading and writing skills that students acquire by the end of 4th grade. The Alfabetar.ro platform offers teachers free solutions that are easy to use in the classroom, in accordance with the school curriculum, based on 600 texts from accredited official textbooks.

In the 2022-2023 school year, Alfabetar.ro was used by 757 teachers who could choose from the 25,000 existing literacy exercises, generating 150,000 interactions with the platform. Teachers can choose the module and textbook text they use in the classroom and have over 100 strategies and methods available, as well as hints and tips to apply with students. The resources available have been created with the ultimate beneficiary in mind: the student. Teachers have the opportunity to test students’ literacy levels and adjust interventions according to progress along the learning path.

HumanKind for the development of socio-emotional education among teachers

Through HumanKind, the social-emotional education program developed by AVE in partnership with MindUP, a SEL (social-emotional learning) curriculum was created for teachers to apply in the classroom. Completed in August 2023, HumanKind was implemented in 12 schools, where the principals together with 60 teachers completed over 80 hours of courses on the developmental needs of children by age group, non-violent communication, mindfulness, positive psychology, neuroscience . Each school benefited from a mentor psychologist or psychotherapist, who guided the team throughout the program. In total, the project produced effects for 1,500 students. Teachers have improved their ability to support students’ social-emotional development. The results showed that students in the involved schools had significantly lower scores on aggression and better scores on attention and social-emotional skills. Although the program did not address parents directly, teachers perceived improvements in their relationship with them. Approximately 75% of the participating teachers believe that the positive results of the program will be maintained in the long term, the intervention being seen as sustainable to a large and very large extent.

14 grants worth 147,887 euros for schools in Edu Networks

Between September 2022 and August 2023, the fourth and final year of Edu Networks took place, a program that included 114 schools and kindergartens in Romania, organized nationally in nine clusters, taking into account geographical proximity among them: Bacău, Bistrița-Năsăud, Brad, Bucharest-Ilfov, Buzău, Dâmbovița, Galați, Olt and Valea Jiului.

In this last year, in an intervention coordinated by AVE, 14 grants were accessed, in a total amount of 147,887 euros; each cluster made and implemented at least one. The grants were aimed at developing pedagogical, leadership or school management skills, as well as offering solutions that meet the development or transformation needs identified at the level of several schools or several clusters of schools. This intervention also had the role of familiarizing schools with accessing external resources and managing them.

Running for four years (September 2019 – August 2023), the Edu Networks program was coordinated by AVE and implemented with the support of eight non-profit organizations specialized in education and had a real impact for 3,600 teachers and 64,000 students and preschoolers.

The educational partners with whom AVE worked between September 2022 and August 2023 are: Adservio, Brio, Casa Corpului Didactic Bucharest, Digital Nation, EDUS, Empaticus Association, Go-Ahead Association, HoltIS Association, HumanInvest, InfinitEdu Association, Inim Institute, Interact, Kinderpedia, Reading and Writing Association for the Development of Critical Thinking, Marco Polo, Mind Education, MindUP, MM Consulting, ROI Association, Romanian Gifted School, Școala de Valori Association, SELLification4EDUcation Association, SuperTeach Association, Teach for Romania Association, The Learning Future , The Social Incubator Association and Verita Foundation.

AVE (Asociatia pentru Valori in Educatie) is a non-profit organization, whose main objective is to bring the Romanian educational system into the top 10 in Europe by 2035. AVE wants to support the transformation of the Romanian educational system into one which promotes respect, honesty, team spirit and responsibility