Tackling school segregation in Barcelona: a data governance approach

Countries

Spain

Policy areas

Organisation name Consorci d'Educació de Barcelona

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Contact person: Àlex Armadàs

informacio.ceb@gencat.cat

Context

The Barcelona Education Consortium (Consorci d’Educació de Barcelona – CEB), a public body overseeing the education of 175 000 students, implemented a project to address school segregation. This issue is well-documented regarding negatively impacted vulnerable students, particularly those facing socioeconomic challenges. Traditionally, inaccurate data hampered efforts to identify and distribute these students across schools effectively.

Objectives

The project aimed to improve student identification and data quality to achieve a balanced distribution of vulnerable students across Barcelona’s schools. This strategy aimed to reduce segregation and consequently, enhance student performance and reduce dropout rates. The project’s innovation lies in its use of data governance principles, a relatively new approach, to tackle a real-world problem. This involved transitioning from subjective evaluations to a systematic method for identifying vulnerable students. Technological advancements played a key role. For instance, the Schooling Console tool provided real-time data on school segregation, allowing officials to make informed decisions during student allocation.

Implementation

The project was developed entirely by CEB staff, with various departments collaborating under the leadership of the Information Systems and Business Process Design Unit (Unidad de Diseño de Sistemas de Información y Procesos de Negocio – USIDP). One of the significant challenges involved ensuring data quality, a core aspect of data governance. The project addressed this by establishing the Vulnerable Students Registry (Registre d’Alumnes Vulnerables RAV) and implementing a digitalisation process.

The project achieved a 17 per cent decrease in the dissimilarity index, a measure of school segregation, within just three years. Additionally, vulnerability detection increased by 63 per cent. These improvements highlight the project’s effectiveness. Moreover, the project’s design ensures sustainability. The use of low-code technology minimises maintenance costs, while a small team effectively manages the student registry. Political commitment from the CEB, the Catalan Government and the Ombudsman further ensures the project’s longevity.

The project’s potential for replication in other European cities facing similar challenges is high. The use of low-code technology, a systematic approach and real-time data availability make the model adaptable. Barcelona’s success serves as a valuable example of how data governance can be leveraged to achieve educational equity and social inclusion.

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