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This volume is devoted to an assessment of the performance and selected aspects of the management and pedagogical practices of Fe y Alegria, a federation of Jesuit schools serving approximately one million children in 20 countries, mostly in Latin America. The available quantitative evidence suggests that the federation's schools often do reach the poor, and that students in Fe y Alegria schools tend to perform as well on test scores, if not slightly better than comparable students in other schools. Qualitative data and case studies suggest that the factors that lead to good performance are complex and related not only to the types of 'inputs' or resources used by the schools in the education process, but also to the management of these resources, and the ability to implement and test innovative programs. Other factors that support this argument include the capacity and flexibility to implement and test innovative programs that take into account the local realities.

Many observers consider Fe y Alegría a successful organization, but very few rigorous evaluations have been conducted. This volume is devoted to an assessment of the performance and selected aspects of the management and pedagogical practices of Fe y Alegría, a federation of Jesuit schools serving approximately one million children in 20 countries, mostly in Latin America. The available quantitative evidence suggests that the federation’s schools often do reach the poor, and that students in Fe y Alegría schools tend to perform as well on test scores, if not slightly better than comparable students in other schools. Qualitative data and case studies suggest that the factors that lead to good performance are complex and related not only to the types of “inputs” or resources used by the schools in the education process, but also to the management of these resources, and the ability to implement and test innovative programs. Other factors that support this argument include the capacity and flexibility to implement and test innovative programs that take into account the local realities. This volume will be of interest to researchers, policy makers and practitioners working in service provision through public-private partnerships and especially by faith-based organizations., Este volumen está dedicado a una valoración del desempeño y aspectos seleccionados de la gestión y las prácticas pedagógicas de las escuelas Fe y Alegría, una federación de colegios Jesuitas que prestan sus servicios a aproximadamente un millón de niños en 20 países, principalmente en América Latina. La evidencia cuantitativa disponible sugiere que las escuelas de la federación frecuentemente favorecen a las personas más pobres, y que los estudiantes de las escuelas Fe y Alegría tienden a rendir igual en las pruebas estandarizadas, si no ligeramente mejor, que otros estudiantes comparables en otras escuelas. Los datos cualitativos y los estudios de caso analizados en este documento sugieren que los factores que conducen a buenos resultados son complejos y están relacionados no sólo con los tipos de “inputs” o de recursos utilizados por las escuelas en el proceso educativo sino también con la gestión de estos recursos. Asimismo, otros factores que apoyan este argumento incluyen la capacidad y la flexibilidad para implementar y probar programas innovadores que tienen en cuenta las realidades locales. Los autores también analizan la replicabilidad de estos factores de éxito en las escuelas públicas y ofrecen algunas recomendaciones para conseguirlo.

Fe y Alegria is a catholic network of schools that started operations in Colombia in 1971, and in 2009 served more than 72,000 students in 61 schools. This paper assesses the performance of Fe y Alegria secondary schools in Colombia using test scores for Spanish and mathematics, as well as detailed information on the characteristics of the household to which students belong. Simple statistics suggest that Fe y Alegria schools perform worse than other schools for all years in the sample. However, Fe y Alegria schools also cater to poorer students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Once controls are included for student background, Fe y Alegria schools actually often perform as well and in some cases better than other schools for mathematics and Spanish, thus partially reversing the previous finding.