From April 2015, the former associate researcher of the Center for Mathematical Modeling of Universidad de Chile (CMM) María Leonor Varas became director of the university’s Departamento de Evaluación, Medición y Registro Educacional (Demre). The relevant work of this office includes the design, development and execution of PSU, the national test for the universities admission process.
Varas had an important role in the creation and consolidation of the CMM Education Lab and the Centro de Investigación Avanzada en Educación (CIAE).
“On 1998, we saw that the production of the Chilean mathematicians was extraordinary. The highest impact index in Latin America. That was a nice thing but it was also a responsibility because international measures said Chile had a problem in the math teaching. And as CMM cares about the Chilean development we created the CMM Education Lab. Many prominent mathematicians were involved. Even National Prizes of Sciences winners joined in the creation of the project despite they wouldn’t be part of its development. We included everybody who wanted to collaborate,” remembered Varas.
Her academic career has been focused in mathematics teaching and learning and she has worked with elementary school teachers, pre-service teachers, school students, Education faculties, and the Ministry of Education. She also collaborated in the development of the orientation standards for the pre-service teachers training, the Inicia Test, the accreditation process for the Universities’ Schools of Education, the assessment and monitoring processes of the performance agreements for the pre-service teachers training, and the design of the Mathematics PSU. She is part of international cooperation projects such as the Chile-Finland Project –which incorporated the open-ended problem solving to third grade of elementary school– and the Firstmath comparative study that analyzes the teachers’ performance during their first five years working. She also has lectured workshops and courses for teachers in El Salvador.
Now, her new challenge is leading the growth of Demre further the PSU as an admission test.
“Today, tests are used to rule the admission to the universities, but they have not be used to improve processes. If faculties have graduate profiles, they must have beginner profiles to know what subjects they must bolster in students to solve flows. This challenge implies a paradigm change. We don’t want to punish the universities but help them to focus their work in the students’ weaknesses. In that sense, we have to strengthen the work the Demre’s Studies Department is already developing in psychometric and statistical issues,” pointed out Varas.
In her opinion, creating political and academic networks is a main challenge for her office: “Demre has extraordinary capacities and is starting to create links with the academic life. That must be accelerated. Then, Demre must grow, getting more funds, and checking how its growth will be, what areas will strengthen, mainly, its analysis skills, and its links with the scientific and political world. We have to address all the discussions and link with other institutions that design and apply tests. With no fear, feeling potential competitors as collaborators.”
This implies to change some market rules applied to the scientist institutions such as the public tenders where different offices must compete for contracts year-by-year.
However that is a long-term task and another story.
