The University of La Laguna (ULL) strengthens its collaboration with Panama in educational assessment through a new international contract.

The University of La Laguna, through its General Foundation, has signed a new consultancy services contract with the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI), within the framework of the Program for Improving Efficiency, Quality and Inclusion of the Education Sector (MECSE) of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Panama, financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The contract aims to standardize and validate formative assessment tools in the areas of reading, writing, and mathematics for third-grade students in the Panamanian education system.

These assessments are already being carried out using IPALEM (Indicators of Learning Progress in Reading, Writing and Mathematics), a tablet-based digital application that integrates formative assessment procedures previously validated and standardized in the school population of the Canary Islands in Early Childhood and Primary Education, through different projects of the National R&D Plan developed during the last decade.

Within the framework of this contract, the tool has been adapted to the cultural and curricular context of Panama, as well as to the modality of Spanish in the country, which allows the analysis of learning progress and the measurement of the impact of the pedagogical interventions implemented in educational centers with low academic performance, thus contributing to the reduction of educational gaps.

The scientific coordination and academic responsibility for the project lie with Juan E. Jiménez, Professor of Developmental and Educational Psychology at the University of La Laguna, with extensive experience in applied research, educational assessment, and knowledge transfer, both nationally and internationally, explains, “This project allows for the large-scale implementation of scientifically based assessment tools, adapted to the Panamanian cultural and linguistic context.”.

The project will be developed during the years 2025 and 2026 and will cover approximately 425 educational centers distributed in the different regions of Panama, including the provinces of Bocas del Toro, Coclé, Colón, Chiriquí, Darién, Herrera, Los Santos, Panamá, Panamá Oeste and Veraguas, as well as the indigenous regions of Guna Yala, Ngäbe-Buglé and Emberá-Wounaan.

The study will include both schools with low academic performance and a control group representative of the national average. The evaluation will be conducted twice per school year, allowing for analysis of student progress and assessment of the effectiveness of the educational measures implemented.

The University of La Laguna will contribute its scientific and technical expertise in the design and validation of curriculum-based assessment systems, through the use of the IPALEM platform, a set of instruments developed within the framework of the Response to Intervention (RtI) model and specifically adapted to the Panamanian educational context.

These tools are designed both for the early identification of students at risk of learning difficulties and for monitoring their academic progress. The initiative is a clear example of knowledge transfer from the university to the education system, with a direct impact on pedagogical decision-making.

This new contract continues a previous line of collaboration developed by the University of La Laguna in Panama, also linked to programs financed by the IDB, in which actions have been carried out in technical support, training of facilitators, adaptation and validation of evaluation tools and review of educational resources.

The results obtained in these previous experiences have contributed to strengthening the capacities of the Panamanian education system and have laid the technical and methodological groundwork for the project now underway, reflecting the institutional confidence placed in the University of La Laguna and the quality of its work. This agreement, therefore, reinforces the international standing of the Canary Islands academic institution and consolidates its role as a leading institution in applied research, educational cooperation, and knowledge transfer within the Ibero-American sphere.