ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the model impersonates many of the equity principles by providing high-quality learning environments and pedagogical practices to students in historically marginalized communities. It demonstrates that compensating for initial disadvantages of children and youth in conditions of vulnerability is possible—indeed, there is evidence that students that attend schools where the Escuela Nueva is used consistently outperform their more privileged counterparts. The chapter describes the Escuela Nueva model and its contribution to universalize good-quality education in Colombia. Escuela Nueva introduced operative strategies to deal with issues of diversity of levels, age heterogeneity, different paces of learning, and living conditions of rural children, among others. Different evaluations carried out since 1980 show that Escuela Nueva significantly improves academic achievement of children in rural and urban primary schools as well as their self-esteem, their social skills, and civic and democratic behavior. Inequality is an economic waste, an injustice from the social point of view, and an illustration of a society's failure.
