EI team continually analyzes the EI program elements and tweaks it each year based on feedback from the community, graduation rates, and drop-out rates. This unusual approach, open-minded and data-driven, rather than hide-bound and based on historical approaches, has led to a multi-pronged program that addresses the many disparate challenges that the children in our communities face.
From the very start of EI, in Costa Rica in 1998, Kathy observed that if the children received regular encouragement, and the family received some advice on how to best help their children in school, the children stayed motivated and did not drop out. This personal encouragement and problem-solving turned out to be the dominant factor in the families’ commitment to education and the children’s success.
