AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY OF MADRID Ismael Sanz Labrador Luis Pires Jiménez General Direction of Innovation, Grants, and Scholarships for Education Regional Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Community of Madrid Language and Literacy Madrid, the capital of Spain, was born as an autonomous community in 1983 with the Statute of Autonomy of the Autonomous Community of Madrid and with approval of the Spanish Constitution of 1978.1,2 The third most populated community in Spain, Madrid is considered the main national center of the tertiary sector and one of the most prominent and developed regions in Spain and Europe. It stands as the first autonomous community in most principal social and economic indicators. The official language in Madrid is Spanish, and an enormous effort is being made by the Madrid Educational Department to make Madrid’s future generations bilingual in English and Spanish. It is a belief of the Autonomous Community of Madrid that proficiency in English is fundamental to the future of its youth, and that belief was behind the implementation of a model of bilingual education.3 All of Spain’s autonomous communities, with the help of central authorities, are introducing Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programs in schools.4 The CLIL curriculum, in which some subjects are taught in English, was established in Madrid in 2004 with the bilingual program implementation. A virtual community of primary and secondary schools named Aprendizaje Integrado de Contenido y Lengua (Content and Language Integrated Learning), or AICOLE, has digital education content. Created by the Department of Education of the Autonomous Community of Madrid, this community was created to connect teachers and their resources and to improve the CLIL methodology by exchanging resources and best practices.5 It is important to describe the bilingual program as a special initiative to promote reading in English and Spanish: Since 2004, the Autonomous Community of Madrid has implemented a model of bilingual state education in which students not only study English as a foreign language but also receive curricular instruction for other subjects in English. English therefore becomes a working language that is used in a cross-curricular way in schools, allowing students to acquire it more quickly, naturally, and effortlessly. All bilingual state schools comply with the official curriculum set out by the Community of Madrid. The program began with 26 state primary schools, and there are currently 360 state primary schools and 134 state secondary schools in the Madrid bilingual school network in addition to 193 state funded primary schools, of which 47 offer bilingual studies in secondary PIRLS 2016 ENCYCLOPEDIA AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY OF MADRID 1 education. From its inception, the Madrid bilingual program has made a solid commitment to the professional development of its teachers, offering courses in leadership, CLIL methodology, language improvement, language immersion, and teaching practice in Madrid and in countries such as Canada, the United States, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Overview of the Education System The Spanish Constitution of 1978 created a highly decentralized education system. The Spanish government oversees legislation, basic structure, and cooperative initiatives among all autonomous communities and with other nations. Madrid, like all autonomous communities, is responsible for all other aspects of education, including schools, curricula, and financial and personnel management. Current educational regulations, including the 2013 Organic Law for Improvement of Educational Quality (known by its Spanish acronym, LOMCE), guarantee the uniformity and unity of the education system while also allowing autonomous communities to make individual decisions.6 This law includes an additional provision for state and regional cooperation to promote an adequate description of the relationships among competencies, content, and assessment criteria of the different stages of education. Thus, the curriculum has a centralized common framework that is developed and implemented by the autonomous communities and schools.7,8 In Madrid, schools are classified according to whether they are state or private, although the vast majority of private schools also are publicly funded. Out of 3,620 schools in Madrid that offer elementary and secondary education, 1,880 are public, 1,180 private, and 560 private but publicly funded. Public expenditure on education in Madrid totaled €4.85 million in 2015. Of that amount, €3.31 million was used for nonuniversity education, €1.49 million for university education, and €51,000 for training for employment.9 Structure of the Education System The current basic structure of the Spanish education system was validated in 2013 by LOMCE, which did not modify the organization established in 2006 and previously in 1990. This structure is the same for the Autonomous Community of Madrid. The levels of education comprise preprimary education (ages 0 to 6), primary education (ages 6 to 12), and secondary education (ages 12 to 18). Preprimary education is not compulsory. It is organized into two cycles, one for children ages 0 to 3 (87,922 students in Madrid were enrolled in the 2015–2016 school year) and the other for children ages 3 to 6 (202,206 students in Madrid were enrolled in 2015–2016). The second cycle is free of charge. Primary education and compulsory secondary education comprise Spain’s basic education—10 years of schooling (generally for students ages 6 to 16) that are compulsory and free of charge. Primary education consists of Grades 1 to 6 (416,138 students were enrolled in primary education in Madrid in 2015–2016). PIRLS 2016 ENCYCLOPEDIA AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY OF MADRID 2 Secondary education is divided into two stages: compulsory secondary and post-compulsory secondary. Compulsory secondary education comprises Grades 7 to 10, which generally correspond to ages 12 to 16 (258,891 students were enrolled in Madrid in 2015–2016). Post-compulsory secondary education (Grades 11 to 12) includes the baccalaureate and vocational education intermediate level (in 2015–2016 in Madrid, 105,921 students were enrolled at the baccalaureate level and 34,169 at the vocational intermediate level). Last, higher education includes university (UNESCO’s ISCED Level 6 and above) and higher level vocational education, higher level arts and design, and higher level sports education (ISCED Level 5) (38,761 students were enrolled in higher level vocational education in Madrid in 2015–2016).10,11 Language/Reading Curriculum in the Fourth Grade Reading Policy In general, reading instruction begins at the preprimary level of education. In Madrid, as in Spain, the main goal of instruction in the area of Spanish language and literature is for students to achieve competence in the linguistic skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in an integrated manner. Summary of Autonomous Curriculum The education law defines “curriculum” as “the regulation of the elements that determine the teaching and learning processes for each level.” The National Core Curriculum for Primary Education was published in March 2014 and implemented at the fourth grade in the 2015–2016 school year.12 Madrid’s curriculum of Spanish language and literature in primary education follows the content, assessment criteria, and learning standards suggested by the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport in the National Core Curriculum. These blocks, or sections, are developed over the six years of primary education. The blocks include: • Oral Communication: Speaking and Listening • Written Communication: Reading • Written Communication: Writing • Knowledge of the Language • Literary Education Reading Curriculum for Primary Education13 Madrid complements the aforementioned blocks by detailing their contents. Those related to reading are included in the Written Communication: Reading block and are organized by grade: • First grade o The alphabet, relationships between sounds, and writing o Reading comprehension of short texts PIRLS 2016 ENCYCLOPEDIA AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY OF MADRID 3 • Second grade o Understanding texts; reading aloud and silently o Reading comprehension of different types of texts; relevant information, vocabulary, main ideas, illustrations • Third grade o Reading aloud short texts with rhythm, fluency, and appropriate intonation; respecting punctuation marks o Reading with comprehension aloud and silently of narrative texts, poems, etc. • Fourth grade o Reading comprehension of different types of texts read aloud and silently o Use of reference books and other sources of information • Fifth grade o Reading comprehension of different types of texts o Use of different strategies for reading comprehension o Use of the library to search for information and as a learning source; responsible and efficient use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) • Sixth grade o Reading comprehension of different types of texts read aloud and silently o Efficient and responsible use of ICT to search for information and present projects The Autonomous Community of Madrid places a special emphasis on literature education from third to sixth grade with specific content and requirements defined in the autonomous curriculum. Some of the content includes: • Third to fourth grade o Read and comprehend at least one literary piece each trimester o Read aloud poems • Fifth to sixth grade o Read and comprehend at least six literary pieces during the school year o Guided