Evaluating
Private Sector Support of Public Education
The Dominican Republic
October – November 2001
 The Falconbridge
Foundation is a nonprofit organization established by the
Falconbridge mining company
to promote
integrated, sustainable community development in the Dominican
Republic. This foundation has been supporting public elementary
schools in the Dominican Republic for more than a decade.
USAID/Dominican Republic sought to research and document
the Falconbridge Foundation program as a model private
sector effort that supports traditional public education.
BEPS
team members conducted two related activities to document
the Falconbridge Foundation’s school support program.
A BEPS research team reviewed project documents, conducted
interviews, and visited program sites to determine the replicability
of the Falconbridge model and to identify ways to improve
the program’s impact on public education. In collaboration
with UNESCO, the BEPS team also tested representative samples
of children in reading and math and compared their academic
performance with children from non-Falconbridge schools,
though no statistical difference in performance was found.
The BEPS team also identified and summarized the benefits
of the model to the mining firm, the school system, and local
communities. In a follow-up activity, the BEPS team explored
how the Falconbridge model could be expanded throughout the
Dominican Republic and used to harness private sector support
to improve public education in other developing countries.
As a result of this activity, the Falconbridge Foundation
and USAID/Dominican Republic received recommendations for
improving the program model and guidelines for replicating
the model in the Dominican Republic and other Latin American
countries. Findings were shared with corporations and ministries
of education throughout the LAC region.
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