Page 20 - Štremfel, Urška, and Maša Vidmar (eds.). 2018. Early School Leaving: Cooperation Perspectives. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut.
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king with ESLers than on assessing measurable outcomes of policy ex-
periments (Edwards & Downes, 2013: 48).

Fields of TITA (scientific) backgrounds
The overriding goal of the TITA project is to support the implementation of
innovative policy solutions at the institutional level to reduce ESL, in line
with the priorities set out in Europe 2020 and ET 2020. By promoting and
supporting multi-professional teams in schools, it provides scientific sup-
port, tools for actions and training to address ESL. Therefore, the project
presents innovative responses to the generally identified problem of com-
mon EU cooperation in the field of education, and thereby addresses the
European goals.

Promoting and supporting the development of multi-professional
teams in schools at the EU level is identified as a key to successful strategies
to cut ESL. To work on ESL with other professionals and to establish stu-
dent-centred measures, education staff needs to understand ESL, the ba-
sic principles of multi-professional cooperation and develop or strengthen
special skills. Accordingly, the TITA comprehensive scientific base pro-
vides a detailed evidence-based understanding of: a) early school leaving
(as the core policy problem the TITA project addresses), presented in the
monograph Early school leaving: Contemporary European Perspectives; b)
cooperation (as a promising solution to reducing ESL), presented in this
monograph and training (as a tool for arriving at solutions), presented in
the monograph ESL: Training Perspectives.

Cooperation in tackling ESL can take different forms at the nation-
al, regional, local or school level (Thematic Working Group, 2013: 14).
Horizontal coordination between different actors and the vertical coordi-
nation of different levels of government are equally important. The expe-
riences of member states, comparative data and analytical research sug-
gest the key issues for successful policies include the cross-sectoral nature
of collaboration and the comprehensiveness of the approach. ESL is not
simply a school issue and its causes need to be addressed across a range
of social, youth, family, health, local community, employment and educa-
tion policies (European Commission, 2011: 8). Each stakeholder and each
policy area provides a valuable and different perspective in understand-
ing ESL processes. They each play a valuable role in defining solutions and
offering expertise to address different factors that lead to ESL. Through

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