MUNICIPAL ENTITIES REPORT UNIFICATION FOR ASSESSING THE INCLUSIVE EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT AND MUNICIPALITIES RATING CALCULATION: METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH

Abstract

Introduction. The current public policy in the Russian Federation actively supports the development of inclusive education, regarding it as a crucial element in reforming the entire education system. However, the lack of universal tools for recording and monitoring the inclusiveness of the educational environment in the regions across municipalities complicates its assessment and comparison.

This article examines approaches to standardizing management reporting for municipalities to analyze and monitor the development of an inclusive educational environment. It describes the key indicators used to rank municipalities. It also presents a methodology for collecting data by municipalities and an algorithm for processing it for analysis across municipalities. The results confirm the relevance of standardizing reporting as a mechanism for increasing the transparency and manageability of inclusive education development processes at the level of municipalities and the regional Ministry of Education.

Materials and methods. The study aimed at optimizing the efforts of municipal education departments in compiling reports on the implementation of inclusive education development activities in the region, as well as to optimize the efforts of the Department of Special Education of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Bashkortostan in processing and analyzing reports received from municipalities. This article provides a methodology for developing management reporting (at the regional level of the Russian Federation) and presents a method for processing data collected using the mode developed by the authors at the municipal level. The study included the following stages:

– systematization of indicators collected by municipalities as part of their 2024 reporting on the implementation of the Comprehensive Action Plan for the Development of Inclusive General and Supplementary Education, Children's Recreation, and the Creation of Special Conditions for Students with Disabilities for the Long-Term (until 2030), including the action plan ("roadmap") for implementing the Concept for the Development of Inclusive Education in the Republic of Bashkortostan;

– design of a municipal reporting model;

– design of an algorithm for collecting and processing data collected according to the new municipal reporting model;

– development of a methodology for calculating municipal ratings based on the level of development of an inclusive educational environment and ranking municipalities based on this rating.

The indicators for the reporting template and the calculation of the inclusive educational environment development rating were selected based on the criteria of relevance, measurability, and comparability. This ensures the accuracy of the study objectives, eliminates uncertainties, and enables cross-regional comparison, as well as intra-regional analysis of the development of inclusive educational environments over time. The study ed methods of data analysis, comparison of international and regional experience, formalized reporting forms, expert assessment, and classification and ranking procedures.

Results and conclusions. The methodology enables the identification of territorial disparities and the development of targeted management decisions. Key innovations include the integration of quantitative and qualitative indicators to determine the development of inclusive educational environments at the municipal level, consideration of international data standardization practices, and a mechanism for cross-municipal comparison.

The creation of a standardized reporting tool for municipalities will enable the assessment of progress in the development of inclusive educational environments, the formation of municipal rankings, and the effective allocation of resources to support children with special needs.

Discussion. The 2026 upcoming pilot developed reporting model verification, analytical forms, and methodologies for calculating the rating of municipal entities in the Republic of Bashkortostan will aim at determining the effectiveness of the implementation of the Comprehensive Action Plan for the development of inclusive general and additional education, children's recreation, and the creation of special conditions for students with disabilities until 2030.

Determining the feasibility of the proposed approaches and methods for assessing the development of inclusive education not only within the Republic of Bashkortostan but also their potential application in other regions of the Russian Federation requires comprehensive study and detailed analysis of the pilot project's results, followed by a discussion of possible ways to replicate the positive experience.