[en] The design of educational institutions may face policy trade-offs in the tasks of school systems that are served by them (van de Werfhorst and Mijs, 2010; Pedró et al 2015). Differentiation of school systems may foster efficient sorting of students and then maximize learnings but at the cost of exacerbating social inequalities. A centralized education system may guarantee equality of educational opportunities, but it is not clear if it increases or hinder the overall performance level (e.g. Woessman 2003; Brunello & Checchi 2007; Bol et al., 2014; Bol & van de Werfhorst, 2016; Mijs 2016). Until now, researchers have overlooked the role of private schooling as an important dimension of stratification in national school systems, focusing mainly on its relative effectiveness and assuming implicitly that school sector capacity truly reflects a level of differentiation (e.g. Hanushek & Woessman, 2015; Chmielewski & Reardon 2016). I attempt to address the following research question: to what extend the differentiation induced by private schooling increase achievement inequalities, counteracting the effects of standardization of the school systems in Latin American countries?
Using data from the 2013 UNESCO TERCE regional large-scale assessment, I study how private schooling is related to overall levels of stratification and the extent to which it affects achievement inequality in a context of varying levels of standardization, across countries. I construct a generalized entropy measure of segregation to capture system level differentiation induced by private schooling, a standardization index (Bol & van de Werfhorst, 2016) and by using multilevel models with county fixed effects, I find that private schooling counterbalance the equalizing effect of higher levels of standardization on achievement inequalities, no matter their relative size, on top of individual and school level controls. I conclude by discussing how these findings speak to the potential policy trade-off between equality and efficiency in the region.
Research center :
AISSR, University of Amsterdam
Disciplines :
Sociology & social sciences
Author, co-author :
Ceron, Francisco ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Social Sciences (DSOC)
External co-authors :
no
Language :
English
Title :
Beyond School Effects: Private Schooling, Segregation and Standardization of School Systems in Latin America
Publication date :
11 November 2020
Event name :
Tackling Educational Inequalities in Luxembourg and Beyond
Event organizer :
LuxERA
Event place :
Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
Event date :
11/11/2020
Audience :
International
Main work title :
Tackling Educational Inequalities in Luxembourg and Beyond. Abstract Booklet
Other collaborator :
Hadjar, Andreas
Publisher :
LuxERA, Esch-sur-AlzettE, Luxembourg
Collection name :
Booklet
Focus Area :
Educational Sciences
Name of the research project :
Dynamics of inequality of educational opportunity and learning in Chile and Latin America
Funders :
Programme of Advance Human Capital, National Commission of Scientific and Technological Research of Chile (CONICYT PFCHA), Grant 72140619
Commentary :
References
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