Using rich administrative data from the Chilean education system, this paper looked at the link between curriculum tracking and social inequalities considering the way that tracking is organised: between- or within- schools. In particular, it examines the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) on track placement (general or vocational), and gaps…

This qualitative research is aimed at studying how Universidad Mayor and Universidad de Santiago address inclusion, equity, and diversity in the processes of access and continued studies of economically and socially disadvantaged students who benefited from the Free Tuition State Policy and how these processes are perceived by this type of…

Drawing on perspectives from top state-regional universities' authorities (known as "rectors") and public statistics on higher education, we discuss the sources of regional inequality in the Chilean university system. While there is scarce research on regional inequality for Chilean higher education, it is a well-recognized concern…

Fifty years ago, the expansion of access to higher education was expected to result in greater socio-economic equality. Instead, segmentation in mass higher education systems has called into question the effective democratization of access to higher education. This phenomenon appeared first in higher income countries, allowing the identification…

The key to sustained and equitable development in Latin America is high quality education for all. However, coalitions favoring quality reforms in education are usually weak because parents are dispersed, business is not interested, and much of the middle class has exited public education. In "Routes to Reform," Ben Ross Schneider…

Early Childhood Education (ECE) has been an area of interest because of its strong impact on the development of skills and benefits for learning at this age. However, participation in ECE programs is not equally distributed across social groups. It has been observed in different international contexts that there are factors such as availability,…

The change from in-person to in-home schooling and the rapid digitalization of the system impacted the access to education and the quality of the outcomes during the pandemic, but the extent to which digital measures helped school administrators to face that impact is difficult to understand without hearing from them directly. To give those who…

The COVID-19 pandemic is pushing the world into a devastating economic and social scenario. The consequences of this crisis largely impact children and teenagers, both now and in the future. School closures have particularly affected vulnerable children, deepening the effects of their unequal socio-economic circumstances. In this context, the…

During the last ten years, a group of selective universities in Chile has started admission programs to increase equity in higher education that consider the achievement of students in the context of educational opportunities they have had, thus reducing reliance on the national college entrance exam. This study explores persistence rates of…

This study investigates the implementation of remote teaching activities in mathematics classrooms during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile, a country known for its educational market model, which has led to socioeconomic segregation among schools. The outcomes of remote teaching and the challenges faced by teachers in this context are explored. By…

In 2020, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is of interest to understand how students perceived the access, use, and utility of digital tools in online teaching. This study provides an insight into the needs of students in adjusting to online teaching. This study presents the methodological design of the course "Industrial Hygiene…

This dissertation examines the different aspects of education policies and their socioeconomic implications through three distinct research papers. The first chapter investigates the causal impact of grade retention in primary school on juvenile crime in Chile and it was written jointly with Juan Diaz, Nicolas Grau, and Jorge Rivera. Utilizing a…

Latin families moving to a different Latin American country are placed in a dominated position by what is called 'coloniality'. In this sense, we argue that the processes of classification (in terms of social class), racialisation and genderisation that migrant Latin families experience when choosing schools for their children in the Chilean…

This mixed methods study explores how market-oriented policies, specifically privatization and decentralization of the educational system in Chile have impacted students' academic achievement since the Change in the Constitution in 1980. First, using teachers' interviews I identify variables that influences students' academic achievement and…

We build and estimate a dynamic model of teenagers' choices of schooling and crime, incorporating four factors that may contribute to the different routes taken by different teenagers: heterogeneous endowments, unequal opportunities, uncertainties about one's own ability, and contemporaneous shocks. We estimate the model using administrative panel…