Purpose: This study aims to review processes of accreditation for Chilean Universities. Along with cataloguing evolutionary milestones, the study analyses effects at the institutional and program levels. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopts a meta-evaluative approach and is based on secondary information sources, including both…

Accountability policies through standardized testing are widespread in diverse educational systems. Based on an ethnographic research study, we sought to understand how a learning assessment policy, used for over three decades in primary and lower secondary education, is lived and interpreted in daily school life in Chile. This article analyzes…

This article offers a new approach to quality, focusing on the dimensions that gather around it. The mismatched goals of controlling and improving higher education continue to trouble the conceptual clarity of accountability. Quality in higher education emerges as something agreed upon (to varying efficacy) through accountability measures, rather…

This report examines four not-for-profit school chains, run by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in low-income contexts. These are Fe y Alegría, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (better known by its acronym BRAC), Gyan Shala and Zambia Open Community Schools. Three of these organisations offer education at no cost (Fe y Alegría, BRAC…

In the last six years, Chile has carried out major reforms in school climate policy. However, these reforms are tied to two different realities that conflict with each other: a formative reality, which promotes a school climate of local decision-making and the improvement of school performance; and a punitive reality, which prioritizes improvement…

The idea of a "hyper-surveillance" state that devolves school management to the private sector and local governments, but, at the same time, evaluates, inspects, and sanctions schools in the name of "educational quality and equality," has been advocated by diverse sectors, right and center-left, conservative and liberal,…

This article reports the results of a study about the views of quality managers, in Chilean universities, with regard to the meaning of quality in higher education. The article begins with a brief description of Chilean higher education system. It portrays the context of the last 30 years, with a growing number of universities and little state…

External accountability policies have spread fast across various educational systems over the past decades. This research examines the relations of internal and external accountability with students' math achievement drawing on PISA 2012. With a sample of 44 educational systems, of which external accountability policies were identified, the…

In the last decade, Chile has focused on early childhood education and care (ECEC) as a key opportunity to increase student-learning outcomes and decrease socio-economic inequalities. The creation of Chile's Under-Secretariat of ECEC in 2015 highlights the relevance of this educational stage. The purpose of this study is to analyse the new law…

School value-added studies have largely demonstrated the effects of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the schools and the pupils on performance in standardised tests. Traditionally, these studies have assessed the variation coming only from the schools and the pupils. However, recent studies have shown that the analysis of academic…

Market and accountability educational reforms have proliferated around the globe, along with high expectations of solving countries' school quality deficits and inequities. In this paper I develop an analytical framework from a critical sociology angle for analyzing the effects of these policies within schools. First I discuss conceptually the…

This article synthesises findings from two systematic reviews that examined evidence of the link between large-scale assessments (LSAs) and education policy in economically developing countries and in countries of the Asia-Pacific. Analyses summarise evidence of assessment characteristics and policy goals of LSAs that influence education policy,…

To what extent school improvement processes can be initiated and sustained from the outside has been a relevant question for policy-makers seeking to increase quality in education. Since 2008, the Chilean Government is strongly promoting the use of external technical support (ETS) services to support school improvement processes, as part of the…

This paper examines the translation of global educational norms of quality assurance in two countries with very different regulatory regimes in higher education: Chile and South Africa. The translation process is conceptualised here as a contested socio-political process of appropriation and creation of meaning. Drawing upon the…

Institutional research (IR) in Latin America is experiencing dramatic growth due, in no small measure, to the need for quality assurance in educational institutions developing trained workforces for emerging economies. Quality can be assured only where it can be measured, and that is at the core of institutional research in countries to the south…