Unequal access to qualified teachers for children of different socioeconomic status--also known as inequitable teacher sorting--has been increasingly put forth as one potential factor contributing to the socioeconomic achievement gap. Despite this, few studies have investigated cross-national differences in teacher sorting, and none have examined…

This article focuses on observed achievement differentials between indigenous and non-indigenous students in Chile. Using national test score data, it confirms the findings from previous literature that ethnic gaps in educational achievement exist, though they are small and to a large extent explained by family socioeconomic status. The results…

Although teacher quality is usually signalled to be the most relevant school-level factor impacting students' learning, little is known about the relevance of teacher effects explaining educational inequality. By using a value-added model for a cohort of 10th graders, in this work we examine the socioeconomic gap in teacher effects across Chilean…

Measuring the distance between countries and the goal of equality of opportunity in education has been the focus of recent contributions in the economic literature, which have concentrated either on intergroup gaps in access to a given level of studies or on intergroup gaps in educational achievement. We argue that both aspects are important and…

This paper uses rich data of 79,418 elementary teachers from 5,521 schools in Chile to study the extent of teacher sorting and its association with teacher career paths. A complete analysis of ten measures of teacher quality shows that highly qualified teachers are unequally distributed across schools. Some schools present a large concentration of…

Policymakers worldwide are trying to figure how best to organize, govern, and support their education systems. They must manage multiple goals, such as workforce development, nurturing knowledgeable citizens, and ensuring educational opportunity. Some countries approach these issues with a public investment in teacher professionalization and a…

This article assesses the extent to which indigenous grants administered to school pupils and university students in Chile can be considered affirmative action towards social justice. Drawing on Fraser's framework for parity of participation, I question whether the grants are able to provide both redistribution and recognition for indigenous…

In Chile, reports and research papers have shown that there is an achievement gap in college admissions tests mostly associated to students' gender, socioeconomic status and type of school attended. This gap represents a barrier for low-income and female students to access higher education, as well as for graduates of public schools. Prior studies…