Matías Martínez

School closures in Chile: Access to quality alternatives in a school choice system

In this paper, we analyze the schooling alternatives of families that could face school closure. This article identifies, characterizes, and georeferences the institutions classified as low-performing by the SEP Law along with their closest alternatives. The findings indicate that a significant number of families do not have any quality alternatives nearby, particularly families in rural areas and/ or in schools with a high percentage of low SES students. Additionally, when admissions barriers and family preferences are incorporated in the analysis, school alternatives are considerably reduced. Alternatives are further reduced when using a more stringent definition of school quality.

Determinantes individuales, sociales y ambientales del sobrepeso y la obesidad adolescente en Chile.

Background: In Chile, overweight and obesity are pressing issues in public health. Aim: To identify individual, social and environmental factors that affect the likelihood of adolescents to become overweight or obese. Material and Methods: We used physical condition data of a sample of 900 urban eighth grade students from Santiago, obtained in the 2011 National Study of Physical Education. This information was complemented with georeferenced data from the place of residence of students and the environment in which they live. We used three logistic regression models to estimate the relationship between individual, social and environmental factors and the likelihood of being overweight or obese. Results: Men and students of high socioeconomic status (SES) have a lower probability of being overweight (-6 percentage points (pp.) and -12 pp. respectively). Furthermore, the determinants that affect overweight depend on SES. Namely, only men of middle and low SES have a lower probability of being overweight (-7 pp.). Participation in school sporting activities reduces the likelihood of being overweight only for students of middle and low SES (-5,5 pp.). For adolescents of high SES, the distance between their school and the nearest fast food restaurant decreases the likelihood of being overweight (-4.7 pp. per km.). Conclusions: The determinants of overweight differ by SES. Public policy design should consider socioeconomic inequalities that characterize the Chilean reality. (Rev Med Chile…)BACKGROUND In Chile, overweight and obesity are pressing issues in public health. AIM To identify individual, social and environmental factors that affect the likelihood of adolescents to become overweight or obese. MATERIAL AND METHODS We used physical condition data of a sample of 900 urban eighth grade students from Santiago, obtained in the 2011 National Study of Physical Education. This information was complemented with georeferenced data from the place of residence of students and the environment in which they live. We used three logistic regression models to estimate the relationship between individual, social and environmental factors and the likelihood of being overweight or obese. RESULTS Men and students of high socioeconomic status (SES) have a lower probability of being overweight (-6 percentage points (pp.) and -12 pp. respectively). Furthermore, the determinants that affect overweight depend on SES. Namely, only men of middle and low SES have a lower probability of being overweight (-7 pp.). Participation in school sporting activities reduces the likelihood of being overweight only for students of middle and low SES (-5,5 pp.). For adolescents of high SES, the distance between their school and the nearest fast food restaurant decreases the likelihood of being overweight (-4.7 pp. per km.). CONCLUSIONS The determinants of overweight differ by SES. Public policy design should consider socioeconomic inequalities that characterize the Chilean reality.

Short-run effects of accountability pressures on teacher policies and practices in the voucher system in Santiago, Chile

ABSTRACT This research analyzes the impact of the Adjusted Voucher Law´s school rankings on low-performing schools in Santiago, Chile, and provides evidence on the effects of the pressures of accountability systems on teacher policies and practices. The empirical strategy is based on the fact that schools are ranked according to their position on a set of thresholds. We used a generalization of the traditional regression discontinuity design for the case where treatment assignment is determined by variables. To gather information on teacher policies and practices, we conducted a survey of 4th-grade teachers in the Greater Santiago area. The results indicate that low-performing schools responded to the treatment by implementing policies that seek to improve their results in the short term. We also found no significant effects on teaching practices, suggesting that many of these changes are implemented top down from the school administrators, without involving teachers in the process.

Tensiones público-privado y el diseño de los sistemas educativos: ¿Qué nos dice PISA?

Educational systems around the world pursue both public and private objectives. They are able to balance both objectives by allowing greater freedom for schools to meet the families’ private objectives with an educational model that delivers a collective experience that maintains a cohesive society. Using data from PISA 2009, this study explores the possible implications that public and private funding and provision have on the following four objectives of education: (a) freedom of choice, (b) productive efficiency, (c) equity, and (d) social cohesion. We find that there are tensions in achieving some of these objectives simultaneously. However, there are some policies that reduce some of these tensions, while others tend to exacerbate them.

School Finance in Latin America: A Conceptual Framework and a Review of Policies

Education spending has significantly increased in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) over the last few decades. Most education systems in the region have improved teacher salaries, introduced programs that focus on improving learning in the most disadvantaged schools and systemic accountability. The available data suggests that increased spending combined with economic and social reforms has had an impact on educational outcomes such as improvement on primary and secondary completion rate and moderate but sustained progress in closing the learning gap with more developed countries. However, education systems in LAC still lag significantly behind most developed countries in terms of student performance in international assessments, which illustrate persistent learning gaps. Since education also consumes an increasing share of government expenditures, a constant concern among governments across the region is how to allocate education resources. In this context, school finance strategies offer policy tools to governments to increase efficiency in spending, increase learning, and narrow achievement gaps. Despite the relevance of school funding policies to improve educational quality and equity, there is little systematic analysis that compares education finances across Latin American countries. This conceptual framework aims to bridge this gap by providing a comprehensive description of the mechanisms through which school funding in LAC is governed, distributed, and monitored. This framework includes five key dimensions of school finance systems: (i) sources of funding and the transfers between different levels of government (i.e. national, subnational, local, and schools); (ii) decision-making authority at different levels of government; (iii) information and accountability systems; (iv) resource allocation rules; and (v) allocation of teachers. For each one of these dimensions, we review the relevant literature, collect information through the implementation of an extensive data collection instrument we developed, and provide comparative evidence of the school funding mechanisms in eight school systems from Latin America: The federal government of Argentina, the City of Buenos Aires (Argentina), the federal government of Brazil, the State of Pernambuco (Brazil), the municipality of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), and the national governments of Chile, Colombia, and Peru. The main results of the study are presented along the five key dimensions presented above: (i) all systems reviewed have implemented compensatory funding using funds from the national level, however, they seem insufficient to compensate for the inequities in spending across subnational governments; (ii) overall school autonomy is low, with Colombia and Peru exhibiting the lowest levels and Chile the highest; (iii) all systems surveyed have introduced some accountability mechanisms to ensure that budget regulations are followed, including internal and external audits, and transparency laws. Regarding performance-based accountability, all LAC governments reviewed have introduced standardized assessments of students, schools, and/or teachers. However, they vary in the extent to which they publish school-level test results and in the extent to which financial consequences are tied to performance; (iv) most of the reviewed systems in the region have already introduced, or are evaluating the introduction of, objective criteria to increase transparency, efficiency, and equity in the distribution of resources. While there is limited evidence on the optimal design of funding formulas, the experiences of SEP in Chile and FUNDEB in Brazil show that these can be useful tools to increase funding equity; and (v) evidence relating to teacher allocation suggests that efficiency and equity challenges remain. Regarding efficiency, all the systems reviewed rely on face-to-face procedures to allocate hired teachers to schools whereas more advanced systems are using computer-generated algorithms that take into account information about vacancies and applicant preferences. Regarding equity, the incentives to address the teacher shortage in hard-to-staff schools are limited or non-existent in most systems and insufficient or ineffective in those systems that have introduced these types of incentives.

Efeitos do Plano de Desenvolvimento da Escola nos resultados escolares

The Plano de Desenvolvimento da Escola (PDE-Escola) [School Development Plan] is a planning tool for schools that receive technical training and financial support from the Ministry of Education (MEC) to develop an improvement plan for management, relationship with the community, pedagogical political projects and infrastructure. Administrative and Prova Brasil (2005 to 2012) data, as well as fixed models estimation on school level per year, were used to assess whether the PDE-Escola has an effect on academic performance. The schools were separated into three groups: a) schools carrying out the PDE-Escola without financial resources; b) schools carrying out the PDE-Escola with financial resources; and c) schools that stopped receiving financial resources from the PDE-Escola. The results show that the PDE-Escola is effective only when associated with the transfer of resources. The results were quite heterogeneous among Brazilian states, which suggests that the design and implementation context of the program matters.