The new private educational sector in Chile:entrepreneurialism and competition

Lead Research Organisation: University of Manchester
Department Name: Environment, Education and Development

Abstract

Privatisation of public education is a global concern worldwide. It has been extensively studied particularly in countries where the private involvement in educational provision, decision-making, and funding has increased in the last decade. With notable exceptions, the research agenda on public/private education has been mainly focused on what can be called the production function assessment of public/private performance: the relative effect on learning gains in standardized tests of public/private schools. This project has a different focus: aiming to understand 'entrepreneurial' and 'competitive' logics of action and how they may be being reshaped in the light both of private sector expansion and recent policy regulations.

Chile has a large private educational sector which is currently being reshaped by a series of major reforms. In 2008, the fixed voucher state amount per student was changed, becoming relative to student economic backgrounds. In 2009, after student demonstrations, two key policies were introduced: (i) subsidised private schools were forced to run just one business in order to ensure a focus on education and not on other economic sectors; (ii) student selection was forbidden until 6 grade, which was permitted and widely used by the private sector. Currently, ground-breaking reforms are going through Congress which aim explicitly to modify private sector practices. The three reforms are: a new policy on admissions, the elimination of for-profit prerogatives, and the removal of co-payment.

In this context, this research project aims to deal with the following questions: are (and if so how are) the changes in regulations of the public/private relationship transforming the private sector regarding the entrepreneurial and competitive aspects of its logic of action? How will these changes affect the relationship between the private and public sectors?

The project will have a strong empirical base. Focusing on new private providers since 2008, it will use a mixed methods approach in different fieldwork sites to gain understanding of the role of the private educational sector at local level in non-economic spheres, particularly its relationship with public education, families, and local communities, and to shed light on the relationship between policy changes and market transformation.

The project is a collaboration between the Catholic University of Chile and the University of Manchester and offers the opportunity for comparative persectives on the evolution of privatisation in these two countries.

Planned Impact

A positive impact is expected in at least three substantive aspects: public and policy influence, training of junior researchers, creation of a sub-disciplinary area.

Public and policy influence: privatization in education is a longstanding part of Chilean educational history. It is a cultural feature of Chilean society as well as an arena for debate between a range of social actors. Likewise, there is a long and well-established policy agenda dealing with the private sector in education. Therefore, new understanding of this prominent sector of educational providers will contribute to national debates at the level of government, congress, think tanks, and social movements. The lack of research on this topic means this project will be a much-needed source of knowledge to advance research-based political and policy debates. This goal to influence the debate is highly viable since Chilean researchers on the team, and particularly their previous research contributions, have had a marked public influence on the discussion of policy since their findings have been considered to be part of the national evidence for debate of current educational reforms (indeed, recent findings by A. Carrasco, C. Flores, and F. Torche were used in the research for the draft law sent to the National Congress by government). New understanding about the private educational sector will produce greater knowledge and reflection in order to address future assessment, policies, regulations, and support for the educational sector in Chile


Training of junior researchers
The research project will include five junior researchers who are at different stages of their academic career

Creation of sub-disciplinary area
As has been argued, mixed education provision in Chile has been studied predominantly from the standpoint of economic disciplines. Privatisation and marketisation have other social and educational dimensions which have so far been neglected by Chilean educational research. Recently, there has been some incipient sociological production (Raczysnki et al., 2012; Carrasco & Flores, 2014) which this research project will contribute to expand and institutionalise. The project will produce articles, seminars, a generation of graduate students, public influence, and international collaboration, in order to establish basis for a new sub-discipline within the study of privatization in education. Importantly, the study will also produce new approaches, concepts, and empirical design and material to advance this field.
 
Description The project made a major contribution to the study of education privatisation in Chile through the production of new data sets about subsidized private schools. Prior to the project, this large and growing sector (57% of Chilean schools) had been studied only through administrative data. This project produced three mixed method case studies of local educational markets as well as a representative national level survey of headteachers and owners of subsidized private schools and a survey of parents in particular local markets. These new datasets provide unique empirical evidence at a time of significant educational reform. Analysis has produced significant new conceptual and empirical insights into educational privatisation, as follows.
• Diversity of providers. Advocates of privatisation suggest that a diversity of private providers will generation innovation and quality. Our findings show that low barriers in legislation to becoming a state voucher private provider in Chile has resulted in a great variety of providers, with two extreme types: low professional quality schools and high-quality providers. High quality providers have, among other things, more collaborative networks, strong educational knowledge, their own funding to improve infrastructure, well developed procedures and resources to bring better teachers. Low quality providers are generally isolated schools, operating without technical or financial support from public institutions. They have a weak market position due to their poor status and low enrolment and, therefore, a low level of income. These schools tend to educate a high proportion of socio-economically disadvantaged students. Thus Chilean legislation on the involvement of private providers is not designed in such a way as to bring high-standards provision for all learners or social groups.
• Competition. Market theory advances the idea of systemic educational gains as a result of competition but little is known about organizational consequences on different types of schools, specific local markets, or specific social groups. Our findings provide new insights about the role of market incentives in improving educational opportunities for all. We found that around one -third of schools are passive players in the market, not identifying any other competitor, while those that do compete tend to do so among "similar" schools in terms of SES composition, academic outcomes, level of selectivity, amount of fees, and type of providers. Thus market incentives are working not to improve quality or innovation, rather to build niches or circuits of similar students. Moreover, decisions by private providers to open a school are highly associated with the characteristics of the territory. Hence, not all Chilean families at local level find similar type of private subsidized provider. Schools also display different competitive behaviours and strategies. As a result, less 'competitive' schools are educating more disadvantaged students, facing patterns of decreasing enrolment and given the voucher funding scheme in Chile, they are becoming poorer while serving the poorest students. Overall, findings show that competition is not necessarily impacting on diversity, quality, and innovation, but contributing to the patterns of school segregation and impoverishing of education of disadvantaged families.
• Measurement. The project has also developed and tested a 'public/private index', which operationalises notions of public and private into a school-level score which can be aggregated to higher geographies (cities, regions, countries) to facilitate comparison between places and over time. Conceptually, this is a significant contribution to the literature on measurement of privatisation, which has largely relied on limited dimensions (state/market distinctions) and limited data (such as enrolments in different types of schools). The index is demonstrated by comparing Santiago and London over the period of recent reforms. It finds Santiago to be significantly more private than London in the current period, shows how the systems have become more private in different ways and predicts that Santiago, after current reforms, will be less private than London.

A major objective of the project was to train researchers and to build international networks for the Chilean scholars. This was achieved through the involvement of masters and doctoral students and early career researchers in design, data collection, and analysis, writing and dissemination activities in collaboration with senior English researchers. Outcomes have included Chilean ECRs taking up doctoral study in the UK and Chilean researchers joining European and global networks.
Exploitation Route We identify three different kind of actors who we expect will take forward the findings:
• Firstly, a new generation of Chilean early career researchers trained abroad will use these findings to continue expanding the incipient knowledge about subsidized private schools and what they tell us about educational privatisation. The project has laid the foundation for further exploration of currently under-explored links between territory, residential segregation, and local educational market dynamics, and the organizational, financial, moral, and legal issues raised through the diversity of educational providers in this sector.
• Secondly, we expect that civil society, public activists, politicians, and student movements, all involved in educational issues in Chile, will use the findings in ongoing debates concerning the re-regulation of educational provision. Among others, the use of public funding for non-educational issues, and the lack of professional skills of some providers to meet educational and emotional needs, may inform debates with policymakers to introduce new legislation in order to assure that public vouchers can satisfactorily be used. It is important to consider that the recent legislation to subsidized private schools in Chile was only superficially dealing with such issues.
• Thirdly, it is expected that the international academic community concerned about issues of privatization of public education will be interested in the new understanding the project has offered about the Chilean case. Many countries have followed Chile in increasing involvement of private providers in public educational provision, and they look to Chile for understanding of such policy processes and their effects. The public/private index provides a powerful tool for researchers to use to compare and contrast the extent and nature of privatisation in ways that has hitherto not been possible.
Sectors Education
 
Description a) Constitutional debate and private education. A set of talks, seminars, discussion with wide audiences have been developed in order to contribute to the dialogue about the implications of a Constitutional change on the subsidised private schools and school choice. Our recent knowledge on the private educational sector is being a key ingredient to illuminate this critical debate. Due to a radical and unique political process occurring in Chile Chilean society from 2019 is facing up a social and political crisis which derived in a National Referendum (to be held in April 26th, 2020) asking about a radical Constitutional change through a National Constitutional Convention. A key constitutional issue to be discussed is a change in the role of subsidised private schools within the school system as well as school choice scheme to organise schools' seats. Both aspects are explicitly protected and granted by the current Constitution written by Pinochet's' Government. Such talks have been addressed to undergraduate and postgraduate students, civil society, and wider public audiences. These events have been rapidly and informally organized by social movements and students' organizations in the context of social protests which have increased the social dialogue. b) National debate regarding a Bill to re-introduce selectivity in private schools. A government bill in 2019 ("Fair Admission") attempting to re-introduce selectivity prerogatives in some fractions of subsidised private schools. Our database, typologies, and key findings from the project offered key resources to undertake simulations about the impact on equity of the bill. The New School Admission System, and recent government attempts to reinstate academic merit ('Fair Admission') was during 2019 at the top of the political and educational agenda, not only because it was one of the most important and controversial initiatives of Michelle Bachelet's government, but also given the fact that those reforms became one of the key political flags of the new right-wing government in office since March 2018. The Ministry of Education introduced two bills in Congress in early 2019 to reinstate academic merit and selection by schools in the school admission system. Based on a range of academic production, including the PES project, we provided information and analysis to contribute to the congressional and national debate that ultimately resulted in voting down the academic merit proposals. Our strategy had a relevant impact on legislators, Ministry officials, public opinion, and the media. Two policy briefs were published to push the national debate examining how the new admission system has performed since its introduction in 2016 and projecting the likely outcomes of the Ministry's proposed legislation. Specifically, it was very important for such analysis to consider knowledge about private schools to foresee the impact of the new bill on equity issues. PES project was a critical element to undertake such understanding. The policy brief, "Analysis of the impact of the "Fair Admission" project on educational opportunities", which presented the results of simulations of how the admission system would have played out if the proposed legislation had been enacted for the 2018 admission year. The report showed how the equity goals of NAS would be jeopardized if the legislature were to approve the government bill. Our report, again, had wide public dissemination, was part of the legislative debate, and possibly contributed, together with other factors, to the rejection of the bill in Congress in July. The dissemination of both publications was greatly aided by our partner Educacio´n 2020 (the most popular civil society organization in education in Chile), which based its campaign "Education is not a prize," against the "Admisio´n Justa" project, on the findings of CJE. The Congressional opposition to the Government and their policy advisors made much use of our data during the discussion of the bill, leveraged through numerous media appearances of the results of our research, including journalistic interviews, as well as interviews with the Minister and the Undersecretary of Education in which our studies were specifically brought up as challenging the Ministry's position. Moreover, Alejandro Carrasco was invited to the audiences of the Education Commissions of both the House and the Senate, to offer our opinions on the bills. The bill was ultimately voted down by The House. Discussion of another piece of this legislation is pending in the Senate. Some examples of the influence on non-academic audiences: On the Chilean National Congress: https://www.senado.cl/appsenado/index.php?mo=comisiones?=sesiones_celebradas&idcomision=189&tipo=3&ano=2019&idsesion=13750&listado=2&idsesion=13750 On newspapers: La Tercera https://www.latercera.com/opinion/noticia/evidencia-admision-justa/576546/ On TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA8WxekTMMY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nskqhgChqkQ https://www.cnnchile.com/pais/estudio-contradice-argumentos-gobierno-admision-justa_20190314/ On Radio: https://www.universo.cl/alejandro-carrasco-por-sae-nuestros-datos-muestran-que-los-buenos-estudiantes-no-estan-siendo-perjudicados/radio/2019-03-18/104413.html https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/nacional/chile/2019/03/14/investigacion-de-la-uc-contradice-argumentos-del-gobierno-y-asegura-que-el-sae-no-es-perjudicial.shtml https://www.pauta.cl/cronica/admision-justa-dar-una-mayor-oportunidad-al-que-tiene-ventajas
First Year Of Impact 2019
Sector Education
Impact Types Policy & public services
 
Title PES Final Database 
Description Database of the questionnaire applied to schools' principals and stakeholders. Data was collected between September 2015 and April 2016, and the final database was completed on June 2016. N: 714 schools. The main subjects of the questionnaire are: 1) General information about the school, 2) Networks, 3) Educational Project, 4) School Management, 5) Admission Processes, 6) Opinions about the Educational Reform in Chile, 7) Financial Management, 8) Principal / Stakeholder Characteristics. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact This database provided data for the following conference presentations: 1) 'Educational privatisation in Chile: exploring other educational outcomes' and 2) 'Feasible outcomes facing the new [Chilean] Admissions' System' (both presented at the '4th Chilean Interdisciplinary Congress on Educational Research - CIIE 2017' in Santiago, August 9th-11th), and 3) the symposium paper 'Educational Privatisation in Chile: meeting public goals?' (presented at the 'European Conference on Educational Research - ECER 2017' in Copenhagen, August 22nd-25th). This last presentation also allowed the participation of Dr. Carrasco in the symposium 'Educational Privatisation in Selected Nordic and Pacific Rim Countries', also at ECER 2017. 
URL https://www.researchgate.net/project/The-New-Private-Educational-Sector-in-Chile-Entrepreneurialism-...
 
Title PES Schools' interviews: stakeholders, principals, technical-pedagogical units, integration programs, psychologists/social workers 
Description The study collected 135 semi-structured interviews in 34 schools of Santiago de Chile, in 3 different neighbourhoods under study. Specifically, 14 schools in a poor neighbourhood (Bajos de Mena), 11 schools in a mixed poor-middle class neighbourhood (Rinconada) and 9 schools in a middle-high class neighbourhood (Providencia). In each school, the following actors were interviewed: 1) the stakeholder, 2) the school principal, 3) the person in charge of the technical-pedagogical unit (UTP), 4) the person in charge of the Integration Program (or educational psychologist, when the program did not exist) and 5) the school's psychologist/social worker. The main goal of this phase of the study was to understand the distribution and educational projects of subsidized schools, both public and private, at the local level. It also attempted to understand their mutual relationships, as with other local actors and educational communities. The interviews covered the following subjects: a) Identity of the school, b) Publicness, c) Professionalism, d) Territory, e) Schools' reputation, f) Competition and g) New scenario of reforms and expectations. The fieldwork began in October of 2016, and lasted until March of 2017. Transcriptions were then coded using NVivo by a sinle team under the supervision of the principal investigators. As interviewees were assured confidentiality, their real names, as the names of their schools and stakeholders, have been changed for fictional ones in transcriptions. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The results obtained in this qualitative phase are still being analysed. However, preliminar findings have already been presented at the International Congress of Education and Poverty - CIEP 2018 (Villarrica, Chile), on March 22nd (see URL below). In this presentation, we showed how Chilean 90's urban and educational policies, in addition to socioeconomic characteristics of the neighbourhoods, attract very different type of stakeholders, with important consequences for the quality of education offered at a local level. In particular, three kind of stakeholders were identified: big philanthropists, big educational profitters, and 'micro-profitters'. Aditionally to our own results, two external research groups will analyse and build on this material this year: researcher Ricardo Rosas and his Disability Inclusion team at the new Centre of Educational Justice (Chile) will be analysing all interviews of the schools' educational psychologists, psychologists and social workers, to better understand the different professional capacities, pedagogical views and conceptions about inclusion that these professionals hold, depending on they type of school and neighborhood they work in. On the other hand, the Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (COES, also Chile) will be carrying out an extension of this work, with direct supervision of our team. In this version, they will return to the same neighbourhoods and schools to interview parents and students, to better understand what the school means to them in these different contexts. Additionally, they will seek to add a 4th neighbourhood with schools with high immigrant presence. 
URL https://www.researchgate.net/project/The-New-Private-Educational-Sector-in-Chile-Entrepreneurialism-...