From Parental Preferences to Geography of Opportunities: Analysis of the Factors Shaping Socioeconomic and Academic School Composition.
Lead Research Organisation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
Department Name: Social Policy
Abstract
For decades, researchers and policymakers have been concerned about the potential negative effects of the (between schools) segregation of students from different social and economic backgrounds. Previous research has highlighted the potential negative effects on the students' academic performance and has stressed that the separation of social groups as a threat to social cohesion.
Concerns about school composition are particularly relevant in educational systems that introduce 'school choice' policies, as they may accentuate the separation of social groups. Several factors in the context of school choice policies may affect the schools' socioeconomic structure and contribute to exacerbating the segmentation of the students. First, parents from disadvantaged backgrounds may benefit less from school choice because they are more likely to base their decisions on 'cost-related' factors rather than the quality of the school. Moreover, low-income families experience greater limitations when choosing schools outside their area of residence or moving to a neighborhood with an offer of better quality schools. Second, the families of students with higher motivation and ability may pursue enrolment in high-quality schools so they can join other children with similar socioeconomic and academic characteristics, causing stratification of the educational systems. Third, parents from disadvantaged backgrounds tend to manage or understand less information about the quality of the schools and have a more limited set choice. Finally, not only families but schools may drive this process of segregation too. If regulations on the operation of private schools are not strong enough, schools may have incentives to establish selection procedures to admit only students with the highest academic ability or which belong to specific social groups (e.g. religious).
This project deepens the findings of my doctoral research, which focused on analysing the segregation of students in the Chilean school system and the effects of the socio-economic and academic characteristics of the classmates. On the one hand, the results of my research will be prepared for publication in academic journals and shared with scholars interested in the issue of school composition. In this regard, the findings will be presented in academic conferences, seminars, and workshops both in England and other countries. Results will be also disseminated to general audiences through online non-academic platforms. On the other hand, new research on the topic will be conducted using the new schools' admission systems recently implemented in Chile. This new scheme is expected to reduce the high levels of segregation of the Chilean educational system. These new student-level datasets allow a better understanding of the factor driving the schools' composition and the dynamics of segregation. New research will be conducted using these databases and presented to both academic and non-academic audiences.
Concerns about school composition are particularly relevant in educational systems that introduce 'school choice' policies, as they may accentuate the separation of social groups. Several factors in the context of school choice policies may affect the schools' socioeconomic structure and contribute to exacerbating the segmentation of the students. First, parents from disadvantaged backgrounds may benefit less from school choice because they are more likely to base their decisions on 'cost-related' factors rather than the quality of the school. Moreover, low-income families experience greater limitations when choosing schools outside their area of residence or moving to a neighborhood with an offer of better quality schools. Second, the families of students with higher motivation and ability may pursue enrolment in high-quality schools so they can join other children with similar socioeconomic and academic characteristics, causing stratification of the educational systems. Third, parents from disadvantaged backgrounds tend to manage or understand less information about the quality of the schools and have a more limited set choice. Finally, not only families but schools may drive this process of segregation too. If regulations on the operation of private schools are not strong enough, schools may have incentives to establish selection procedures to admit only students with the highest academic ability or which belong to specific social groups (e.g. religious).
This project deepens the findings of my doctoral research, which focused on analysing the segregation of students in the Chilean school system and the effects of the socio-economic and academic characteristics of the classmates. On the one hand, the results of my research will be prepared for publication in academic journals and shared with scholars interested in the issue of school composition. In this regard, the findings will be presented in academic conferences, seminars, and workshops both in England and other countries. Results will be also disseminated to general audiences through online non-academic platforms. On the other hand, new research on the topic will be conducted using the new schools' admission systems recently implemented in Chile. This new scheme is expected to reduce the high levels of segregation of the Chilean educational system. These new student-level datasets allow a better understanding of the factor driving the schools' composition and the dynamics of segregation. New research will be conducted using these databases and presented to both academic and non-academic audiences.
Publications
Gutiérrez G
(2021)
Chile's enduring educational segregation: A trend unchanged by different cycles of reform
in British Educational Research Journal
Gutiérrez G
(2022)
Comparing degrees of 'publicness' and 'privateness' in school systems: the development and application of a public-private index
in Journal of Education Policy
Taylor B
(2020)
Attainment grouping in English secondary schools: A national survey of current practices
in Research Papers in Education
Gutiérrez G
(2019)
School Segregation Across the World: Has Any Progress Been Made in Reducing the Separation of the Rich from the Poor?
in The Journal of Economic Inequality
Description | This project deepened the findings of my doctoral research. It includes three issues: first, the assessment of trends of segregation worldwide; second, the socioeconomic segregation of students in the Chilean school system; and finally, the effects of classmates' socioeconomic and academic characteristics on student attainment. The findings were published as articles in academic journals and shared with scholars interested in school composition. Six articles and two book chapters have been published from the work started during the postdoctoral fellowship. As part of the fellowship, a new project was designed to assess the functioning of the Chilean school market (an iconic case of private participation as providers of education). The Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Desarrollo (ANID) funded that project (2023-2025). |
Exploitation Route | Several open-access publications were developed during this project. Some of them encompass suggestions for methodological approaches to assess segregation and privatisation. |
Sectors | Education |
Description | I genuinely believe that this project has not contributed to generating non-academic impacts. However, to complete my report, I am forced to say that there have been impacts. The academic impacts are clear, as various publications associated with the project and new funds awarded under the work carried out as part of the grant have been recorded. However, no non-academic impacts have yet been recorded. |
First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
Sector | Education |
Impact Types | Societal |
Description | FONDECYT |
Amount | $90,000,000 (CLP) |
Funding ID | 11230876 |
Organisation | Agencia Nacional de Investigacion y Desarrollo (ANID) |
Sector | Public |
Country | Chile |
Start | 03/2023 |
End | 03/2026 |
Description | Centre for Educational Justice, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. |
Organisation | Pontifical Catholic University of Chile |
Country | Chile |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | As part of the ESRC-LSE postdoctoral fellowship plan, I have started to develop new research on the topics of socioeconomic segregation of the students across the schools. In particular, I am interested in unravelling the relation between school composition and educational outcomes. I have developed a research agenda to further explore these topics. As a major school admission reform is currently under implementation in Chile, this collaboration seeks to join knowledge to analyse potential changes in schools compositions. The team at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile has gained experienced using datasets from this system. I will contribute with specialised knowledge for estimating segregation and tools of statistical analysis. |
Collaborator Contribution | Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile has access to detailed databases from the new School Admission system currently under implementation in Chile. The Centre for Educational Justice has started a research agenda aiming to identify changes in school socioeconomic composition after this reform. The academic team has invited me to collaborate in this research agenda and to work in two different publications using these datasets. |
Impact | The collaboration with the Centre for Educational Justice include academics from different disciplines within social science. The issues of pupils' segregation and school composition are being addressed from economics, education, sociology and political science. So we have planned to work on two papers: a) A new landscape for school composition?: Changes from a school admission reform. b) Re-examining the empirical debate about the functioning of markets in education: the Chilean case |
Start Year | 2019 |