From Parental Preferences to Geography of Opportunities: Analysis of the Factors Shaping Socioeconomic and Academic School Composition.

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.