Segregation of Indigenous Students in the Chilean School System

Abstract

School segregation, especially on the basis of socioeconomic, ethnic, or racial characteristics, is one of the fields of greatest interest for the design of public policies in countries with high levels of inequality in educational opportunities and low social mobility, such as Chile (Núñez and Miranda, Estudios De Economía 38:195–221, 2011; OECD. (2010). PISA 2009 Results: What Students Know and Can Do - Student Performance in Reading, Mathematics and Science (Vol. 1): OECD.). This trend has been accentuated in a global context of educational reforms aimed at improving academic performance through standards-based quality assurance systems (often built on the results of standardized national tests) and strengthening the links between productive development and the quality of education (ECLAC. (2010). La hora de la igualdad. Brechas por cerrar, caminos por abrir. Santiago: CEPAL.). The evidence gathered at the international level conclusively shows the direct negative short-, medium-, and long-term effects of school segregation on these objectives (Gorard and Fitz, Research Papers in Education 15:115–132, 2000; Harker, The effects of Student Composition on School Outcomes, Massey University, New Zealand. College of Education, 2004).