Study of socioeconomic and academic segregation in Chilean education

Abstract

This paper analyzes school segregation in Chile in two dimensions: socioeconomic segregation and academic segregation; a matter of great interest given the radical market oriented organization of the Chilean education. The analysis is situated in the context of the growing concern about the educational equity and proposes a conceptualization that links school segregation to the study of the peer-effect in education (i.e. the effect caused by school peers). Additionally, the paper reviews and discusses the available empirical evidence about the magnitude, causes and effects of the socioeconomic and academic segregation in Chile. Finally, the paper identifies some of the challenges that school segregation poses to the scientific research and proposes some research branches for additional studies, in order to advance in the academic knowledge of this relevant but poorly studied issue.