Tesis Magíster
Teacher quiality distributión and socioeconomic inequalities in learning: findings from public educatión in Chile.
Autor
Carnoy, Martín
Stanford University
Institución
Resumen
The Chilean eduaction system faces a huge challenge in reducing student achievement inequalities related to socioeconomic differences. This study explores those inequialities relationship to teacher quality distribution. It is the first study analyzing these relationships using value-added models based on Chilean census databases. This study also uses a more comprehensive definition of teache quality than is common in the current literature by including indicators for teachers pedagogical practices and for their content knowledge at the school level. The results suggest that these characteristics are strongly related to the students level of achievement and their achievement gains between assessments. The results additionally confirm that students socioeconomic status (SES) also explains a sizable portion of the level and the difference in achievement over time. Lower SES students, therefore, are at a disadvantage not only due to initial lower achievement levels but also to lower improvement rates over time. Even though the results should be taken with caution, they suggest that improvements in teacher quality, paying particular attention to improvements focused on schools with a higher concentration of poverty, could offset part of the social inequalities and, therefore, reduce learning disparities. The current distribution of teachers, however, does not seem to be reducing these inequalities. To reduce them, teacher quality at lower SES schools needs to be higher than in schools serving higher SES students. If the Chilean government aims to reduce these learning differences, it should consider policies to attract, develop, and retain better teachers in the schools attended by the poorest students.