Characterization of students with interrupted educational trajectories in a sample of reentry schools through latent class analysisCaracterización de estudiantes con trayectorias educativas interrumpidas en una muestra de escuelas de reingreso a través de análisis de clases latentes

Abstract

© 2020 PEL.Primary and secondary education in Chile is free and mandatory by law according to the Chilean Constitution. Consequently, attendance of primary and secondary education is a fundamental human right in Chilean society. It is estimated that between 139,000 and 358,000 young people between six and 21 are outside the Chilean educational system. The goal of this study was to characterize students who dropped out of the regular school system and are currently attending re-entry schools. Using Latent Class Analysis we identified this population as a heterogeneous group of youths forming three distinct groups: newcomers, seniors, and complex. The characteristics of this population are different from two other comparative groups attending Preventive Programs and Socio-educational Programs. The students of re-entry schools are a group formed mostly by males who hastily leave formal education and with different amounts of school retardation. They have sociodemographic characteristics that hinder their educational trajectory-such as monetary poverty-but they have a low frequency of problems with the law and social protection measures.