The Chilean educational system is decentralized, with municipalities and private entities administering primary and secondary schools and autonomous universities managing higher education. It is characterized by high levels of social segregation between the public and private systems. Studies comparing learning outcomes between public and private schools have shown inconsistent results, which can be explained by selection bias - private schools are not randomly distributed and can select students, giving them an advantage over public schools. While private schools on average perform no better, if there are differences they are small and do not significantly improve the overall quality of Chilean education. The expansion of private schools has increased segmentation and inequality in the educational system.

1. Práctica Pedagógica I
Universidad de Magallanes
Avenida Bulnes Nº 01855, Casilla 113-D Punta Arenas – Teléfono (56-61) 207136 – 207159 – Fax: 207009 http://www.umag.cl
Roberto Galindo Merino

2. ducation is one of the most important matters around the world, over the
years it has been demonstrated that education can eradicate poverty,
enhance your chances when appealing to a job, and also improves economy
in the whole world.
The system of education is divided into: nursery education, primary education,
secondary education and finally superior or university education, the total number
of years in school across the life of a person is 14 from nursery to secondary.
When it comes to education we should remember that not every person is
educated in the same way, some people have better education because they pay
for it and some others depend on the government and its resources. In our country,
these differences make the educational system to be separated into two forms:
The public educational system and the private educational system.
The Chilean educational system is characterized by being decentralized.
Municipalities or private entities are responsible for the administration of
educational institutions in the levels of primary and secondary education. There are
also decentralized agencies that manage preschool establishments and
autonomous universities responsible for higher education. Thus, through
decentralization, the state is responsible for:
- Define the objectives of education
- Create the conditions for equal opportunities
- Promote increased quality
- Promote research and educational innovation
- Ensure the system unity
According to assessments of learning achievement by the System of Quality
Measurement in Education, (Simce), on average, students who attend private
schools consistently outperform public school students, a trend that has remained
virtually invariant for at least a decade. Since the early 90's the average difference
between both types of establishments has been 0.3 to 0.4 standard deviations of
scores on SIMCE. Whether these differences reflect or not a higher quality of
education provided by private institutions, it has been one of the most controversial
topics in both political and academic debate in the last fifteen years in Chile.
Furthermore according to the OECD, developed nations, should have a public
education, gradually free for the population, why? Because free public education
ensures a universal right of full access to all people with no discrimination, this
causes the reduction of social and economic segregation. Currently, this does not
happen in Chile and there are high levels of social segregation causing high rates
of inequality.

3. The theory in favor of private education says that these, being freed from many of
the bureaucratic and political influences that limit the management of public
schools would be in better condition to innovate, introduce quality standards in
school management and produce greater results by more efficient use of available
resources. Additionally, it is said that private schools would be more sensitive to
demand signals, adapting its services to the preferences of families, the expected
pressure on the market by offering increasing levels of educational quality. We
should expect, then, that private schools are more effective than public, and
consequently, an alternative approach was to compare learning outcomes
produced by both types of institutions.
In essence, this research is to compare the average learning outcomes (measured
by national tests, mainly SIMCE) of the students who attended municipal and
private subsidized by the state, trying to isolate this comparison of the influence of
other factors associated with learning outcomes of students and which may be
confused with the effect of school type.
One of the most striking features of these studies has been the enormous
variability of results: while some estimates indicate that subsidized private schools
would be more effective than public, others point out that no significant differences
between both types of establishments, some have found that the public would be
more effective than private ones. What else can explain such contrasting results?
The most serious limitation that has affected and confused comparisons of the
effectiveness of public and private institutions in Chile is what it is called "selection
bias", which has in this case at least three known sources. First, as discussed, the
supply of private schools is not randomly distributed among the different
geographical areas and social classes, secondly, the willingness of families to send
their children to school, taking into account the supply and available information,
preferences and constraints, and their ability to pay, the parents choose schools
and colleges for their children. In addition, the establishments may also select their
students. For example, 63% of private aided schools and 15% of the Santiago
public in selecting students. Moreover, 82% of Santiago students establishments
private non-subsidized, 37% of students in subsidized private and 18% of public
schools students must perform a test for admission to their schools.
These tests, applied even to pre-school applicants-evaluate language skills,
reasoning, psychomotor and social. According to the survey SIMCE-2003 (national
coverage among students in 2nd half), 85% of students of private non-subsidized,
73% of students in subsidized private and 59% of students public facilities were
selected through an application process that included an examination or prior
academic performance requirement. Finally, the selection of students is an ongoing
process that operates throughout the school career of students, many schools and
colleges, especially private students who get poor academic performance or
disciplinary problems. In these cases, selection is based not on performance but
demonstrated by the student.

4. About the hierarchy in public establishments it can be seen in the following order:
MINEDUC, Department school boss, principal, sub-principal, inspector, UTP boss,
teacher’s aide.
Whilst in private establishments there is a relation between MINEDUC and a
supporter who is the person in charge of the resources of the school, then it comes
the principal, inspector, UTP boss, department boss, managers, and teachers.
Finally, we have shown how a strongly segregated Chilean school system
introduces additional difficulties to the public-private comparison of school
performance. Based on the evidence gathered it can be concluded about the
contribution of the expansion of private education funded by the state, in terms of
learning outcomes, are the following:
First, subsidized private schools, on average, no more effective in producing
learning outcomes than public schools, whether any difference exists, it seems to
favor public schools (since we know what estimated have tended to overrate the
effect of private schools).
Second, if any difference in effectiveness between public and private schools (in
either direction), it is almost certain that this is in very small magnitudes,
substantively irrelevant.
Third, in the best case, the strong expansion of subsidized private education has
not resulted in significant improvement of the quality of Chilean school system as a
whole.
Fourth, there is evidence to suggest that the expansion of private schools has
increased in this way segmentation and inequality of Chilean education.
Why the massive introduction of private schools, within a framework of open
competition with public schools (and each other), has produced educational
improvement waiting its proponents? The hypothesis raised by studies conducted
in our country is that the institutional arrangement of the Chilean educational
system has severe structural deficiencies, which allow schools to remain and even
improve their position in the "school market" without a need to improve the quality
of its education service.

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http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educaci%C3%B3n_en_Chile
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