Teacher Sorting Across Schools in Chile: Variation in Teachers’ Background and Education

• In Event: Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: Teacher Commitment, Retention, and Staffing in the United States and Abroad

Abstract

This study aims to describe the distribution of teachers across different schools in Chile. We examine the sorting of teachers with different (i) family socioeconomic background, (ii) educational performance, and (iii) quality of preservice teacher education. Based on a recent longitudinal survey of teachers, we focus on how teacher sorting unfolds across more or less socioeconomically vulnerable schools. Our findings show a consistent sorting of teachers that augments educational inequality. More vulnerable schools systematically receive teachers from lower family socioeconomic backgrounds, with poorer prior educational performance, as well as teachers with potentially less rigorous teacher training. These results are particularly relevant to the current debate about vulnerable schools’ capacity to recruit and retain high quality teachers.

Authors

• Carolina Milesi, NORC at the University of Chicago

• Soledad Ortuzar, The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile

• Carolina Flores, The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile