Exploring Charter Schools as a Recent Educational Reform in Bogotá, Colombia: A Mixed-Methods Analysis

• In Event: 64.056 - School Choice at Scale: Critical Examinations of Access and (In)Equity at City, State, and National Levels

Abstract

Our mixed-methods study examined five public K-12 schools in Bogota, Colombia. These schools are part of a small, relatively new educational reform called Concession Schools (known as Charter Schools in North America). We analyzed how the charter school movement was established in Colombia; how one charter management organization administers its schools; whether the schools succeed; and what effects these schools have on communities, parents, and students in the poorest sectors of Bogota. The paper unpacks our findings and uses them to discuss ways that concession schools in Bogota play a useful role in education reform but also may inadvertently perpetuate inequalities in educational opportunities as well as perpetuate (and unintentionally disguise) a deficit-based paradigm of teaching and learning in Colombia.

Authors

• Brad Olsen, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Sandra Garcia, Universidad de los Andes

• Santiago Gomez, University of Los Andes

• Natalia Iriarte