Educational Inequality and Teacher Hiring Practices in Chile

• In Event: 207 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 16. Teacher Hiring and Retention

Abstract

Many studies in Chile have documented the sorting of teachers with different characteristics across different schools. Yet, no documented knowledge exists about the role of the hiring processes in this sorting. This study gathers novel data regarding the application and hiring of teachers in Chile. Based on all applicants’ CVs in 32 hiring units in Santiago, we analyze the sorting in the applications to, and in the hires for, the teaching jobs offered in 2013. Additionally, based on in-depth interviews to hiring personnel, the study describes and compares the hiring process (practices and preferences) in the cases under study.
Results shows a systematic sorting of applications to different schools, such that prospective teachers with stronger qualifications and training are significantly over-represented in the applications to schools with higher socioeconomic However, once this sorting in the applications to teaching jobs is controlled for, hiring patterns are not significantly different between the hiring units under study. This means that the observed sorting of teachers across schools is more due to the failure to attract sound candidates rather than to differences in hiring preferences. Lower salaries, difficult job conditions, and lack of previous experience in similar contexts, emerge in the interviews as key factors explaining the failure to attract sound candidates in poor schools. Nonetheless, the interviews reveal important differences in hiring practices that can be tackled in order to make the results of the hiring process more equitable

Authors

• Carolina Flores, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

• María Soledad Ortúzar, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

• Pamela Ayala, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

• Carolina Milesi, NORC-University of Chicago