On the Quality of Private and Public Education: The Case of Chile

Chile has the most extensive program for subsidizing private education. It also has significant and accessible data on the sector. The author uses this data to measure the contribution of different factors that affect the quality of education.

The author compares the academic achievements of public and private schools and looks at factors such as the public-private divide, socio-economic level of students and the pupil-teacher ratio. The quality of students is measured by students’ performance in standardized national tests administered to all schools in Chile. Findings include:

• Educational performance of children from poor families tends to be low, and public policy must find ways to break this pattern through redistribution of educational resources;
• Size of school is not a determining factor for quality of education;
• Private schools seem to incorporate elements of choice, accountability and competition better than their public counterparts;
• Public schools have become more efficient through decentralization and competition;
• Institutional factors need to be in place to motivate teachers and students.