School Inclusion As A Large-Scale Reform: Trajectories Of Change In Private Subsidized Schools In Chile 2015-2020

Abstract

Since 2015, Chile has adopted a policy of school inclusion by regulating the state-subsidized private school sector, in order to raise the levels of equity and social mix of the educational system. For this purpose, the reform initiated centralizes the admission processes, prohibits the lucrative spirit in schools, and replaces the mandatory charge to families. This article aims to explore the early stages of this large-scale reform, based on a typological construction characterizing the routes of institutional change in which the trajectories of action of schools are inserted in a context of modifications to the regulatory framework. The study has a quantitative descriptive exploratory design and was based on the analysis of 3,778 schools in the subsidized private sector that offer some form of school education in Chile. Among the main results, the response patterns to the School Inclusion Law are of a systemic nature and are classified into four types of change trajectories in schools in the subsidized private sector, generating adjustments between sectors and subsectors, as well as a redefinition of the private provision of school education.