The Link of Teacher Career Paths on the Distribution of High Qualified Teachers: A Chilean Case Study

Authors

  • Maria del Rosario Rivero Centro de Politicas y Practicas en Educacion, Universidad Católica de Chile

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v23.1710

Keywords:

Teacher Sorting, Teacher Career Paths, Teacher Placement, Teacher Policy, Unequal Distribution, Educational Inequality, Chile

Abstract

This paper uses rich data of 79,418 elementary teachers from 5,521 schools in Chile to study the extent of teacher sorting and its association with teacher career paths. A complete analysis of ten measures of teacher quality shows that highly qualified teachers are unequally distributed across schools. Some schools present a large concentration of highly qualified teachers while others do not even have a single one. Schools with a low concentration of highly qualified teachers are more likely to be public and rural, & have a bigger enrollment of low-income and low-performance students. Thus, it is precisely those schools that are most in need. This paper combines the analysis of teacher sorting with teacher career decisions and finds that teacher career paths are associated with the unequal distribution of teachers. At the start of their careers, less qualified teachers are more likely to teach in rural, public, low-income and low-performance schools. These teachers are then more likely to stay in those schools, while less qualified teachers who start working in high-income and high-performing schools are less likely to stay there compared with highly qualified teachers. Education reforms have recognized the key role of teachers. However, efforts have focused on increasing the quality of the teaching workforce and do not target any specific types of schools. This study discusses the lack of targeted policies and educational inequality, & proposes the need for an educational reform.  

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Author Biography

Maria del Rosario Rivero, Centro de Politicas y Practicas en Educacion, Universidad Católica de Chile

Maria del Rosario Rivero is a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Educational Policies and Practices (CEPPE), Universidad Católica de Chile and is a professor in the Department of Educational at the Universidad Diego Portales. Her main focus is on policies and processes regarding Initial Teacher Training, Teacher Quality and educational assessment.

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Published

2015-08-03

How to Cite

Rivero, M. del R. (2015). The Link of Teacher Career Paths on the Distribution of High Qualified Teachers: A Chilean Case Study. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 23, 73. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v23.1710

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Section

Articles