Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Schools in Chile have implemented independent and often restrictive admissions policies, contributing to segregation as selective schools only accept higher SES students, leaving lower SES students in schools of perceived lower quality with open admissions criteria (Bellei 2009, Contreras et al 2011, Carrasco et al 2017). Chile is phasing in a unified centralized admission system (NSAE), where public and voucher schools must use lottery assignment for oversubscription. A few select elite secondary schools are allowed to utilize a dual admission system whereby a proportion of seats are assigned by lottery and some seats are assigned using either tests or grades. We draw from theories of educational opportunity, as institutional constraints, including restrictive admissions policies, present barriers to equitable participation in school choice potentially preventing students from certain social classes from participating and leading to further institutionalized inequality (Lubienski, Gulosino, & Weitzel, 2009). Eliminating admissions barriers may contribute to greater equity in school choice participation, and increased integration and educational opportunity. This paper examines, using differences-in-differences, the influence of the policy change on the level of integration in grades and regions where the NSAE has been implemented in comparison to grades and regions where the old ad-hoc systems remain (for the moment). Then, the paper focuses on the selective schools where dual enrollment systems are in place. Preliminary results suggest modest increases in integration and increased representation of low income and minority students in selective schools. Limited supply of quality schools and transportation realities continue to constrain choice sets.