Our question:
There is a gap between urban and rural student achievement, as evidenced by the PISA 2012 result...
What is the cause of the differential particularly in Latin America?
REGIONAL CONTEXT
One of the main challenges of Latin America is how to reduce the level of inequality. There is a broad consensus among policymakers and researchers that the low performance of Latin American students on standardized tests has negative implications for economic and social progress. Santiago Levy and Norbert Schady (2013) highlight that “Latin America has an impressive record of expanding the coverage of basic education. Net enrollment rates, given by the fraction of children who are enrolled at the appropriate level for their age, now exceed 90 percent in primary school and are between 60 and 80 percent in secondary school in most countries.”
Through this project we are trying to study a specific problem of Latin American education: the difference of opportunities between urban and rural areas. Through this study we show that urban schools often receive better resources than rural schools and that this has an effect on educational outcomes according to PISA test results in math, reading, and science. Educational experts and policymakers are aware of the failings of rural schools to provide high quality education. However, they need to take an active role in changing policy in regards to resource quality in order to help rectify this situation. Additional work on this topic would help us to better understand the reasons for higher resource quality in urban areas in comparison to rural areas. A larger percentage of the population attends urban schools. States might choose to provide better resource quality where the population is most concentrated. States might also have geographic barriers to providing higher resource quality to rural areas. Decentralization might help to solve this issue, but the central government must ensure that all regions of a country are receiving high quality resources to provide the best education possible to all students.
One of the main challenges of Latin America is how to reduce the level of inequality. There is a broad consensus among policymakers and researchers that the low performance of Latin American students on standardized tests has negative implications for economic and social progress. Santiago Levy and Norbert Schady (2013) highlight that “Latin America has an impressive record of expanding the coverage of basic education. Net enrollment rates, given by the fraction of children who are enrolled at the appropriate level for their age, now exceed 90 percent in primary school and are between 60 and 80 percent in secondary school in most countries.”
Through this project we are trying to study a specific problem of Latin American education: the difference of opportunities between urban and rural areas. Through this study we show that urban schools often receive better resources than rural schools and that this has an effect on educational outcomes according to PISA test results in math, reading, and science. Educational experts and policymakers are aware of the failings of rural schools to provide high quality education. However, they need to take an active role in changing policy in regards to resource quality in order to help rectify this situation. Additional work on this topic would help us to better understand the reasons for higher resource quality in urban areas in comparison to rural areas. A larger percentage of the population attends urban schools. States might choose to provide better resource quality where the population is most concentrated. States might also have geographic barriers to providing higher resource quality to rural areas. Decentralization might help to solve this issue, but the central government must ensure that all regions of a country are receiving high quality resources to provide the best education possible to all students.