School Improvement Trajectories in Chile: a case study

Abstract

Progress in educational improvement research has generated consensus about the need to pay closer attention to the context within which it develops as well as to the multiple levels and participants involved in it. Within that analytic framework, a study was conducted to identify how the improvement trajectories experienced by schools can help understand their current scenario of strengths and weaknesses. Eight case studies were carried out in different types of Chilean schools, considering their socioeconomic and academic achievement characteristics. First, this study assessed the presence of educational improvement attributes in the schools. Following this, in-depth analyses of the trajectories of the four schools that attained the highest scores in the assessment were conducted. With the results obtained, an explanatory model was generated to describe the educational improvement trajectories of the schools that were analyzed. This model involves three stages (bring order; achieve organization, and improve teaching-learning), each of which includes one main process.