How did primary and secondary school students perform on the Aprender 2016 test in Santa Fe and Rosario, and what explains the gap between public and private schools? Report from July 2017.
Argentina is unique in that it provides free access to higher education. Essentially, through its various levels and agencies, the State can co-finance, along with families, up to 18 years of a citizen's formal education.
However, currently the idea has become popular that educational performance is declining, and that the current state is worrying.
How can we verify the truth behind these kinds of claims? And if a problem exists, what kind of information would need to be available to reverse this trend?
How is educational performance assessed?
In that sense, there is a set of evaluation programs on different aspects of educational performance in which Argentina participates. An emblematic case is the so-called PISA tests, relevadas por la OCDE.
These types of studies generally do not go unnoticed and generate mixed reactions . They are either opposed during their implementation phase, or their results are rejected due to factors not directly related to the evaluation. Other times they are fully accepted… also due to factors unrelated to the evaluation.
Of course, this description doesn't imply that the results of any particular study are being validated or invalidated. What it highlights is that a consensus among the various stakeholders doesn't seem to be emerging. The key question is how and what information needs to be gathered. This is in order to obtain a diagnosis of the results provided by the education system. It's worth noting that this isn't the only area where consensus is being lacking in the sector.
Thus, within this general context, the results of the 2016 Aprender Assessment were released by province. This program was designed as a nationwide tool to measure the learning outcomes of primary and secondary school students. It also serves to systematize information about some of the conditions in which these students learn.
What's in the report
On report que acompaña a esta nota, de libre descarga (haciendo clic en la imagen de abajo), se realizará un recorrido de lo general a lo particular.
First, an overview of education in Latin America will be presented. Then, the design of the assessment and the results obtained at the national level will be examined. Of course, the results obtained in the province of Santa Fe will also be presented.
On this point, an exhaustive discussion is carried out on the differences between publicly managed schools and privately managed schools. The document closes with a compilation of the different positions that were generated when the evaluation was implemented.
In the remainder of this note, given the limited reading space, only the results obtained by the students in the city of Rosario will be presented.
If the reader needs to delve deeper into contextual information, or clear up any doubts, they will surely find greater depth and analysis by reading the report.
Rosary of Santa Fe
At both the primary and secondary levels, the province of Santa Fe has obtained a good place in the ranking compared to the other districts.
However, considered in absolute terms, some results are at least disturbing, especially in the area of mathematics at the secondary level.
As can be seen in the table, the city of Rosario does not show significant differences compared to the province as a whole. This phenomenon is partly explained by its being the most populated city in the territory.
Thus, in general terms, only two out of every three students assessed achieved a satisfactory or advanced level of performance. The exception is mathematics at the secondary level, where only one out of every three students assessed managed to surpass this threshold.
The ramifications of this point are significant, especially when considered in relation to issues of employability or self-employment . This occurs within a widespread context of knowledge-based technological change.
Human capital and differences between schools
It is generally accepted in human capital theory that greater investment in education generates greater productivity and, consequently, higher incomes for an individual or for society as a whole.
As statistical information has evolved, the relationship between education and future income has weakened. This is due to the recognition of other contributing factors, such as the student's family background. More generally, it is also due to the recognition of different selection mechanisms that influence families' educational decisions.
This last point is one of the main factors that explain the performance difference between public and private schools in the province.
For example, at the primary level there are average differences of around ten percentage points in favor of privately managed schools for performance levels below basic, and of 15 percentage points or more for advanced performance levels.
On the other hand, at the secondary level these differences become less marked, with the exception of the area of mathematics.
In the city of Rosario , the phenomenon is replicated, but with one particularity. The percentage of students who were evaluated in the public school system is quite similar to the percentage of students in private schools.
The Aprender 2016 exam covers all those eligible to be evaluated. Therefore, the city's student body is divided into practically equal parts.
Performance according to management type in Rosario
The graph below shows the performance of 6th grade students at the primary level in the city of Rosario, according to the type of school management they attend.
In this regard, of an average of 14.125 students, 54,97% attend publicly managed schools and the remaining 45,03% attend privately managed schools.
As can be seen, the differences in performance occur at the extremes, without major variations between types of management at the satisfactory level.
Furthermore, the following graph shows the performance of 5th year secondary school students in the city of Rosario, according to the type of school management they attend.
As can be seen, at this level the differences are more pronounced across all assessment levels. There is a 15 percentage point difference in performance below the basic level in the area of mathematics.
Another important point to highlight: of the average of 8.231 students who took the four exams, 55,67% attend a private school. The remaining 44,33% attend a public school.
What explains the performance differences
A superficial reading of the data might lead one to attribute the entire difference to the different management models. However, such a statement would be a complete mistake.
In the report that accompanies this note, there is an extensive discussion on the different effects that may be playing when explaining these differences.
The strongest hypothesis is that much of this discrepancy is due to socio-economic factors that are present as a prerequisite for students' admission to schools, and of which these results are merely an emergent property.
Thus, both charts reflect a snapshot of two cities, where the quality of education serves as both canvas and backdrop. For more information, we invite you to read the full report by clicking on the image below.
Open access, for use and citation
The report is available freely and without charge, under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0):
- 📄 Full report (PDF): Download the report
- 🗄️ UNR Hypermedia Repository (RepHip): https://hdl.handle.net/2133/17542
- 📚 More reports from the Observatory: Index of Reports
La educación en Santa Fe y Rosario: resultados Aprender 2016. Informes del Observatorio UNR N.º 39 — Serie Informes Especiales N.º 15, julio de 2017. ISSN 2683-9067 / 2683-9083. Autores: Germán A. Tessmer y Patricio H. Almeida Gentile.