Challenges for Improving the Quality of Basic Education in Poor Areas : An Empirical Analysis of Chile's P-900 Program

The present study stems from a concern that disparities in the quality of education among different groups will soon constitute a major challenge for developing countries' basic education policies. As the world is getting keen on measuring the results of learning, disparities in student achievement are becoming increasingly evident between different income groups and urban-rural areas. How should developing countries tackle this issue, a long pending task even for donor countries? This paper examines Chile's P-900, a highly successful program for improving schools serving the poor. The P-900 targets schools of low performance that fall in the lowest ten percent of national achievement test results. Participating schools 'graduate' once they reach the regional average score. Although P-900 is considered effective, possible problems of the program remain unexplored, particularly its sustainability and universality of effect. The present paper quantitatively examines these two issues, explores possible reasons behind them, and draws some lessons on effective strategies for improving performance of schools serving poor children. Analysis of the national data provides evidence of the low sustainability of the program, and also confirms the limited effectiveness of the program for some schools. Schools that graduated from the program have lower score gains than others after the graduation. The number of P-900 schools which graduated but whose subsequent performance fell enough to be re-incorporated in the program is increasing rapidly. Schools that have been in the program for almost a decade have achieved significantly fewer score gains than others. Comparison of successful and unsuccessful examples of the program, using the detailed data obtained from the author's field survey, indicates that P-900 is effective in diversifying teaching methods and improving levels of self-satisfaction of slow learners. Yet other changes, such as improving teacher expectations and teacher attitude to students in class, are not thorough in the unsuccessful group. In conclusion, three challenges can be identified. First, strategies for sustaining improvement should be embedded in the initial design of a program. Second, more direct measures to guarantee pedagogical transformations inside classrooms are crucial for ensuring universal effectiveness. Lastly, one component of P-900 named TAP brings to light the importance of understanding and giving careful consideration to specific contexts surrounding a school and its students, and their educational needs