The School or the Cradle? Evidence of their Contribution to Students’ Performance in Latin America. Multilevel Study about the estimatiion of School Effects

Resumen

This article shows the process and results of a research study that seeks to estimate the scope of the school effect on the learning outcomes in Math and Reading of Latin American students of third and sixth grades and compare them with the effect of socio-economic and cultural levels of the families. In order to do this, the study uses the data of the Second Comparative and Explanatory Study (SERCE) of the OREALC/UNESCO with Multilevel Models in three levels. One of the findings is that the net school effect for the whole of Latin America is between 17,6% and 22,3% with big differences among the different countries; and the effect of the cultural and socio-economic level is between 10,8% and 14,0%. With this it is possible to deduce the school capacity to compensate for the differences in origin.