Peer effects in highly segregated school contexts

Abstract

Latin American education systems are among the most segregated in the world: since the distribution of students from different social backgrounds across schools is uneven, they scarcely interact with each other. Drawing on PISA 2018 data, this study evaluates the existence of peer effects on the development of Reading, Mathematics and Science competences and on the occupational expectation of 15-year-old students in the region. To this end, it presents the estimation of multivariate multilevel regression models. Results confirm the presence of school socioeconomic composition effects on these outcomes, which allows the conclusion that the situation of segregation tends to reinforce educational and social inequality. The reason is that students from a vulnerable background are likely to attend schools with a similar socioeconomic intake, strengthening their initial disadvantage. The opposite occurs for students from a more favorable social origin. Findings are in line with previous research in Latin America, highlighting the phenomenon of socioeconomic school segregation as a central problem in these education systems. School system authorities and the entire educational community are urged to develop and agree on strategies to mitigate it.