Project summary
The research examines the process of institutionalization, politicization, and reform of high-stakes accountability mechanisms based on standardized tests, one of the structuring axes of the market education model in Chile. The analytical perspective draws on recent contributions from the sociology of experts, political sociology, and economic sociology, conceptualizing markets (in this case, educational markets) as fields of strategic action that develop and transform as a result of the struggles of different actors intervening in the field. In these struggles, the participation of different groups of experts, bearers of knowledge and techniques of varying influence and legitimacy within the field, plays a relevant role, underpinning processes of deployment, institutionalization, and crisis of school rankings based on standardized tests. First, the emergence of accountability as the dominant paradigm of regulation of the market model is historicized as an “unwanted” response to the student movement’s demand for the prioritization of public education after decades of privatization. This demand is reflected in the formal consecration of “quality education” as a constitutional right, obliging the state to regulate the market in order to safeguard it. Secondly, from the approach of the moral limits of the market, the challenge to accountability is conceptualized as an instrument inherent to the commodification of education. Specifically, it examines the campaign of the Stop the SIMCE movement, launched in response to the intensification and expansion of standardization through which the state aims to ensure educational quality. Finally, the transformations within the educational field derived from this dispute are analyzed: the partial reversal and flexibilization of the accountability regime, as well as the limitation of the use of rankings to stimulate “exit”, while promoting “voice” as a mechanism for quality improvement. Finally, it examines the current attempts to dismantle the quality assurance system and the difficulties in moving towards a new paradigm of regulation and governance.
