(S)election in polivalentes schools: when school grades affect educational choices

Abstract

In Chile, high schools that offer both university preparation and vocational education are called "polivalentes". This article describes the school dynamics within a polivalente school that uses grades as the main criterion to group students into different classes at the lower secondary level, as well as to sort students between university prep and vocational education, at the upper secondary level. We use data from a single case study with an ethnographic approach conducted in a polivalente school located in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, Chile. The findings show the adverse effects of student tracking, as it generates a vicious cycle by stigmatizing students according to their assigned group. Furthermore, the decision to track students based on their grades creates a scenario where those with the top grades are guided towards university prep, while possibly causing a passive reassignment or vocational mismatch for those assigned to the vocational track. This practice replicates the segmentation by education modality, that characterizes the Chilean secondary school system and does not take advantage of the polyvalent model's potential to offer educational alternatives that are equally valued by the students and to channel their vocational interests, in a timely manner.