Published in REICE – Revista Iberoamericana sobre Calidad, Eficacia y Cambio en Educación
On September 21, 2020, our paper titled “The Influence of the Bilingual Program on the School Segregation by Socioeconomic Origin in the Autonomous Community of Madrid: Evidence from PISA” was published in the Spanish educational journal REICE. Co-authored with Lucas Gortazar, the paper examines how the bilingual program introduced in Madrid may have contributed to increasing school segregation by socioeconomic background. Since the paper was written in Spanish, I’m summarizing the key points here for a broader audience.
Background and Motivation
According to the PISA 2018 microdata (the latest available when we published the paper), the region of Madrid (Spain) had the highest school segregation index by socioeconomic status among European countries and the second highest among all OECD countries. Even more concerning is that Madrid has shown a consistent rise in school segregation over the past decade. However, this pattern was not observed in other Spanish regions. Research has shown that high levels of school segregation are linked to unequal educational opportunities and worse long-term outcomes for students from disadvantaged backgrounds (check the paper for the literature review on this topic). This concerning trend highlights the need to understand the underlying factor of school segregation in Madrid and to design policies that can reduce it.
The bilingual program in Madrid, introduced first in public schools and later extended to publicly funded private schools, has emerged as one of the potential drivers of school segregation. Differences in school choice strategies among families from different socioeconomic backgrounds, combined with the selective nature of the bilingual program, may have reinforced existing divisions within the educational system. This context motivated us to explore the relationship between the bilingual program and school segregation in Madrid.
Research Question
The main goal of our paper is to analyse the relationship between the implementation of the bilingual program in Madrid and school segregation by socioeconomic origin in Madrid’s educational system. Importantly, we did not aim to establish a causal link but rather to identify patterns and correlations that could shed light on this issue. We chose to analyse this educational policy as a potential factor of school segregation due to several reasons: (i) evidence of bilingualism territories in Spain and school segregation, (ii) differences in school choice strategies depending on the socioeconomic background of the families and (iii) the design of the bilingual program.
Methodology
We used PISA microdata from the 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2018 editions to analyze school segregation in Madrid and its evolution over time. The staggered implementation of the bilingual program allowed us to observe how segregation patterns changed as the program expanded. In 2009 and 2012, no bilingual schools were present in the PISA sample. By 2015, public bilingual schools began to appear, and by 2018, bilingual publicly-funded private schools were also included.
We re-computed the ISEC (Index of Economic, Social, and Cultural Status) following OECD guidelines to measure segregation over time, and we used three segregation indexes: Dissimilarity (D), Gorard (G), and Hutchens (H). Then, we analyzed school segregation by socioeconomic status both within and between school networks (public and publicly-funded private schools) and also examined the specific influence of bilingual versus non-bilingual schools.
Results
Our results show that school segregation in Madrid has increased steadily since the introduction of the bilingual program. A sharp increase is observed between 2012 and 2015 within public schools, coinciding with the first appearance of bilingual public schools in PISA data. Similarly, segregation within publicly-funded private schools increased between 2015 and 2018 when bilingual programs were extended to this type of school.
A more detailed analysis indicates that school segregation in the Madrid region was driven primarily by segregation within types of schools or networks – public and publicly-funded private schools – rather than between them. Furthermore, the increase in school segregation levels from 2012 to 2018 was mainly driven by rising segregation within each type of school. This pattern aligns with the introduction of bilingual schools, which first appeared in the public network and later in publicly-funded private schools. Similarly, school segregation between networks has also risen over the years, particularly in 2012 and 2018. This finding aligns with previous results, which show an increase in school segregation within the public network and within the publicly-funded private network.
We then analyze the extent to which school segregation arose from differences between the bilingual and non-bilingual schools versus differences within each system. The results indicate that the emergence of bilingual schools has contributed to increased school segregation in the Madrid educational system, with similar effects observed in both public and publicly-funded private schools.
Policy implications
Our study provides evidence of how the bilingual program may have influenced family school choice decisions and reinforced socioeconomic segregation within the educational system. The results suggest that the bilingual program might have contributed to school segregation, influenced by the well-studied segregation between public and publicly-funded private schools.
We propose that the bilingual program could be redesigned to ensure more equitable access across all schools. Universalizing the program would be a step toward reducing disparities, but this must be accompanied by targeted support for schools with a higher proportion of vulnerable students. Providing additional resources to these schools would help them adapt to bilingual education more effectively and prevent the program from becoming a mechanism of social selection. Furthermore, adjustments to school admissions policies may be necessary to promote greater socioeconomic diversity within bilingual and non-bilingual schools. Ensuring all families and students, regardless of socioeconomic background, have equal opportunities to access high-quality bilingual education would help mitigate the program’s contribution to school segregation.
Our findings highlight the complex relationship between educational policy and school segregation. While the bilingual program offers key academic benefits, its current design and implementation might reinforce socioeconomic divides rather than reduce them. Policymakers must carefully reconsider how the program is structured and expanded to ensure that it serves as a tool for greater educational equality rather than a source of social stratification.
Reference
Gortazar, L. & Taberner, P.A. (2020) La incidencia del Programa Bilingüe en la segregación escolar por origen socioeconómico en la CAM: evidencia a partir de PISA. REICE. Revista Iberoamericana sobre Calidad, Eficacia y Cambio en Educación, 18(4), 219-239.