Calidad de la educación y rendimiento académico en Bogotá

This paper examines the effects of family background and school characteristics on standardized test results. We use the ICFES test: the Colombian equivalent to the American SAT. The paper reaches three main conclusions. First, parental schooling has a substantial effect on test results. Second, this effect is transmitted mainly through the schools (i.e., more educated parents can afford better schools, which are associated with higher test scores). And third, the overall effect of schools on test scores surpasses the effects of all observable family characteristics and is greater than that of the United States.