Education reform and school performance. Some thoughts on the experiences of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay

paying special attention to national experience, this article compares, from a politological perspective, the results achieved by the students of argentina, chile and uruguay in pisa evaluation tests administered in 2002 and 2003. during the last decade, these countries made significant changes in their educational systems, associated to a wider tendency that included most latin american countries. these changes were different in each country: mercantile in the chile, decentralising in argentina and traditionally statist in uruguayan. the relationships among the different strategies adopted and the educational results achieved in terms of quality (learning levels) and equity (social distribution of same) are hypothesised.