Charter schools’ myths and assumptions: Analyzing the “Colegios en concesión” of Bogotá

© 2017, Centro de Estudos Educacao e Sociedade - CEDES. All rights reserved. The “Colegios en Concesión” (CEC) are a charter school program being implemented in Colombia since 1999. Despite its modest expansion (72 schools, 107,000 students), the CEC enjoy international recognition in both academic and policy practice fields (e.g., for the World Bank or the Inter-American Development Bank), in these fields, CECs are generally considered as a paradigmatic and, to a great extent, successful model of charter schools. Based on the theoretical-methodological framework of realistic evaluation, and through a fieldwork that includes both qualitative and quantitative techniques, this article challenges the hypothesis and results of the CEC program and, at the same time, discusses the general assumptions of the charter schools’ model.