Recent international surveys show a strong relationship between students' social origin and school achievement, as has been observed in studies conducted since the 1950s. If the universality of this phenomenon is indisputable, the results of the studies also indicate that the influence of socioeconomic status on student performance varies by country, and that some educational systems are better than others at restraining the weight of social determinism. The purpose of this article is to advance the exploration of this problem based on the results of the Pisa 2009 survey for Latin America taking into account their performance in reading and mathematics and the repetition rates. The results confirm that a successful reduction of social inequalities and an increase in efficiency are not incompatible.
social disadvantage; achievement; Pisa; comparative education
