Using social equity theory to explain ethnic achievement gaps in developing countries: Evidence from Colombia

The development of literature on achievement gaps has been mostly atheoretical, which has led to a collection of regularities that are difficult to interrelate. In an attempt to provide a more holistic explanation, McKown (2013) proposes Social Equity Theory as a framework for achievement gaps. In this document, I contrast one of the propositions of this theory in the context of a developing country: Colombia. Regression analysis does not provide evidence of complete support for this theory. I propose interactions between the social processes that originate achievement gaps could be an explanation for the results that contradict the theory.