Abstract

District local educational administrators (sostenedores) in Chile play a central role in the context of the demunicipalization act after this Law No. 21.040 entered into force. The demunicipalization law mandates the transfer of schools' management from the municipalities to new Local Public Education Services, seeking to change the way of doing and understanding education in Chile, emphasizing new logic of collaboration between schools and to improve knowledge of the territory where the schools are inserted. This study describes the self-perception of Chilean district local educational administrators regarding their management of the school coexistence, using self-report techniques, and considering the knowledge of schools and their territories, network management, and the recognition of achievement and change as major dimensions. Several relevant characteristics such as workday, size of work teams, and training received related to school coexistence were described as influence factors in the comparative results, showing significant statistical differences regarding the dimensions in management of the school coexistence already indicated. In this regard, the results show wide variability in the self-perceived development of their district management which points to the need to have educational administrators in the districts who arrange the proper time and staff as much as training related to school coexistence in order to achieve the changes required by the reform.