The purpose of this research is to understand, through an ethnography, how interactions and dialogue transpire in the classrooms of three high-risk primary schools in Santiago, Chile. We address the problem in an educational model with an evaluation system based on high-stakes testing. The results give an account of interactions do not favour dialogue, there is a prevalence of a sequence of expository class, individual work and monitoring, hurry to cover the curriculum predominate, and the evaluation standards for learning are limited to content tests in the form of a standardised high-stakes test. The rationale behind these classroom practices follows a circular logic where the students are both the cause and consequence of the lack of dialogue.