School performance, infrastructure and teaching practice effects on secondary education in Brazil

Abstract

This paper identifies and discusses school factors that most influence the quality of secondary education in Brazil: school performance, infrastructure, and teaching practice. We used data from the School Census and the National High School Exam (ENEM). The data mining technique has raised key characteristics for good school performance. A logistic regression model identified school characteristics that most influence the school performance of public high school students in Brazil. School performance was also investigated according to the type of school and type of education; and interstate differentials, considering the regular public high school system. Results show that students from state schools are at a disadvantage and that those from private and federal schools have similar performance when considering only the type of school. When considering the type of education as well, regular school students from federal schools have the best performance, about 1.3 times higher than that of state schools students. There are no major interstate disparities, although the results point to regional differentiation. Among school factors, teacher qualification proved to be the most impacting factor on school performance.