The efficiency of Brazilian elementary public schools

Tommaso Agasisti, Celma de Oliveira Ribeiro and Daniel Sanches Montemor

International Journal of Educational Development, 2022, vol. 93, issue C

Abstract: Although primary education in Brazil has achieved universal enrollment levels, the management of the educational system is decentralized with high heterogeneity at municipal level. The goal of this paper is to perform an efficiency analysis of the Brazilian elementary public schools. This study performs a thorough efficiency analysis of around 10,600 Brazilian elementary public schools, for the year 2017. The empirical assessment is conducted through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with double-bootstrap method. The model includes five inputs (teaching intensity, teaching quality, student-per-classroom ratio and two variables of prior achievement) and three outputs (progression rate and standardized scores on Math and Portuguese). Eleven different non-discretionary variables are employed to assess the determinants of the efficiency scores. The results show a relatively high average efficiency score (87 %), but also relevant disparities across the country’s Regions. Eight out of the eleven non-discretionary variables are statistically correlated with efficiency scores, with an important role of indicators dealing with socioeconomic background (community and family). Importantly, potential attention must be posed about the apparent positive relationship between the efficiency of schools and the income inequalities in the cities where they operate.

Keywords: Efficiency; Elementary education; Double bootstrap Data Envelopment Analysis; Brazil (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 C61 H75 I21 I28 N36 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:injoed:v:93:y:2022:i:c:s0738059322000773

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2022.102627

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