Abstract
Abstract Educational quality in Brazil has improved at a slow pace despite continued public policy efforts. The international literature has noted the importance of school management and the principal’s profile on students’ performance, but this discussion is recent in Brazil. In this study, we investigate the effects of the selection process of principals on students’ performance from public state schools in Brazil. We conclude that while the “selection process” channel is not clear, the “principal quality effect” indicates that the more democratic and technical selection methods tend to select most qualified principals in terms of leadership and managerial abilities. The principal who has time to implement changes, who adopts management practices to encourage teachers and has experience being the leader of the school present better results in terms of student’s performance. Therefore, it is important that the principal selection process choose professionals with the skills mentioned.
Highlights
Several countries have advanced more in educational quality than Brazil, despite continued efforts of public policies, such as promoting access to education (93.8% of 6-to-14-year-olds attend elementary school and 81.2% of 15-to-17-year-olds are enrolled in high school)1 and high levels of public spending in terms of GDP, higher than many countries participating in the OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)2
We present the studies by grouping them as follows: a) studies related to the “selection process effect”, and b) studies that focus on the “principal quality effect”
We propose a propensity score analysis with difference-in-differences approach, in which the treatment group is composed of public schools in states in which the principal selection method changed between 2007 and 2011 and the control group encompasses state schools in states in which there was no change in the selection process in the same period
Summary
Several countries have advanced more in educational quality (academic achievement, students’ performance, etc.) than Brazil, despite continued efforts of public policies, such as promoting access to education (93.8% of 6-to-14-year-olds attend elementary school and 81.2% of 15-to-17-year-olds are enrolled in high school) and high levels of public spending in terms of GDP, higher than many countries participating in the OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). The major challenge facing Brazilian education, especially in public schools, is to raise quality, in basic education (preschool, elementary and secondary schools) due to its importance for the future performance of individuals. It is well known that several factors related to the characteristics of the family, student and school influence students’ performance. A crucial factor affecting school success that has received little attention in the literature is the role played by the school principal and its methods of selection
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