The efficiency of Brazilian elementary public schools

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.