Ensaios sobre a educação em Alagoas uma análise sobre desigualdades de oportunidades educacionais e o abandono escolar

Abstract

This dissertation is composed of two studies in economics of education that seek to contribute with new evidence on school dropout and inequality of educational opportunities for the state of Alagoas. The first study analyzes the determinants of school dropout in the state, for elementary and high school students. In this sense, data from the Censo Escolar regarding the student's situation not available for public consultation were used, in which they were obtained through the request to the Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais (INEP) for the year 2019, and for the empirical strategy the Multilevel Logistics Model was chosen. The results showed that factors such as the characteristics of students, classes and schools in which they are inserted, in addition to the region where they study, are decisive in the decision of students to leave school. Showing a greater relevance in high school, the variables that stood out for the chance of dropping out were age, race, grade, shift, type of school and the place where they study. Finally, the second study analyzes how family background variables explain the performance and inequality of educational opportunity for students in the 5th and 9th year of elementary school in public schools in the state of Alagoas. For this, data from the Censo Escolar and the Sistema de Avaliação da Educação Básica (SAEB) for the year 2019 were used and the Inequality of Opportunities Index (IOP) by Ferreira and Gignoux (2014) were applied. The results obtained point to a better performance in mathematics than in Portuguese, especially for 5th grade students. It was also verified the relevance of the set of childhood circumstances to determine the inequality of opportunity in the state, highlighting the failure of students, however, the participation of other groups to define this inequality is highlighted, such as the relationship between parents and children, cultural habits and school characteristics.