Social and school determinants of educational achievement in Brazil, 2007

Jose Francisco Soares, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)
Raquel Guimaraes, Stanford University and Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)
Izabel Fonseca, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)
Raquel Alvares, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)

This study aims to assess the determinants of 4th and 8th grade public school students' educational achievement in Brazil. We employ hierarchical linear regression models to evaluate the effect of personal attributes, socioeconomic factors and school and teachers characteristics on the Reading and Math proficiency. We use microdata from Prova Brasil 2007, which evaluates the performance of all Brazilian public schools' students in 4th and 8th grade. Our evidence shows that family characteristics and peer effects, expressed by the school socioeconomic level and the proportion of lagged students, had presented a significant impact on the student's proficiency. Finally, the characteristics of schools, teachers and principals have had also a positive effect on the educational achievement, but this impact on students' score is small compared to personal, family and peer effects.