Improving school quality in Brazil

• Grant number: 07/50191-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: September 06, 2007
• End date: February 05, 2008
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Economics - Social Welfare Economics
• Principal Investigator: Ana Lucia Kassouf
• Grantee: Ana Lucia Kassouf
• Host Investigator: Paul Glewwe
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Minnesota (U of M), United States

Abstract

This research will analyze the impact of child's characteristics and motivation, parent's characteristics and capacity to help their children with schoolwork, teachers interpersonal skills and motivation, the management skills of school principals and school infrastructure on students performance in school, trying to identify the most relevant factors to improve school quality in Brazil. SAEB data will be used. Econometric problems raised by the literature will be taken into account, such as omitted variable bias, endogeneity of school quality, sample selectivity, lack of independence among students in the same school and colinearity among variables. Moreover, public and private institutions will be compared as a way to identify specific policies to improve public school quality. (AU)