Is Brazilian Education Improving? A Comparative Foray Using PISA and SAEB Brazil Test Scores

31 Pages Posted: 18 Dec 2014

See all articles by Martin Carnoy

Martin Carnoy

Stanford University; National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow)

Tatiana Khavenson

National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow)

Leandro Costa

The World Bank

Izabel Fonseca

Stanford University

Luana Marotta

Inter-American Development Bank

Date Written: December 16, 2014

Abstract

We use a national Brazilian test (SAEB) and an international test (PISA) to measure whether Brazilian students 13-15 years old improved their mathematics and language learning in1995-2012. We control for part of out-of-school influences by comparing test scores for students with similar family academic resources. Our empirical strategy is descriptive and comparative. We find that Brazilian students have made test score gains during this period on the PISA, but much less so on the SAEB. Gains on the PISA test for advantaged Brazilian students are smaller than among disadvantaged students. This is also the case for the SAEB.

Keywords: educational performance, Brazil, PISA, SAEB, achievement gain, test comparison

JEL Classification: I21, I24, I28

Suggested Citation

Carnoy, Martin and Khavenson, Tatiana and Costa, Leandro and Fonseca, Izabel and Marotta, Luana, Is Brazilian Education Improving? A Comparative Foray Using PISA and SAEB Brazil Test Scores (December 16, 2014). Higher School of Economics Research Paper No. WP BRP 22/EDU/2014, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2539027 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2539027

Martin Carnoy

Stanford University ( email )

Stanford, CA 94305
United States
650-725-1254 (Phone)

National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow) ( email )

Myasnitskaya street, 20
Moscow, Moscow 119017
Russia

Tatiana Khavenson (Contact Author)

National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow) ( email )

Myasnitskaya street, 20
Moscow, Moscow 119017
Russia

Leandro Costa

The World Bank ( email )

SCN quadra 2 lote A
salas 701-704
Brasilia, 70753130
Brazil

Izabel Fonseca

Stanford University ( email )

Stanford, CA 94305
United States

Luana Marotta

Inter-American Development Bank ( email )

1300 New York Ave NW
Washington, DC 20577
United States

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