The effects of extended school-days on Brazilian students’ outcome

ABSTRACT

This study estimates the effects of the main extended school-day program in Brazil – Mais Educação – on primary and secondary students’ outcomes. The Ministry of Education defined those schools with over 50% of their students participating in the conditional cash transfer program Bolsa Família as priority targets – the schools that should receive financial support first – for Mais Educação. That criterion allows us to utilize a fuzzy regression discontinuity design. The estimates suggest that participation in Mais Educação increased by between 18 and 30 percentage points at the threshold. We observe probability changes within small bandwidths, i.e. when treatment and control schools are very similar. On the other hand, the estimates suggest that the program was not effective at improving student outcomes. We conclude that the failure of the program is due to its design. A lack of resources, underpaid and underprepared tutors with high rates of turnover, excessive recreational activities, a lack of guidance in the choice of tutoring subject, and a failure to integrate after-hours activities into the regular curriculum are some explanations for the poor results of the program.

KEYWORDS:

• Extension of the school day
• impact evaluation
• regression discontinuity design

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• C21
• I20
• I28

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ See the Mais Educação manual, published by (Ministry of Social Development, 2012).

² In one of the following subjects: Philosophy and sociology, history and geography, literacy, second language, maths or technology.

³ In 2012, a tutor received a maximum of R$300 per month (for five classes per week in urban schools), a very small amount compared to the minimum wage of R$622 (Ministry of Education 2012, p.12).

⁴ In Brazil, schools usually offer classes in two shifts (morning and afternoon).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Graduate Studies Office (DPG) - University of Brasilia; Escola Nacional de Administralção Pública - ENAP [Cátedras Program].