“Relevant implications of selective school expansion” is the topic of a webinar on Friday

April 28, 2021 – 3:37 PM
# Selective schools # expand #Funcap #OFB #Seplag #webinar

“The interrelated effects of expanding selective schools in Ciara” is the topic of discussion with well-known economists at a webinar promoted by the Ceará government, through the Secretariat for Planning and Management (Seplag) and the Brazilian Federal Observatory (OFB) with support from the Senior Scientist in Economics / Funcap program.

The debate will take place next Friday 30, 10 am, with the submission by Seplag YouTube Channel. The presenter will be Professor of Economics, Raphael Barros, from the Department of Applied Studies (DEA) at the Federal University of Ceará, a researcher at the Brazilian Federal Observatory and CAEN and the Director of Educlab / UFC.

According to Raphael Barros, the discussion is based on the research that he and Professors Alessandra Benevides and Zelania Mariano, all from Ceara Federal University, have conducted. The work examines the effectiveness of Ceará’s policy of building vocational schools. “In particular, we are interested in understanding whether the construction of vocational schools indirectly affects the educational outcomes of students from non-vocational schools, which are called regulars,” said Raphael Barros.

He added that this indirect effect may occur because of the way in which vocational schools enroll their students. This selection occurs through an admission process that takes into account students’ grades during elementary school, which is pre-high school. “This admission process ends with reducing the number of high-performing students in regular schools and the potential impacts on ordinary students,” says Raphael Barros.

It highlights the importance of the topic for at least two reasons, one for academic and the other for public policy. Academic reason refers to the fact that there is still no uniform evidence of what would happen to students in regular schools, when they are sent to classes with fewer high-performing students. “Some studies indicate that this can harm students, and others indicate that there may be an improvement in performance. Since it is an open question, our research contributes to this debate,” noted Raphael Barros.

The second reason is that vocational schools represent an important policy for the state of Ceará, reaching 17% of the high school network in 2017. Thus, it is imperative to understand the consequences of this type of policy, whether direct or not. He notes that the debate on this topic, which should spark the interest of the interested community, is a unique initiative as it allows discussion and analysis of the state’s public policies, allowing for adjustments to be made, if necessary. We rarely see this type of event promoted by state governments, and this indicates the seriousness of the Ciara State government in using public policies. He commended the exemplary way in which evidence-based policies are being implemented.

Finally, Rafael Barros highlighted the level of invited researchers: André Laurero, Senior Economist at the World Bank and PhD in Economics from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, and Gilherme Hervey, Professor of Graduate Program in Economics at CAEN / UFC and MA and PhD in Economics from CAEN / UFC .

The moderator will be Mauricio Benegas, Senior Scholar Coordinator at the Economics / Funcap Project and Deputy Coordinator and Professor of the Graduate Program in Economics at CAEN / UFC.