Ensaios sobre o efeito da extensão da jornada escolar no desempenho acadêmico dos estudantes da educação básica

Abstract

The quality of basic education is a global concern, leading to the implementation of various policies aimed at improving the learning process of students in the early stages of schooling. Among these initiatives, the extension of school hours stands out as one of the main strategies adopted, particularly in Latin American countries. From this perspective, this thesis presents three essays on the evaluation of school time extension policies and their effects on students' academic performance. The first essay aims to assess the empirical evidence regarding the impact of extended school hours on the performance of basic education students through a systematic literature review. The findings indicate a predominance of analyses focused on language and mathematics, with varying impacts—mostly positive or null. Additionally, interventions incorporating activities directly related to the content assessed in standardized exams yielded the best results. The study also found that socioeconomically disadvantaged students benefit the most from increased instructional time. The second essay analyzes the impact of Brazilian full-time public high schools on students' scores in the National High School Exam (ENEM) and the National System for the Evaluation of Basic Education (SAEB). The difference-in-differences method, both in its conventional format and with multiple time periods, was applied using school-level ENEM data from 2010 to 2019 and SAEB data from 2017 and 2019. The results indicate positive effects across all ENEM subject areas (human sciences, natural sciences, languages, mathematics, and essay writing), albeit with low magnitude and only in the short term. Furthermore, better SAEB results were observed in the states of the Northeast (Pernambuco, Paraíba, and Ceará) and Midwest (Goiás) regions. Finally, the third essay evaluates the effect of full-time schools on the performance of elementary school students in the state of Ceará using two assessments: the Permanent System for the Evaluation of Basic Education of the State of Ceará (SPAECE) from 2012 to 2019 and SAEB from 2011 to 2019. The results, based on the difference-in-differences method with multiple time periods, suggest positive effects on Portuguese and mathematics scores for full-time schools in the 5th and 9th grades of elementary education, even with a short treatment duration.