The influence of Brazilian school infrastructure and teacher training on student performance in the area of Natural Sciences

As in other countries, Brazil has used standardized tests as a tool to measure the quality of education. The Ministry of Education, incorporated large-scale assessments into its educational policy in the early 1990s through the System for Basic Education Assessment. In addition to the exam used to assess elementary school, students are also assessed through the National High School Exam, created in 1998 to assess school performance at the end of Basic Education. This study investigates student performance of Brazilian state public schools in the 2017 National High School Exam [ENEM] area of Natural Sciences. We compared student performance between different types of public schools localized in urban and rural areas. In addition, the factors that may cause these differences were assessed. The influence of school infrastructure, proportion of teachers with training in the area of Natural Sciences, and teacher qualification was evaluated upon student performance. Student performance varied by the type of school and between both rural and urban schools with the higher scores founded in civic-military schools and urban areas. Among the factors evaluated, school infrastructure was the most important factor in student performance, followed by the proportion of teachers with a background in Natural Sciences, and finally, teacher qualification. The heterogeneity of performance between school type and location shows how much we still need to improve resource management, school infrastructure, teacher training and qualification.