Are youth and adults left behind? High school evidence in Ceará

Abstract

This study seeks to measure the differential of academic performance among students Education of Youth and Adults (EJA) and high school in regular schools in Ceará. Using data from the Permanent System of Assessment of Basic Education of the State of Ceará (Spaece) and the School Census between 2012 and 2014. The students were matching by the Propensity Score method and their characteristics weight entropy method. The results indicate that the members of the EJA have performance in Portuguese (-0.82 standard deviation) and mathematics (-0.58 standard deviation) lower than regular teaching. Thus, it is expected that school management will try to equalize the disparities between these teaching modalities providing a performance with greater equity.