Inequality of opportunity in skill formation: an analysis with longitudinal data

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the evolution of education inequality and the inequality of opportunities over the first four years of elementary school in Brazil from 2005 to 2008. Using proficiency performance information of pupils in mathematics and language (Portuguese) from GERES database. The main results show an increase in educational inequality in mathematics and stable behavior in Portuguese over the years under review. With regard to inequality of opportunity, the percentages are 8% for math and 11% for Portuguese. The Portuguese inequality presents a higher increase in these percentages (109%) than the math inequality (80%) over the four years. The feature that most influences the inequality in proficiency performance is the socioeconomic status of the children family.