Publication: Prova Brasil : Building a Framework to Promote Measurable Progress in Learning Outcomes
Date
2008-03
ISSN
Published
2008-03
Author(s)
Parandekar, Suhas
Amorim, Érica
Welsh, Andrea
Abstract
Building on two decades of education
reform, Brazil's Ministry of Education (MEC)
implemented a key instrument for measuring education quality
in 2005, when it first administered Prova Brasil, a
nationwide test of proficiency in math and Portuguese for
students in grades 4 and 8. Prova Brasil, which will be
administered to primary students every three years, is the
country's first census-level assessment of student
learning, and forms the cornerstone of a drive to improve
basic education quality and establish a results framework
for measuring learning outcomes. The aim of this study has
been to promote discussion rather than to provide definitive
solutions. Beyond the limited set of specific practices
observed and reported upon in the course of this small
study, a wide variety of good practices are being
implemented in Brazilian school districts, day after day, as
teachers, principals, education officials, and parents each
make their indispensable contributions to student learning.
The reason one municipality achieves better test scores than
another is almost certainly due to a occurrence of good
practices and the interaction among them, or to a particular
confluence of local characteristics and events whose effects
continue to accumulate over time. Therefore, the description
of good practices in this brief policy note can not be taken
as the single best recipe for achieving good test results.
Quite to the contrary, it is the aim of this study to
demonstrate that there are many possible routes to success.
Citation
“Parandekar, Suhas; Amorim, Érica; Welsh, Andrea. 2008. Prova Brasil : Building a Framework to Promote Measurable Progress in Learning Outcomes. en breve; No. 121. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/95375908-438b-5513-94fc-b8752ba6ef3e License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”