When Luck is Cast: Quantitative Study of the Factors Associated with Performance at PSU

Abstract

In order to contribute to the discussion on educational inequality and factors associated with school performance, the relationship of variables related to the student, the family and the school was investigated with the level of family income and the performance in the PSU. Specifically, the study sought to answer the following questions: Do students with different family income have different individual, family and school characteristics? Do the variables related to the student, the family and the school act in the same way for each level of income? , What is the effect of these variables on the performance in the PSU? Is it different according to students from different family income? To achieve this, a multiple linear regression analysis was carried out using information from the databases of the SIMCE 8º EB 2000 and the PSU 2004, considering, thus, around 100,000 cases of the same generation. The most relevant finding was that the importance of the characteristics studied differed among the groups with different family income and that, transversally, the achievement achieved in basic education was the variable that best explains the performance of the PSU. It is concluded that the PSU is an instrument that legitimizes social inequalities and that doing wrong in it would be an updated form of school failure. It is suggested to prevent selection in secondary education and to boost the basic education of middle and lower income students.