Distância, escolha escolar e desempenho: uma análise das decisões familiares na rede estadual do Ceará

Abstract

Public school seat allocation systems in Brazilian state networks generally prioritize proximity between students' residences and schools. However, families may choose more distant schools if these are perceived as offering better educational quality or better meeting the needs of the student and the family. This study investigates the factors that lead families to opt for schools other than the nearest ones and examines whether this decision affects students' academic performance. To this end, data from the Federal Government's Unified Registry for Social Programs (CadÚnico), which contains information on residential addresses, were cross-referenced with data from the Ceará State Basic Education Assessment System (SPAECE 2019), specifically focusing on Mathematics scores of 12th-grade students in the Fortaleza metropolitan area. The analysis reveals that approximately 43% of students do not attend the nearest state public school. Using an instrumental variables model, the study finds that the school choice decision is endogenous in the student performance equation. However, the effect of this choice—as well as the effect of distance itself—was not statistically significant. These findings are consistent with other case studies in the school choice literature based on distance, such as Jabbar et al. (2022) and Cullen, Jacob, and Levitt (2000).