STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERFORMANCE IN THE NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL EXAM AND SOME SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the relationship between students' performance on the National High School Exam (ENEM) and various school, socioeconomic, individual, and geographic indicators. The data analyzed were from the 2019 edition of ENEM, the last available year before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The explanatory variables included per capita household income, parents’ educational attainment, race/skin color, age, the state where the exam was taken, and the administrative affiliation of the high school the student attended. The parameters linking the explanatory variables to ENEM scores were estimated using linear regression via the ordinary least squares method, in a procedure equivalent to multilevel hierarchical modeling. The parameters were estimate considering both the average scores and the scores for each individual subject test. The results indicate a strong relationship between exam performance and the explanatory variables we selected. All the independent variables analyzed were statistically significant. However, they are not sufficient to fully explain students’ performance. The results obtained can be considered in the development of public policies in the education field and to guide further researches.