Evaluation system of basic education: a statistical analysis for the state of Pernambuco

Abstract

Objective: To perform a descriptive statistical analysis aligned with a cluster analysis based on time series of the grades of the Evaluation system of basic education (SAEB), final years, of students from the public education network in the state of Pernambuco, in the period from 2005 to 2021. Methods: The measures of dispersion and position were calculated, as well as Pearson's correlation coefficient. After that, a cluster analysis was performed using the hierarchical method to group the time series of mean scores in relation to the subject of Mathematics. All analyses were performed in R software. Results: The variables showed a strong positive correlation, between Mathematics and Portuguese Language grades, with an increasing behavior between the years 2005 to 2019 and a slight decay in 2021 for the 185 municipalities in the state of Pernambuco. The cluster analysis separated the municipalities into three groups according to the similarities of the grade in relation to the Mathematics subject, showing the municipalities that presented a more stable and increasing behavior and the municipalities that obtained more oscillations. Conclusion: Therefore, the study provides information to quantitatively examine the educational management of the public school system in Pernambuco from the external evaluation.