The specific case of Ceará: analyzing data from the 2019 and 2022 (diagnostic and summative) editions of Spaece

Abstract

This article is part of the research project “Implementation of Educational Policies and Inequalities in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic”. It aimed to assess the effects of the pandemic on student proficiency in state and municipal school systems in Ceará. We compared pre-pandemic periods (2018 and 2019) with post-pandemic periods (beginning and end of 2022) after the return to in-person classes. The study focused on aspects related to equity in terms of gender, race, and socioeconomic status. The data comes from Spaece, and the analysis was descriptive. The results show that students in Ceará, like those across Brazil, failed to learn what was expected for their grade level during the pandemic. However, after returning to in-person classes, students in Ceará made significant learning gains, reaching pre-pandemic proficiency levels by the end of 2022. Moreover, these gains were greater among Black students and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, indicating that the school systems were able to compensate for the learning inequalities that had worsened during remote education.