Impact of the pandemic on school performance in medium-sized cities in the state of Maranhão

The principal component analysis statistical technique was applied to assess school performance in the Initial and Final Years of Elementary Education (EE) in medium-sized municipalities in the state of Maranhão, including São Luís, for the years 2019 and 2021. In this sense, five educational indicators were used: the percentage of students with adequate learning in Portuguese Language (LP) and Mathematics (MAT), the components of the Ideb, and the age-grade distortion rate. Our results showed that more than 90% of the variance of the original data, for the Initial Years of EE, can be essentially explained by the two variables LP and MAT. For this school stage, the pandemic had a significant impact on the drop in school performance, except in the municipality of Timon. Unlike the Initial Years, the statistical model used to explain the variance of the data for the Final Years is more complex. Furthermore, the impact of the pandemic was smaller in this case, with Timon also showing growth in performance. Our analysis highlights the disparity in the effects of the pandemic across school stages and the importance of using this technique to understand educational performance in complex contexts.

School Performance; Principal Component Analysis; Covid-19 Pandemic; Medium-Sized Cities; State of Maranhão