SCHOOL BACKGROUND AND ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION: ANALYSIS OF THE OCCUPATION OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION QUOTAS AT UFRGS

ABSTRACT:

The article analyzes the relation between the heterogeneity of public schools and the occupation of undergraduate student places reserved by the affirmative action policy at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Based on the literature on educational stratification developed within Sociology of Education, this article assumes a quasi-market on public education, with regular and differentiated schools. The data explored in this article refer to students admitted in 2017. The quantitative methodology comprised descriptive analyses, crosstabulation, and basic measures of association, characterizing an exploratory study. The results show that students from regular public schools have a more limited access to reserved places in the quotas which do not consider income or race. This phenomenon is more intense in the most competitive programs. Considering the heterogeneity among public schools, the current procedures favor the admission in public higher education of graduates from differentiated public schools rather than students who attended regular public schools. This fact is understood as a limit in the remediation of distortions in the access to federal public higher education.

Keywords:
affirmative actions; educational stratification; public school; school quasi-market; higher education