Social selectivity in Portuguese primary school: dynamics, conditions, and policy (2008-2018)

Abstract

We focus on the development of social inequalities in school outcomes in Portuguese primary education during the past decade by analysing the evolution of student retention rates. This period is of particular interest for such an analysis because it includes a governmental cycle (2011-2015) during which central political orientations shifted. An upsurge of social selectivity in grade repetition is visible in the intensification of an already disadvantaged position of boys, foreign students, and students from families with lower educational levels. After this cycle we witness the return of (in)equality levels to those registered at the beginning of the decade.