SUCCESS OR FAILURE OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN BRAZIL? THE UFABC CASE

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Nº 2, volume 10, artigo nº 3, Abril/Junho 2015 D.O.I: http://dx.doi.org/10.6020/1679-9844/v10n2a3

Data de Aceite: 10/06/2015

ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 46 de 207

SUCCESS OR FAILURE OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN

HIGHER EDUCATION IN BRAZIL? THE UFABC CASE

SUCESSO OU FRACASSO DE AÇÃO AFIRMATIVA NO

ENSINO SUPERIOR NO BRASIL? O CASO UFABC

Artur Zimerman1, Ana Keila Mosca Pinezi2, Sidney Jard da Silva3

1

Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC), Centro de Engenharia, Modelagem e Ciências Sociais Aplicadas, Bacharelado em Ciências e Humanidades, Santo André, São Paulo, e-mail:

artur@ufabc.edu.br.

2

ana.pinezi@ufabc.edu.br.

3

sidney.jard@ufabc.edu.br.

Abstract – From the last years of the Lula government until now Brazil has been going through a revolution in the federal system of higher education. One of several universities created to include more people from public schools, as well as indigenous and Afro-descendants, is the Federal University of the ABC (UFABC), in the metropolitan region of São Paulo. Fifty per cent of vacancies are reserved for admittance through the system of quotas. The objective of this paper is to investigate whether students who were admitted based on their racial and socio-economic situation have a similar level of academic achievement than their colleagues who have not participated in quotas to join the university, and what lessons should be considered for future selections of students in the federal system of higher education in Brazil. In addition to the conceptual part, the approach adopted

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 47 de 207 in this research complements the descriptive with the causal statistics, where the first deals with variables like skin color, gender, income and learning difficulties, and the second tries to explain the success in academic studies. Both approaches focus on the differences among students who entered the university through socioeconomic and racial quotas, since the aim is to understand whether there are differences between the two types of students. The conclusion was that in the beginning the quota students presented a lower level of academic achievement in relation to non-quota students, but this difference is reduced over the years, even if not end on equal ground. However, the simple fact that there is a reduction of academic inequality between the two groups is already a success of educational policies concerning inequality reduction, and they should be improved continuously.

Keywords: Higher education. Quotas. Afro-descendants. Federal University of the ABC.

Resumo – Desde os últimos anos do governo Lula o Brasil tem passado por uma revolução no sistema federal de educação superior. Uma das muitas universidades federais criadas para incluir mais pessoas que estudaram em escolas públicas no ensino médio, além de indígenas e afrodescendentes, foi a Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC), localizada na região metropolitana de São Paulo. Cinquenta por cento das vagas estão reservadas para o sistema de cotas. O objetivo do presente artigo é investigar se os estudantes selecionados para ingressar na universidade com base em sua situação racial e/ou socioeconômica obtiveram o mesmo nível de êxito acadêmico de seus colegas que não ingressaram por meio das cotas, e quais lições devem ser consideradas para futuras seleções de estudantes no sistema federal de educação superior no Brasil. Além da parte conceitual, a abordagem adotada nesta pesquisa complementa a estatística descritiva com a causal, onde a primeira busca variáveis que tratam de cor da pele, gênero, renda e dificuldades de aprendizado, e a segunda tenta explicar o sucesso nos estudos. Tanto uma como a outra focam nas diferenças entre estudantes que ingressaram na universidade por meio de cotas socioeconômicas e raciais, já que o intuito é entender se há diferenças entre os dois tipos de estudantes. A conclusão foi de que no início os estudantes que ingressaram por cotas apresentam um nível inferior de êxito acadêmico em relação aos não-cotistas, mas esta diferença se reduz com o passar dos anos, mesmo que não se iguale. No entanto, o simples fato de que há uma redução da desigualdade acadêmica entre os dois grupos já representa um sucesso nas políticas públicas educacionais de redução da desigualdade e devem ser aprimoradas.

Palavras-chave: Educação superior. Cotas. Afrodescendentes.

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Introduction

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The so-called "affirmative actions" (AA), "affirmative policies"; "compensatory policies" or "positive discrimination" are policies that aim to mitigate/compensate a condition of suffering, oppression and negative discrimination of individuals or social segments living in a vulnerable situation, and with a past of exclusion of fundamental human rights and equal treatment. This compensation should be established in terms of substantial equality, one of the basic principles of citizenship, and not as a mere formality.

It is important to emphasize that these compensatory policies do not deny the right to difference or diversity. On the contrary, they are policies that value them in order to ensure the protection of the expression and manifestation of these differences in culture, religion, and politics or in any other dimension of human life, without being used as an excuse for unequal treatment and discrimination.

While human rights, established by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are not specific, i.e., they are directed at the generality and universality of mankind, the AA are related to specific policies, directed at ensuring rights in particular situations and contexts. In that sense, the AA are characterized by promoting Human Rights by taking difference, as one of the intrinsic characteristics of the human being, and reverting it to a positive demonstration in opposition to using it as an excuse for discrimination.

It is, however, insufficient to treat the individual in a generic, general and abstract way. It is necessary to specify the subject of law, which is seen in its peculiarity and individuality. In that perspective, certain subjects of law or certain rights violations require a specific and differentiated response. It is worth saying, in the international sphere, if a first strand of international instruments is born with the vocation to provide a general, generic and abstract protection, reflecting the very fear of difference, it is clear, then, the need to provide certain groups with a special and embodied protection due to their own vulnerability. This means the difference would no longer be used for the annihilation of rights, but as a setback for its promotion (PIOVESAN, 2005, p. 46).

Thus, AA as temporary, exceptional and limited measures, not universal ones, have the perspective to enable marginalized, despoiled and historically discriminated individuals and social groups the ascension to the same level of equality as all others. Therefore, it is not a granting of privileges to those individuals, but a way to

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 49 de 207 urgently remedy and provide them with the conditions to attain social equality in terms of fundamental rights and duties.

Throughout the history of mankind it is possible to recognize groups formed by some human "categories" that were or are still negatively discriminated. These "categories" are related, in general, to gender, sex, ethnicity and phenotypic characteristics.

In a general and respected way, the cultural diversity of the various societies, the women's struggle for equal treatment and access to rights (to work and education, for example) has led to the implementation of a set of measures aimed at the protection of women in the labor market. In Brazil it is interesting to note the "Law of Quotas" (LAW 9,100/95), which established the reservation of 20% of the positions for women to be candidates in municipal elections.

The affirmative policies were also provided for in the Convention of the United Nations (UN) on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), 1968, ratified by 157 countries, including Brazil. The UN Conference against racism and related forms of discrimination, in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, not only advocated affirmative actions to combat racism, but also encouraged countries to take these compensatory measures as a means of enabling equal rights and opportunities to historically marginalized "racial" groups.

Access to formal education, one of the fundamental rights of every human being, is a law necessary to enable equal opportunities (MARSHALL, 1967). This right has gained a prominent place regarding the implementation of affirmative actions in recent years in Brazil. It is important to emphasize that quotas are one among several modalities of affirmative policies in the area of education for socially vulnerable and historically discriminated groups. Although it may be just one form of AA among several, the system of quotas has quite a comprehensive and intense impact on society.

It is not possible to think the quotas simply as an attempt to change the proﬁle of social injustice that affects Brazilian indexes or as a mechanism of socio-economic development through education expanded to less fortunate sectors of the population. Anyone who understands the quotas that way will be reducing the phenomenon and failing to realize the proliferation of consequences and the dissemination of their impact on a variety of dimensions of social life (SEGATO, 2006, p. 83).

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 50 de 207 system for afro-descendants. In 2002, the University of the State of Bahia also adopted this policy. Soon after, the State University of Mato Grosso do Sul teamed up with these pioneer universities regarding the adoption of quota policies for afro-descendants. In 2004, the University of Brasilia (UnB) was the first institution of public education to hold a federal contest, which reserved vacancies for the admittance of afro-descendants and indigenous people to the university. From those years on other federal public institutions of higher education embraced this policy statement, to a greater or lesser extent, with distinct restrictions.

The adoption of a quota policy to access the university is not mandatory in Brazil. The universities adopt them after a debate that, in general, takes place internally and according to the organization’s regulations.

The changes resulting from those AA in the scenario of access of afro-descendants and, to a lesser extent, indigenous people to public universities have generated, in turn, a fairly heated debate in some sectors of society and intense and expressed polarized views and arguments captured by the media even within the academic community.

The most commonly used arguments by those against the system of quotas for afro-descendants in universities are:

a) The racialization of Brazilian society;

b) The palliative character of the affirmative actions;

c) The primacy of black and mulatto people, thus leading to an overgrowth of the middle class in those sectors;

d) A drop in teaching quality in the universities that have adopted the system; e) The increase of racial discrimination within the university and the feeling of afro-descendants that they are there only for the sake of a benefit and not for merit.

In contrast, those in favor of the quota system for afro-descendants to access public universities use the following arguments:

a) The historical repair for afro-descendants who were excluded, for over 500 years, from basic conditions of citizenship;

b) Equal conditions of competition for the social groups/sectors bereft from the access to formal education and quality teaching;

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 51 de 207 d) That ethnic-cultural diversity in the university is key for this, in the sense of expressing differences and allowing space for coexistence between heterogeneous groups (from this point of view), which could result in the mitigation of racial and ethnic prejudice.

Academic performance quota-students and non-quota students

One of the reasons given by those who oppose the policy of quotas for students coming from public schools and for afro-descendants and indigenous people is the difference in academic performance between quota-students and non-quota students, with, the former having a lower performance in relation to the latter, which would cause a drop in excellence of teaching and research quality in public universities.

The words of Munanga seem to corroborate this idea:

[...] if by some miracle the basic and fundamental education is ever able to improve its levels so the students of these levels of education may also compete in the admittance test with students from well supplied private schools, the afro-descendant students would take about 32 years to reach the current level of the white students (MUNANGA, 2003, no page number). However, specific and empirical studies on the universities that have adopted the system of quotas show that the performance of quota-students and non-quota students is not as different as imagined and that there are some aspects that need to be taken into account in the course of quota-students’ trajectory in the university.

A recently presented case study on the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) and the performance of quota-students between 2002 and 2008 points to the fact that the quota-students or beneficiaries presented, during their time in the university, a continuous performance improvement, that is, they improved the Coefficient of Performance (CP) during the course in which they were enrolled. Therefore, there is an indication that the longer the time in the university, the higher the CP of the quota-students, which achieve almost the same level as the non-beneficiaries. "It is seen that [in the specific case of UFBA] there is no significant difference between the

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 52 de 207 average CP of the non-beneficiary students from that of the non-effective beneficiary

students"2 (GUIMARÃES et al., 2011).

The relative performance of the quota-students, according to the study, was, on average, similar to that of those who have not benefited from the system of quotas. The quota-students have, over time in university shown the ability to overcome the initial difficulties (including lower results in the admittance test) and to improve the CP. An important data that appears in this study is that although quota-students may take longer to graduate, and this is associated to the socio-economic condition of those students who need to remain working, they have lower school drop out rates in relation to non-quota students. Therefore, the improved performance over time by the quota-students is also associated with the question of permanence versus drop out in the university. In addition, the study shows that as for the dismissal percentage (which for UFBA, is related to those who have missed the same subject for more than four times or who have missed all subjects during the same semester more than once), the performance index of beneficiaries showed a lower rate of failure than that of non-beneficiaries.

[...] subjected to more stringent and narrower criteria of performance evaluation and permanence, students who actually benefited from the new socially selective recruitment system of UFBA, from 2005 on (that is, those who have entered with the lowest grades in the admittance test, in their respective courses), have shown to hold the conditions to follow such courses with good absolute performance, similar to those who did not require a differentiated system of admittance. That is, the quota-students demonstrated they had the effective potential to attend higher education in UFBA (GUIMARÃES et al., 2011, p. 10).

Another previous study carried out in UFBA, shows that "[...] in eleven of the eighteen courses of greater competition, i.e., 61% of them, quota-students obtained performance yield equal or better than non-quota-students" (QUEIROZ and SANTOS, 2006, p. 733).

Velloso (2006) emphasizes that the argument that the quota-students’ poor performance, due to the educational deficiencies they carry in their background, would result in a decline in education quality in public institutions that have adopted

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The authors divided the students into 3 groups: non-beneficiaries (students who have not had the right to the vacancies of the quotas system); non-effective beneficiaries (students who, although having the right to the quotas, would be approved even in the absence of this policy due to their performance in the selective process) and effective beneficiaries, i.e., students who were approved only because the system of quotas exists) (GUIMARÃES et al., 2011, p. 04).

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 53 de 207 the quota system could be demonstrated by the admittance test results such as the first one held at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) after the adoption of this system. In this first vestibular with quotas at UERJ, the quota-students presented a very low performance level in comparison with the non-students: the quota-students made between 4 and 7 points for a total of 110. However, according to Velloso (2009), the empirical data on the performance of quota-students in various universities that adopt this system of quotas (or bonus) show another reality.

In [Universidade Estadual da Bahia] Uneb, the average performance of students who had competed for the vacancies reserved for afro-descendants, in a sample of 11 departments, usually stood only a few tenths of points below those obtained by other students; in two departments they were also superior by a few tenths comparing to the other students (Mattos 2006). At another university of the same state, the Federal University of Bahia - UFBA -, the students who were admitted by quotas (for graduates from public schools, and within those, for afro-descendants) had performances higher than or equal to the other students in 61% of the 18 most valued courses (Queiroz and Santos 2006). The preliminary evidence obtained for UnB was also not enough to sustain that argument, also dispelling fears of a sharp fall in the quality of teaching as an unavoidable consequence of the introduction of quotas for afro-descendants. The results of the first half of the approved studies at UnB in 2004 revealed that, in the set of all students, more than 1/3 of the admitted by quotas were in the top half of the distribution of the index of academic performance in their respective courses, next to the best students approved by the universal system (VELLOSO, 2006, p.623 ).

In that same text, Velloso (2009) presents his study made on the performance comparison of quota-students and non-quota students from similar social classes. We analyzed the average performances of three classes of quota and non-quota students of the University of Brasília (UnB), admitted in the years 2004, 2005 and 2006. "We wanted to know if, in each cohort of students, those who competed for the quotas had a performance different from those who had applied by the system of traditional admittance, and whether there were differences in performance among them" (VELLOSO, 2009, p. 624).

Briefly, the study showed that, in the three classes of courses in each area (Humanities, Science and Health), in approximately two-thirds there was no significant difference between the two groups, those admitted by quotas and free competition, in relation to the average of the students in question.

In the area of Humanities, responsible for more than half of the UnB registrations, there was no substantial difference in the performance of quota and non-quota students.

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 54 de 207 In the assessment made for Humanities at UnB, special attention was drawn to the relative similarity of results between the oldest and most recent cohort, as well as the remarkable increase in the level of performance of the quota-students of the class of 2005 compared to those of 2004. What would the possible origins of this increase be? Research data showed that for the students from the vacancies reserve of Humanities, between the 2004 and 2005 classes, the socio-economic profile had a strong upward shift: the proportion of quota- students whose mother had a university degree, for example, jumped from 34% to 44%. With this shift, the social profiles of quota and non-quota students were closer.

Therefore, the socio-economic conditions of students, quota-admitted or otherwise, would be the differential in terms of academic achievement, although studies may show that there is linearity in this causal relationship. Another hypothesis to understand the higher yield of quota-students in relation to non-quota students in valued courses in the area of humanities, as pointed out by Velloso (2009), would be that the quota-students extremely value their chance of studying in a public university, thus enabling the increase of self-esteem, which is configured as an important factor for the increase in academic performance.

In the area of Science, however, the results of the study were different from those of Humanities. The average performance of the quota-students was inferior to the non-quota students, except for the year 2005, as also indicated above in the area of Humanities, the year in which there was a reduction of the difference between the two groups. This difference between the performance of quota and non-quota students was more evident, and often baffling, among students of the higher social prestige careers, in particular engineering (there were also differences corresponding to the type of engineering).

In some of the less valued courses in science, there was an overrun of performance of quota-students in relation to non-quota students. One of the hypotheses proposed for the difference between performances - quota-students performance being lower in the area of science than in Humanities - is that high school provides few benefits for the development of the student's knowledge in the field of exact sciences. There is a very high deficit of teachers in the areas of chemistry and physics in public schools, which reflects, subsequently, in the

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 55 de 207 students’ performance in the university.

In the health care area, there was a great diversity in student’s performance - quota or non-quota - and it was exactly the opposite of what happened in the area of Exact Sciences. In the three careers of greatest prestige, Dentistry, Medicine and Pharmacy, "in summary, in all three classes, in all three most valued courses there were differences of weight on average, half of them favoring the quota-students” (VELLOSO, 2009, p. 638). In the courses less valued in this area, non-quota students performed higher. The question is why did quota-students perform so closely to non-quota students in health care courses, particularly in medicine, contrary to what might be expected.

Velloso answers:

The answer can be found, in part, in the self-selection of the candidates to admittance. As well observed Braga et al. (2001), there are few young candidates to university who dare challenge the unwritten symbolic hierarchy of the social prestige of courses (and institutions). In this process of self-selection, the self-assessment of young people about the quality of their previous training, and by such means as for their chances of approval in the admittance test, tends to make them subscribe to careers with higher probability of admittance (VELLOSO, 2009, p. 639).

The performance homogeneity degree in the admittance test between quota and non-quota students is a datum that confirms the notion of self-selection. The higher the self-selection the higher will be the performance uniformity in the admittance test between the two groups. In turn, those who decide to face the difficulties of access to a course of social prestige such as medicine by means of quotas seem to conform themselves to further deepening their studies, which could also explain their good performance in relation to the overall group of students. According to the study carried out by Velloso, the quotas for afro-descendants, seem to be one of the differentials in the repair of social inequality, even if modestly. This is because the quota-students assessed either had the same basis or came from very similar socio-economic sectors. Studies show, however, that skin color is a differential in school performance, i.e., blacks and mulattoes have a lower performance than whites of the same socio-economic position (VELLOSO and CARDOSO, 2011).

In face of the empirical studies stated here, it is understood that the issue of racism appears as one of the critical points for inequalities, and is, therefore, a

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 56 de 207 specific target of AA, in addition to the socio-economic issues. Nevertheless, it is clear that academic excellence of public universities in Brazil is not threatened by the presence of quota-students. Resilience appears as a fundamental factor in studies on academic performance of quota-students, who seem to, in a conformed way, overcome obstacles and deficits recorded in their school life, motivated by the desire to take the chance of attending a public university and to be able to enter a world until then accessible only to a white elite.

This article’s objective is to discuss not the pros and cons of AA, specifically the quota policy for afro-descendants’ access to public university, but rather the issue of academic performance of quota and non-quota students. The work is based on student profile data of the Federal University of ABC (UFABC), which will be detailed further ahead.

The work confirms the thesis that the skin color is the main explanatory variable for the differentiation of school performance among quota and non-quota students in institutions that adopt the quota system as an AA social policy, as is the case of UFABC. The research reinforces the need for the development of permanent AA and performance improvement policies focused preferentially on afro-descendant students (blacks and mulattoes).

Data analysis

The Federal University of ABC (UFABC), created by Law nº. 11,145 of July 26, 2005, is considered the most innovative initiative in the process of expansion and reform of higher education of the government of President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva

(2003-2010) in Brazil.3 It was a precursor to the Program for Restructuring and Expanding

the Federal Universities (called REUNI) and a pioneer in the implementation of the schemes of cycles and the interdisciplinary bachelor degrees in federal public

education (BRAZIL, 2008)4.

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UFABC started its activities in September 11, 2006, in the municipality of Santo André, ABC metropolitan area, known for its automobile industry in Sao Paulo State. This region includes the municipalities of Santo André, Sao Bernardo do Campo, Sao Caetano, Diadema, Maua, Ribeirao Pires and Rio Grande da Serra.

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 57 de 207 Inspired by the project of university reform of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC), since its creation the young university aroused great interest in the national and international scientific communities, especially among higher education scholars.

Although the university may have adopted a pioneer vacancy reservation policy (50%) for graduates from public schools and, within this contingent, quotas for afro-descendants (27.3%) and indigenous people (0.1%), the trend seen in the socio-economic profile of candidates to the admittance test of UFABC was elitist, contrary to what was expected from the affirmative actions (PINEZI, ZIMERMAN and SILVA, 2010, p.8).

Every three years, once a year, in the registration from the second to the third quarterly term, the students of UFABC answer a questionnaire with more than 60 questions. The questions cover from the socio-economic situation of the students up to leisure options, food, information resources, transportation, evaluation of the university, aspects of their academic training and others.

This is a way for the institution to know the profile and opinion of its students and systematically evaluate itself. Despite being a long questionnaire, almost all of the students answer it, especially due to the assurance of anonymity and because the students seem to understand the results obtained will serve to guide the directions the new university will take.

The content of this data analysis refers to the responses of 4,855 students of UFABC in the year 2011, when the information was last gathered. The questionnaire is carried out virtually, as mentioned, on the eve of the student’s registration. Considering the objective of this paper, we studied aspects pertaining to the student

being inserted or not in the university’s quota program, which reserves half of the

vacancies for students who went to high-school entirely in public schools. Among these reserved vacancies are also included those percentages for afro-descendant minorities (black and mulattoes), as well as for indigenous people.

Another relevant variable of this research is the academic performance or achievement, measured by the Coefficient of Performance (CP), calculated in all subjects studied by the students. At UFABC, students with CP from 2.0 on may be granted with a series of possibilities, such as the opportunity to apply for the scientific initiation scholarship and for the Researching Since the First Day (PDPD) program, in

for Brazil, organized by Natal et al. (2011). The medley gathers articles written by teachers of the institution and of others, which carry out contextualized analysis of the pedagogical political proposal of the university and its curricula. The concept of innovation is the structuring line of the medley.

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 58 de 207 addition to other socio-economic and academic benefits. For this reason, we have sorted students in two groups: those with CP lower or equal to two, who would not have the possibility to apply for the benefits; and those with CP higher than two, who show satisfactory results in UFABC. We must take into account that all students who answered the questionnaire have a CP, including those that were admitted in the same year of the questionnaire because the measurement of the CP does not distinguish the period the student has been in the institution. A newly admitted student may decide to take only a few subjects and may not have a satisfactory performance in them. This is a very different situation than that of an under-graduate student in his last term of the course with a low CP who, due to his many studied subjects, will not be able to improve his performance substantially, as the beginner may. Therefore, we do not separate the students per period of enrollment in the institution.

Other variables mentioned and used in the analysis of data were skin color, gender, family income, permanence scholarship and learning deficiency. These data were crossed to check whether the quota-students present similar performance to the non-quota students.

When the student has chosen to mark the alternatives "I do not know" or "No answer" in the questionnaire, we have preferred to remove these comments from the analysis and leave the valid numbers on a given question. We must take into account that the following descriptive analyses are based only and exclusively on responses from students, being self-declaratory and not institutional information about them, i.e., the students themselves declare the skin color, family income and CP, and not the institution, with official data about them.

First, we will hold a descriptive analysis of the data, and then, if necessary, apply an explanatory analysis by means of regression.

Out of 4,855 responding students, 3,237 - 67% of the entire student population - managed to indicate their range of Coefficient of Performance (CP), and, therefore appear on table 1.

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The approximate average CP5 of all students (quota and non-quota, with high

and low academic performance) was 2.06, a little above 2.00, therefore classified as medium academic performance.

Average CP of students Valid number of students Average CP <2 Valid number of students Average CP >2 Valid number of students Non-Quota-Students 2.11 2,049 63.3% 1.52 911 59.7% 2.58 1,138 66.5% Quota-Students 1.99 1,188 36.7% 1.43 616 40.3% 2.59 572 33.4% Total 3,237 100% 1,527 100% 1,710 100%

Table 1 - Academic performance of students in various categories. Source: Perfil e Opinião Discente (UFABC/Propladi, 2011).

If we separate quota and non-quota students we have that the average CP of all non-quota students is 2.11 (among the 2,049 non-quota students), and that the average CP of all quota-students is 1.99 (among the 1,188 quota-students).

Among the non-quota students with low academic performance, the average CP was 1.52 (among 911 non-quota students); while among the quota-students with low performance, the average CP was 1.43 (among 616 quota-students).

On another level, medium-high academic performance, the non-quota students had an average CP of 2.58 (among the 1,138 non-quota students) and the quota-students of 2.59 (among the 572 quota-students).

Therefore, the quota-students with high academic performance are somewhat better than the non-quota students within the same performance classification, although the number of quota-students, as mentioned, is lower than that of non-quota students.

The main problem and greatest difference between student’s performance is found among students with low academic performance, so support and monitoring policies should focus on this specific population, as will be addressed later.

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 60 de 207 The academic performance of quota-students seems to be proportionally lower than that of non-quota students. While the majority of quota-students have low academic performance (CP below two) non-quota students are going in the opposite direction, and the majority of them show a medium-high academic performance (CP equal or higher than two). The difference in intensity is also a factor that deserves

consideration. Analyzing both groups – quota-students and non-quota students –

separately and then comparing them, we note that the difference between low and high academic performance among each group is considerably high, i.e., four percentage points and twelve percentage points, respectively. From these preliminary data, we may assume that non-quota students have, on average, better performance than quota-students.

Chart 1: Student achievement, based on Skin Color, Gender and Quota system: UFABC, 2011. Source: Perfil e Opinião Discente (UFABC/Propladi 2011).

It is important to note that the data presented in this article is static, i.e., refers only to one period of collection. Therefore, we intend only to measure the

performance change within this period and not from one year to the other.6

6

The text by Antonio Sergio Guimaraes (University of Sao Paulo, USP), Lilia Carolina Coast (Federal University of Bahia, UFBA), and Naomar de Almeida Filho (UFBA), titled "social inclusion and school

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 61 de 207 The same kind of analysis done for the previous chart, on quotas and academic performance can be more specific if we break it down, including factors such as skin color and gender variables for quota and non-quota students, as we can see in chart 1. We know skin color may influence academic performance because it is intrinsically associated with other socio-economic variables, such as family income, school quality prior to university, parents' education, etc.

Blacks and mulattoes have, in their majority, low performance both as quota- and non-quota students. Asians present low performance in the group of quota-students, but high performance among non-quota quota-students, whereas white people have high performance in both categories. The greatest differences regarding skin color in relation to academic performance are: black quota-students (-35.4%), mulatto quota-students (-17.6%), non-quota black students (-17.2%), non-quota

white students (14.0%), non-quota Asian students (10.2%)7. These numbers do not

take gender into consideration.

Since racial quotas are destined for afro-descendants (and also indigenous people) at UFABC, descriptive data show evidence that both blacks and mulattoes have lower academic performance, which leads us to infer that this group would need more support to get into university than others. Moreover, once inside, they would also require policies targeted at helping them complete their studies with a good performance.

If we break data down even more by checking the situation by gender, in layers of non-quota and quota-students and skin color, we may further specify the profile of students and infer their academic performance trend.

It is worth noting that during UFABC’s recent history, male students have always been the majority there, as the university was designed to emphasize the technological area in which, in Brazil, men tend to predominate; while women tend to surpass men in areas such as psychology, social sciences and suchlike.

performance: The UFBA case", presented at the 35th Annual Meeting of ANPOCS in October 2011, to assess the school performance of another federal academic institution of higher education in Salvador, Bahia state, UFBA, concludes that although the performance of quota-students may have been lower than that of non-quota students, in proportional terms, that is, the difference from one year to the other, their yield is higher in relation to quota students, although in absolute terms non-quota students still present better grades.

7

Negative signs indicate difference in favor of the low performance, and positive signs point to differences in favor of the high academic performance.

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 62 de 207 Subsequently, UFABC opened a range of other courses, including humanities and social sciences, but in a smaller proportion to hard sciences, thus preserving the gender difference among students. Currently, out of those who filled out the questionnaire, 1497 were women and 3358 were men, i.e., only 30.8% of students in the institution in 2011 were women. For that reason, we have considered the proportion in relation to their peers and not compared to the opposite gender in chart 1.

The trends found in relation to gender in UFABC are rather surprising. Regarding non-quota students, men, apart from those with white colored skin, present, on average, low academic performances.

As for women, regarding non-quota students, they display on average a greater tendency to perform highly in all skin colors, except for afro-descendants. Male quota-students, regardless of skin color, present, on average, low performance rates. This time we considered no exception, despite the very small difference of the white-colored, with only 0.4%.

The female quota-students showed, once more, high performance rates on average. The exceptions are repeated, this time with the group of afro-descendants (blacks and mulattoes), thus stressing this group’s vulnerability and need for affirmative actions to equalize with the others, mainly whites and Asians.

Some large differences should be highlighted: non-quota Asian women showed great improvement in their performance, with difference of nothing less than 47.2%, while non-quota white women improved their academic performance by 27.8% of difference on average. In relation to quota-students, afro-descendant women dropped 41%, thus decreasing their academic performance (difference between the groups of high and low academic performance). Afro-descendant and Asian men also dropped and their difference was 34.8% and 25.8% respectively for each group mentioned. It is worth mentioning that, with such disaggregation of data, the smaller groups, which may be most affected by such descriptive analysis for being very small are afro-descendants and women. Asians also form a small group. Indigenous people do not appear in the choices of skin color, even though they are beneficiaries of the university’s quota policy and although this group may probably be part of the "others".

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 63 de 207 Another relevant variable in research about quotas and academic performance is the range of the family monthly income, as we see in chart number 2. This variable was divided into four distinct ranges, all in Brazilian Real (0-1,000;

1,001-3,000; 3,001-5,000; more than 5,000)8.

Among the non-quota group, the only income range to present a majority of low-performance students was that of R$3,001 - R$5,000. We emphasize that, contrary to expectations, the lowest income range (R$0 - US$1,000) presented a good proportional difference favorable to students with good academic performance.

Among students who have been approved in the selective process of the

National High School Exam9 (or ENEM, in Portuguese abbreviation) through quotas,

only the range of family income between R$1,001 and R$3,000 showed, on average, more low-performing students than the other income ranges. However, again the lower income range showed, on average, more high-performing students despite their poor-family origins. This came as a surprise, because greater academic difficulty due to socio-economic issues was expected of these students.

Chart 2 - Family income and academic performance: UFABC, 2011. Source: Perfil e Opinião Discente (UFABC/Propladi 2011).

8

For researchers outside Brazil, the dollar exchange rate on 11.16.2011 was R$1.77/US$1.00.

9

ENEM is a non-mandatory, standardized Brazilian national exam, which evaluates high school students, with more than 7.1 million registered candidates in 2013. Its importance increased after 2009 because the exam has been used both as admission test for enrollment in 23 federal universities and 26 educational institutes, as well as for certification for a high school degree.

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 64 de 207 Difficulties due to a range of combined problems that hamper student’s academic performance, from financial to family issues, as well as health problems and suchlike, should be partly offset by financial aid to help improve academic performance and make students facing such difficult conditions remain in their courses and increase their academic coefficient. This aid exists at UFABC and is called "permanence scholarship".

Quota-students totaled nearly twice as many as non-quota students to receive such aid to allow their permanence and academic performance improvement during their studies.

However, several problems may hamper the permanence of students in the university, including and especially when they have academic difficulties accentuated by a variety of deficiencies, among which is learning disability.

Chart 3 - Support for the needy: UFABC, 2011.

Source: Perfil e Opinião Discente (UFABC/Propladi 2011).

We can see, in chart 3 that quota-students due to their background of financial and social difficulties are often more vulnerable regarding this debilitation in relation to non-quota students. The low number of students in this situation should be taken into account when we observe the totality of students of UFABC.

After the completion of the descriptive analysis, we have included an exploratory analysis of causality to explain the academic performance of students. The aim is to investigate the explanatory variables that would link good performance

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 65 de 207 to being quota-students or not, to belonging to a specific skin color group, or to working to earn a living and, thus, be able to study.

In the following table we have the independent variables that could explain student’s academic performance.

Independent Variables

Name Source Values

Paid non-academic activity Profile of the

students

0 = do not carry out

any paid

non-academic activity; 1 = do carry out some

paid non-academic

activity;

White Profile of the

students

0 = Asian, mulatto, black, other.

1 = white.

Afro-descendant Profile of the

students

0 = white, Asian, other; 1 = mulatto + black.

Quota-student Profile of the

students

0 = Non-quota student; 1 = Quota-student;

Table 2 - Description of the independent variables.

Source: Self made (based on data from Perfil e Opinião Discente, UFABC/Propladi 2011).

Paid non-academic activity refers to the work a student does in order to earn a living (and/or support his family) so he may be able to study. As non-qualified professional activity requires long hours, even for those who work part-time, the working student has little free time to devote to his studies and, thus, be able to achieve satisfactory results in the same extent as the student who has free time for studying.

We decided to include the skin color - black/mulatto and white - to check the differences in relation to achieving high academic performance. In Brazil, the color of the skin is correlated to the socio-economic situation, and, therefore, to education. The expectation for white-colored skin students is that, because of their skin color,

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 66 de 207 they have increased chances of showing high academic performance, and the expectation for dark-colored skin students is just the opposite.

We have seen in the descriptive analysis that quota-students have a worse academic performance than non-quota students. We now want to verify the association between being a quota-student and academic performance.

High Academic Performance Model I Model II Paid non-academic activity 0.752*** (0.073) 0.755*** (0.073) Afro-descendant 0.745*** (0.078) White 1.216*** (0.071) Quota-student 0.758*** (0.068) 0.740*** (0.067) N 4855 4855 Hosmer-Lemeshow Test (model adjustment) 0.311 0.000

Table 3 - Models of binary logistic regression10

Source: Self made (based on data from Perfil e Opinião Discente, UFABC/Propladi 2011)

All the variables had significance p  0.01 and, therefore, must be taken in

consideration. The difference between the two models we built, is that dark-colored skin was included in Model I whereas white-colored skin was included in Model II. They cannot be put in the same model because of multicollinearity.

We chose the ODDS RATIO instead of the coefficient alone to indicate, in addition to the direction between the independent variables and the dependent one, also the intensity of this association.

10

Significance: *** p  0.01. OR (odds ratios) in the first line of each variable followed by the standard error in parenthesis. N=4,855 comments for the year 2011.

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 67 de 207 In Model I we found that the paid non-academic activity of working students reduces by 0.7 times the chances of him having a high academic performance. The mulatto and black students reduce their chances of performing highly in their studies by 0.7 times. In addition, the quota-student has his chance of having a high performance reduced by 0.7 times.

Model II is very similar to model I, with the difference that the white student increases his chance of having a high academic performance by 1.2 times, as opposed to the afro-descendant student, as we have seen above.

The binary logistic regression used the 4,855 observations present in the UFABC student profile database of 2011.

Final remarks

This research carried out on the students of UFABC has shown that there are differences in academic performance between quota-students and non-quota students in favor of the second group. It is noteworthy that the academic literature on the topic shows that this difference tends to be marked at the time the student is admitted, but diminishes as the student moves on in his studies. That is, the performance of the quota-student increases in relation to that of the non-quota student, and although it may not match, it gets reasonably close.

Therefore, admission in a highly qualified university is not enough to reduce differences. To have the opportunity to be admitted is essential, but a policy to aid these students who joined with major deficiencies should be made a priority so that drop out and low performance rates of quota-students are decreased.. At UFABC a specific permanence scholarship already exists, but a more systematic monitoring of academic performance of quota-students is essential. The findings of this article draw attention to the particular situation of students who declare themselves as black/mulatto, and should be the target of specific policies within the system of social and racial quotas adopted by the university and lately, as Law, by the federal government.

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 68 de 207 quota-system for admittance, with 10 to 15 different combinations. There is a kind of consensus with respect to inclusion, although there may be differences in how it should characterize (either social or racial). The current moment of consolidation of affirmative action policies should facilitate the access of the underprivileged classes to higher education so that they have the same opportunities as any other citizen to join a university and achieve social and economic success, regardless of color, gender, or social origin.

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Sobre os autores

Artur Zimerman - Doutor pela Universidade de São Paulo (USP), com estágio de um ano na Yale University (2004, EUA), mestre em Administração Pública (1998) e bacharel em Ciência Política e Relações Internacionais (1993), ambas pela The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel). Rua Arcturus, 03 - Bloco Delta - Sala 373 -

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ISSN: 16799844 - InterSciencePlace - Revista Científica Internacional Páginas 70 de 207 Jardim Antares, São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, Brasil.

Ana Keila Mosca Pinezi - Mestre e Doutora pela USP, é docente e pesquisadora da Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC); é docente permanente no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Humanas e Sociais, da UFABC. Interesses de pesquisa: Ações Afirmativas e Políticas Públicas em Educação; Identidades; Gênero; Religião. Coordena o Grupo de Pesquisa IPLURES (Identidades Plurais e

Representações Simbólicas), CNPq. Rua Arcturus, 03 - Bloco Delta - Sala 373 -

Jardim Antares, São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, Brasil.

Sidney Jard da Silva - Mestre e Doutor pela USP, com doutorado sanduíche no Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); é docente e pesquisador da Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC); é docente permanente no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Humanas e Sociais, da UFABC. Interesses de pesquisa: Ações Afirmativas e Políticas Públicas em Educação; Instituições

Políticas; Políticas Públicas; Processo Decisório. Rua Arcturus, 03 - Bloco Delta -