The paper analyzes patterns of intra- and interschool segregation for the entire Rio de Janeiro, municipal school system from 2004 to 2010. The research design captures the "net effect" of "schooling in shifts/sessions, a mandatory distribution of pupils across morning and afternoon "shifts" or "sessions". Segregation was assessed utilizing the Segregation Index considering four different pupil characteristics: poverty, color/race, parents' education and age/grade distortion. The results indicate that "school shifts" increase the overall level of segregation and that the pupils are being consistently selected based on prior educational attainment, reinforcing the existence of "informal tracking" in Rio de Janeiro public schools.
School segregation; school shifts; educational policy
