This article aims to (a) propose an indicator to describe the socioeconomic status of primary schoolchildren in public schools in Brazilian municipalities and (b) identify the differences between localities. The analysis is relevant given the evidence of stratification of educational opportunities resulting from historical, cultural, economic, political, and social factors that have impacted educational demand by families and the supply of schooling by governments that generate disparity of appropriation of educational results between social groups in Brazil. A quantitative descriptive survey was performed using data on 3.9 million pupils from 46.290 urban public schools in 5.492 municipalities (counties) that applied the "Prova Brasil" test in 2011. The Student Socioeconomic Indicator for Municipalities (ISE-M) was calculated using factor analysis. The results allowed identifying the municipalities with the highest proportion of poor pupils, besides evaluating socioeconomic disparity between municipalities.
primary education; educational policy; socioeconomic status of students; social inequalities; educational inequalities
