Technology for Educational Equity in Brazil

Development of a Tool to Democratize Data Analysis

Abstract

The present study analyzed, from a quantitative perspective, the microdata of the National High School Examination (Enem) over a ten-year period (2014–2023), with the aim of investigating educational equity in Brazil. To support this study, a bibliographic review of the literature was carried out, selecting research that analyzed educational performance and inequalities in Brazil. In order to overcome the technical challenge of handling and analyzing this large volume of data—identified in the literature—we developed an interactive web application that facilitates the visualization and interpretation of these data, while also enabling comparisons between socioeconomically and geographically distinct groups. The tool was built with Python, HTML/CSS, and the Dash framework, along with the Plotly and Pandas libraries. The results confirm the decisive influence of socioeconomic variables such as family income, race/color, school type, and region on students’ performance, revealing the existence of persistent patterns of intersectional inequality. The research was guided by two hypotheses: H1 — Does the integration of Enem data, from 2014 to 2023, across all Brazilian states reveal patterns of intersectional inequality and long-term trends? H2 — Does the developed application enable efficient analyses and democratize access to information for educational research? It is concluded that the application not only validates the research hypotheses but also represents a significant methodological contribution by overcoming barriers in handling large volumes of educational data, democratizing access to and analysis of essential information for evidence-based research and public policies.