education; and creative economy.<sup>31</sup> Even though it is mandatory that the pedagogical support field is chosen by all schools, schools can then choose the specific subjects of the extracurricular supported activities (either Portuguese, mathematics, sciences). Activities can be carried out inside or outside the school area, often by establishing partnerships with NGOs or public/private entities.

Not all students within each participating school are necessarily part of _Mais Educação_ . Student participation depends on his or her interests and on criteria used by the school for student participation, which may differ across schools. We note that each school can select which and how many students will participate in _Mais Educação_ in a given year. Although each school is free to set its own student selection criteria, MEC provides general guidance on student selection, which focuses on students with disadvantaged backgrounds and/or with a higher probability of dropping out.<sup>32</sup> In general, the majority of students enrolled in a participating school end up joining the program. Data from MEC and INEP show that between 2008 and 2011 the average share of participating students per school is 77 percent and the median is 82 percent.

The program began in 2008 and has expanded gradually since then. Table 1 reports the coverage of _Mais Educação_ nationwide and by regions between 2008 and 2011, with the number of schools enrolled in _Mais Educação_ and the share of participating schools in Brazilian public schools.<sup>33</sup> Results show great heterogeneity in the proportion of participating schools across regions. For example, in 2011, the year with maximum program coverage over the analyzed period, whereas in the Midwest 11.2 percent of the public schools were enrolled in _Mais Educação_ , in the Northeast this percentage was only 5.2 percent. Wide variation is also seen in program coverage over time. In 2008, 1,380 schools were enrolled in _Mais Educação_ , with 924,584 students participating in the program. A great expansion of the program’s coverage occurred, reaching 12,294 schools or 6.2 percent of the total number of Brazilian public schools in 2011 and 11.1 million students. The expansion in program's coverage between 2008 and 2011 was accompanied by a large increase in the resources transferred to schools. A significant increase is also seen in the transfer per student over the period, increasing from R$31.6 per student to R$74.8 per student.

# **4. Methodology**

> 31 Fields of knowledge changed slightly over the years. In some editions of the program, not all fields were available, but notable differences were not seen from one year to another.

> 32 Criteria for selection of students suggested by MEC were the following: students who are at risk and/or social vulnerable, students with high levels of age-grade distortions; students from the final grades of the first and second cycles of basic education (fifth and ninth grades) where the dropout rates are higher and beneficiaries of _Bolsa Família_ (Brazilian conditional cash transfer program).

> 33 The share of schools enrolled in _Mais Educação_ is the total number of schools participating in the program divided by the total number of public schools registered in the school census in the previous year. We exclude from the sample private schools.

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