Is the school alone? Exploratory study of the relationship between student performance and the availability of public services in the school's neighborhood

The article investigates the association between the availability of public services in the neighborhoods of schools and the learning of 5th grade students in Belo Horizonte (Brazil). To do so, it adjusts multilevel regression models of proficiency in Portuguese and Mathematics, according to data from the Basic Education Evaluation System (saeb) for the year 2017. The neighborhood is defined as the 500-meter area surrounding the school and is the reference unit for creating the indices of availability of public services early childhood education, leisure, social assistance, health, and mobility services. The results suggest a lack of association between these school neighborhood characteristics and learning. Such findings emphasize the role of school for student outcomes and the need to investigate the hypothesis that the relationship between public services and learning is spurious, mediated by elements that are associated with both variables.