USP, Unicamp and Unesp want serial entrance exam – 03/10/2023 – Education

The three state universities in São Paulo want to transform Saresp (a test that evaluates the quality of teaching in the state network of São Paulo) into a serial entrance exam. Thus, students will be evaluated at the end of each high school grade and the grade, at the end of the three years, will be used to enroll in undergraduate courses.

They seek to transform Saresp into a model close to the American entrance exam, the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test), in which students take the tests several times during a stage similar to Brazilian high school. The selection process for admission to universities in this format can only be done by students from schools in the São Paulo state network.

The proposal has already been made to the government of Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) and the universities want to start the model this year. According to Carlos Gilberto Carlotti, rector of USP, state management has already shown enthusiasm for the proposal.

Currently, Saresp is applied only in the 5th and 9th years of elementary school and in the 3rd year of high school. One of the criticisms of the current model of the test is that students have little incentive to take it, since the results only serve to assess the quality of teaching at school units —the grades also define the value for paying bonuses to teachers.

To transform it into a serial entrance exam, the tests would also be applied in the 1st and 2nd year of this final stage. At the end of the three years, a final grade will be calculated and students will be able to compete for undergraduate vacancies at USP, Unicamp and Unesp.

“There are several advantages to this model. The main one is being able to identify, from the 1st year of high school, a student with the potential to enter university and thus accompany him, offer complementary activities so that he can pass and arrive better prepared for graduation”, Carlotti said.

The proposal for a new selection model for universities in São Paulo was presented this Friday morning (10) at the USP campus in Ribeirão Preto, where the Ayrton Senna Institute Chair for Innovation in Educational Assessment was launched, which will be headed by professor Maria Helena Guimarães de Castro.

USP intends to reserve around 10% of its undergraduate vacancies for selection through the serial entrance exam. Of the approximately 11,000 vacancies, 1,500 would be allocated to this model. The same proportion must be followed by Unicamp and Unesp.

Despite wanting to implement the model this year, universities need to approve the new selection process in internal instances, such as the Graduate Councils and University Councils (the institutions’ highest bodies).

“We worked out this model together and we want to implement it at the same time in all three. Cruesp [Conselho de Reitores das Universidades Estaduais de São Paulo] is committed to making this happen jointly”, said the USP dean.

According to Carlotti, by transforming Saresp into a selection process, the three universities will get closer to public education and thus be able to collaborate more effectively with improving the quality of basic education.

“By participating in this assessment, we will be able to identify what is going well or not in public education and collaborate with our presence in secondary education. The state of São Paulo has 3 top universities, in Brazil and the world, and we can collaborate much more with basic education than we do today”, he said.

The dean recalled that, despite being the richest state in the country, São Paulo has not been able to improve learning levels in state schools. Saresp data from 2021 show that 96.6% of students finished school without even learning how to solve a first degree equation.

In Saeb (federal evaluation of basic education), the results show that only 7% of students from state schools in São Paulo finish high school with learning considered adequate in mathematics —a percentage that is higher in Espírito Santo, Goiás, Rio Grande do Sul and Ceará .

“We are in the state with the best economy, with the best conditions. It would be natural for us to seek the best quality of education for our students and the three universities in São Paulo can contribute more.”

With the serial entrance exam model, universities hope to increase the incentive for students to try to enter higher education. The São Paulo state network has around 400,000 students in high school, but less than 10% sign up to take the Fuvest (test that gives access to vacancies at USP).

“The proportion of students who finish public education and think they are able to enter university is very small and this is very bad. With this model, we will have 400,000 students with the possibility of entering. I think this is a stimulus important, we can create a real path of access to universities”, said Carlotti.

In 2008, with the aim of increasing public school participation in the entrance exams, USP created a bonus system based on student performance throughout high school. The measure, however, had little effect in encouraging students.

The serial entrance exam is already used in other institutions in the country, such as UnB (University of Brasília) and UPE (State University of Pernambuco). In these cases, there was an increase in the enrollment of students from the state network in undergraduate courses.