Opening public schools on weekends has become a common practice in many states of Brazil. The quantitative studies indicate auspicious results for this public policy in reducing violence. This paper discusses the impacts of opening basic schools of Curitiba, during the weekend, to communities in vulnerable areas. It investigates questions about violence and performance of students in standardized tests. The methodology applied in analyzing violence is weighted least squares by propensity score, in analyzing performance is used differences in differences. Two counterfactuals are used: schools waiting to get into the program and those which have showed no interest. The results show that the program has a positive impact on some dimensions of violence, such as the relationship among students, the reduction of crimes against property and drug dealing. The results also show a negative impact on the average performance of the schools, even though they are not statistically significant. Although the program improves the school environment, we conclude that it fails when trying to transform such successes into effective learning.
School; Quality; Violence; Microeconometrics
