Classroom Segregation without Tracking: Chance, Legitimacy, and Myth in 'Racial Paradise.' CEPA Working Paper No. 21-04

Though schools do not track in Brazil, I find that black/white classroom segregation in Brazil is greater than recent estimates from North Carolina high schools (Clotfelter et al., 2020). How does race-based classroom segregation occur without tracking, and in a supposed "racial paradise," no less? Using national, student-level data spanning from 2011 to 2017, I describe racial classroom segregation among Brazilian 5th and 9th graders and assess potential mechanisms identified in the literature. The findings are consistent with a segregation by chance regime in which (1) schools typically assign students to classrooms arbitrarily, producing initial assignments that are sometimes segregated by chance, and (2) schools choose to move forward with the racially segregated "draws" rather than make race-conscious adjustments.