Brazil. How Two Municipalities Achieved Above-Average Results in Reading in the Early Years of Elementary School During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This chapter discusses the impacts of distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ reading development in the early years of elementary school in Brazil and analyzes educational policies that may have mitigated part of these effects. The research focuses on reading assessments carried out in 2021 by CAEd/UFJF and Associação Bem Comum in ten Brazilian states. Although the assessments revealed major challenges for students’ literacy in many states, some municipalities managed to mitigate part of the effects of the pandemic, achieving above-average results. Two municipalities that reached rates of fluent students in reading higher than the average were selected for survey and analysis: Machados-PE and Coruripe-AL. This paper examines the public policies of these networks to identify and understand the actions that contributed to their unique performance in the assessment.