About the presentation
Using novel data from a representative survey of Brazilian K--12 schools, which uniquely asked students directly about their sensory and motor challenges, we document that official statistics understate the share of students with disabilities by more than 70%. Interviewing school staff who fill out government databases, we find that this reflects a combination of a medical -- rather than social -- model of disabilities and biases that lead school staff to attribute visual, auditory or motor challenges to broader vulnerabilities in family background. We further document that overlooking disabilities leaves vulnerable students behind: among severely delayed middle-school students in São Paulo State, 37% experience visual, auditory or motor challenges -- a share more than four-fold its national prevalence --; moreover, a pedagogical intervention meant to help these students catch up only helped those without functional disabilities.
About Guilherme
Guilherme is an Assistant Professor of Education at Stanford, co-Director at the Stanford Lemann Center for Entrepreneurship and Educational Innovation in Brazil, and a faculty affiliate at the Stanford King Center for Global Development, the Stanford Center on Early Childhood, the Stanford Institute for Advancing Just Societies, and the UC Berkeley Center for Effective Global Action. He holds a PhD in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University. Previously, he was the UNICEF professor of Economics and Child Wellbeing and Development at the University of Zurich. Guilherme was recognized by the Schwab Foundation and Folha de São Paulo as Brazil's top-10 social entrepreneur (post-pandemic legacy), in 2020, and by MIT Technology Review as Brazil's top social innovator among under-35 entrepreneurs, in 2014. He is also an expert in social innovation at the World Economic Forum Expert Network.
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Week 2 - Discussants: Guilherme Lichand
