Practices adopted in the state of Espírito Santo to overcome grade retention in literacy classes (1960-1970)

ABSTRACT This paper aims mainly to understand two practices engaged by the Secretary of Education and Culture to promote the enhancement of approval rates in public schools, in the state of Espírito Santo, in the 1960s and 1970s, by establishing criteria for the creation of homogeneous groups and system of assessment of learning mainly in the first grade, in which grade retention rates were more alarming. It emerges from a historical research in which documents generated in the period were analyzed. It has as theoretical reference writings of Mikhail Bakhtin in the field of philosophy of language. It concludes that the criteria for group creation and assessments did not contribute significantly to the growth of the approval rates, making development difficult for poor children in public schools.