Through in-depth socio-historical analysis of discourses and processes of quantification around school performance and student failure rates in Brazil, this volume highlights the prevalence of Eurocentric colonized thought that results in the persistence of exclusion bottlenecks, different trajectories according to gender, race and class, significant regional variations in the rates of failure and dropout, among other problems. Focussing on processes performed between 1918 and 2012, chapters offer rich analysis of historiographic sources including journals, newspapers, and administrative documentation to trace the development of initiatives intended to promote the democratization of Brazilian schooling. Examination of reforms including school classification, the graduated school model, admissions examinations, and automatic promotion reveal a school system which mirrors wider societal injustices and guarantees academic success for only a minority of students. Bringing a nuanced and elaborated historical perspective of the pragmatics of the selective classificatory logic in different institutional and epistemic qualities of the school organization of children and reasoning about abilities and achievement, it will appeal to scholars and researchers with interests in curriculum and assessment, the sociology of education, and the history of education.