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This paper investigates whether and how armed conflicts among drug gangs in Rio de Janeiro's slums affect children's educational outcomes. We explore time and geographical variation in localized violent events in order to identify causal effects of exposure to violence on students' achievement test scores and mobility across schools. We find that students from schools close to areas that experience more violence over time perform worse in standardized math exams, while no significant effect is found for language exams. Violence is also associated with higher grade repetition and dropout rates, particularly for nonwhite students. We also discuss the mechanisms underlying these results. Violence is associated with higher levels of teacher absenteeism; and events of violence during both classes and vacation periods affect student achievement, which suggest that violence may have disruptive effects via both the school and household environments.

violence; student achievement