Objectives: The purpose of this study was to record the variations in height of adolescents over 3 years and investigate their relationship with gender, age, sexual maturation, and nutritional indicators. Methods: The variables assessed were age, gender, height, body weight, body mass index, sexual maturation according to the Tanner scale, menarche date, birth weight and height, childhood obesity, breastfeeding duration, family income, and maternal education level. Statistical analyses were performed using two-way analyses of variance or the Friedman test, percentile analyses, and logistic regressions. Results: The sample was composed of 557 adolescents aged 10 to 15 years; 54% were female. The mean heights at the first, second, and third year follow-up evaluations were 152.02 __ampersandsignplusmn; 9.26 cm, 156.75 __ampersandsignplusmn; 8.61 cm, and 160.13 __ampersandsignplusmn; 8.14 cm, respectively. The mean height gain from baseline to the end of the study was 6.74 cm among girls and 9.73 cm among boys. The mean growth velocity (GV) was higher among 10-year-old underweight, prepubescent boys (5.4 cm/year). Gender (girls: odds ratio [OR] = 5.97; 95% confidence intervals [CI] = 3.36__ampersandsignndash;10.59), age (older youths; OR 2.43; 1.84__ampersandsignndash;3.21), and body weight (OR 1.05; 1.03__ampersandsignndash;1.07) were associated with lower GVs. Conclusions: Assessing growth based on sexual maturation stage enabled more adequate diagnoses of adolescents than age. Being overweight, older, and female were factors that limited growth. The growth exhibited by Brazilian adolescents enrolled in public schools was comparable with international parameters.