Educational policy in the São Paulo state network and quality of education under the New Public Management, 1995 to 2018

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze the educational policy of the state of São Paulo between 1995 and 2018, based on the main government programs and projects and their implications for the reconfiguration of the state education system, considering several dimensions of the policy. It is a qualitative research that involved the collection and study of documentary and bibliographic sources and interviews with managers of the Secretariat of Education, with the theoretical framework of Gramsci's concept of integral state, focusing on public policies and New Public Management (NGP), being structured in three periods: 1995-2006, 2007-2010, 2011-2018. Among the main results, we highlight the consolidation of a concept of quality in school education linked to the measurement of learning in standardized assessments and under the logic of management for results that is based on the concepts of efficiency and technical rationalization specific to NGP. This educational policy has contributed to a reframing of the public school and the teaching profession in São Paulo. The logic of management and educational quality implemented through successive programs, projects and actions reorganizes the public meaning of the school, transforming it into a training space for specific skills and competences; and education professionals become service providers, less and less valued.