Abstract
This investigation aims at comprehending the reception of national educational policies in a municipal context. The bases of analysis are the perspectives of municipal managers, schools principals and educational unions. We analyze their interpretations and (re)interpretations of national educational policies. Our focus is the Prova Brasil (Brazilian National Examination) and the data produced on its basis. We describe a context where the Prova Brasil is not fully understood in its technical aspects. This circumstance generates ambivalent positions: on one hand principals and trade unionists acknowledge the necessity of external evaluation, but on the other hand they criticize its standardization. The justification of these criticisms is “school reality”. The meaning of “school reality” is twofold: it points to the specificities of each school inside the educational system and generates interpretations that are alternatives and divergent from the public policy.
Educational policies; Large scale evaluation; Brazilian National Examination