Assuming that it is still valid to distinguish policy into phases (agenda, formulation, implementation and evaluation), this text presents the evolution of the academic reflection and highlights the relevance of studying implementation today. It also brings forth some research results as a contribution to the debate on methodological issues in the assessment of the implementation process, as a specific subarea of the research on policy assessment for the study of educational policies. Based on a reflection on the literature produced and on the methodology employed in research on education, it retrieves the changes and opportunities in the field of the implementation of educational policy as a field of practical research, which, these last twenty years, has become an arena of fierce conflicts and of interests, because of a large budget policy. It also approaches the multiple dimensions of welfare state.
Educational policy; Implementation; Policy evaluation