New FGV study center seeks to improve learning in Brazil's schools

Despite having structured an education policy, invested resources and expanded access considerably in recent decades, Brazil was ranked among the 15 worst countries in mathematics and science in the 2024 PISA assessment, a ranking that evaluates and compares education in 56 countries. Given the controversy that Brazil has invested resources and universalized basic education, without managing to improve learning levels, it is necessary to evaluate the implementation of education policies in the country. With this in mind, the Center for Studies in the Implementation of Educational Policies (FGV CEPIPE), based at the São Paulo School of Business Administration (FGV EAESP), was created.

Funded by the São Paulo State Research Foundation (Fapesp), FGV CEPIPE will investigate the processes of implementing educational policies in the state of São Paulo, with the aim of understanding what challenges exist and how to improve them.

The researchers will focus on five areas of research: Curriculum Policy Formulation; Communication and Interaction with Stakeholders; School Management and Leadership; Teaching and Curriculum Policies; and Curriculum Policies and Students' Educational Development.

Once the problems in these sectors have been diagnosed, the second stage will be the design, experimentation and evaluation of modular solutions, with the aim of proposing improvements to issues related to the implementation of the curriculum, in order to have a positive impact on student learning and the reduction of educational inequalities.

In addition to a bibliographic and documentary analysis, the diagnoses will be drawn up after semi-structured interviews, field visits and questionnaires with professionals in the education sector. To carry out these activities, the center relies on a network of multidisciplinary partnerships and associated researchers linked to universities in various states of Brazil and other countries.

Launch of FGV CEPIPE

The launch of FGV CEPIPE took place on February 11 at FGV EAESP, in an event open to the public. During the morning, a meeting was held with all the researchers who make up the Center, including researchers also from the University of São Paulo (USP) and the Carlos Chagas Foundation (FCC), as well as members of the Unibanco Institute and the Department of Education, all partners of FGV CEPIPE.

According to the Coordinator of FGV CEPIPE, Gabriela Lotta, the aim of this meeting was to plan how the Center would operate and to promote the exchange of knowledge between researchers from different research areas so that the whole team could contribute and be aware of the studies to be carried out.

"The focus was on creating an identity for the research to be carried out, and at the same time planning for the future," said Lotta. In the afternoon, the launch event gave way to a panel discussion.

"The aim of this debate was to promote a collective discussion about what the challenges are for thinking about implementing educational policies, and to understand the role of FGV CEPIPE in bringing scientific knowledge to drive practice, in order to improve the education scenario in Brazil," he said.