Too big to fail? The Rise and Fall of Reinventing High School in Minas Gerais

This case study explores the implementation of a secondary education policy in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. My research examines the reasons for the launch of this project in 2012 and for its end in 2015. Using a qualitative approach, I analyze public State Department of Education documents about the project Reinventando o Ensino Médio (Reinventing High School), and conduct interviews with four key staff to gather their perspectives on the policy’s implementation process. Drawing from the Educational Policy Implementation Theory, I find that the project design was responsive to educational challenges faced by the state government. However, the later project expansion across the state was alienated from its first year of implementation, and political disputes, as well as implementation issues led to the project’s termination. This paper highlights the importance of communication among the educational system stakeholders, and offers recommendations for successful educational policy implementation.
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