The formation of the São Paulo educational agenda that enabled the creation of the Inova Educação Program: an analysis of multilevel coupling

Abstract

This article investigates the formation of the São Paulo educational agenda that enabled the creation of the Inova Educação Program, implemented by the São Paulo State Department of Education from 2019 onward. Grounded in the Multiple Streams Framework, the study hypothesizes that the emergence of the program resulted from a multilevel coupling process in which problems, policy alternatives, and political conditions articulated at the national level were subsequently selected and reconfigured in the state context. The research adopts a qualitative and documentary approach, examining sources related to Bill No. 6,840/2013, Provisional Measure No. 746/2016, the Upper Secondary Education Reform, the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC), the Cooperation Agreement between SEDUC-SP and the Ayrton Senna Institute, the São Paulo Curriculum, and the 2019–2022 Strategic Plan. The findings indicate that problems and solutions were already circulating before the 2016 political change, which expanded the conditions for their national institutionalization. In São Paulo, these alternatives were articulated with problems and experiences specific to the state school system through curriculum revision, cooperation with the Ayrton Senna Institute, and the actions of policy entrepreneurs. The article concludes that the Inova Educação agenda resulted from successive and reconfigured articulations across different arenas, rather than from a linear transfer of a federal policy to the state level.