The goal of this doctoral dissertation is to investigate the implementation of the Prêmio Escola Nota Dez (PENDez) - Maximum Score School Award - in four pairs of schools in Ceará state – Brazil. For this purpose this study seeks to understand how the implementation of policy occurs, based on the perception and performance of the implementing agents. PENDEz is the main instrument for state induction of the Pacto de Alfabetização na Idade Certa (Paic) - Pact for Literacy in the Right Age. Since 2007, the PENDEz has been awarding the 150 best performing schools in the Sistema Permanente de Avaliação da Educação Básica do Ceará (Basic Education Permanent Assessment System of Ceará state) – Spaece-Alfa. This program also provides financial support to the lower performing schools. This resource is equal to half of the award of the schools that reached the best results. This research focused on the implementation of PENDEz in the initial years of elementary school. There were used of Spaece-Alfa data for the selection of four pairs of schools. The analysis was based on documentary exploration, observation and interviews with the implementing agents (teachers, education administrators and managers of the PAIC). The research intends to describe the pressures and conditionalities of the PENDez on the schools and the relations established in the partnerships schools. This study also aims to show the role of the agents and the use of their discricionariety in the adequacy, interpretation and local adjustment of the policy itself. The interview scripts and analyzes were constructed in interlocution with studies of street and middle level bureaucracy (LIPSKY, LOTTA, OLIVEIRA), school equity (DUBET), public action instruments (LASCOUMÉS and LE GALÉS) and accountability AFONSO; BARROSO). The results show that the supported schools were able to improve their results, regardless of whether they received financial assistance from the state government or technical-pedagogical support from the awardwinning schools, as advocated by PENDEZ standards. It was also noted the importance of the symbolic dimension of the Prize, which acts in a way that places awarding schools and their agents in a socially prominent condition, while supported schools and their agents are stigmatized, even though they have done a good job. The use of discricionariety was identified in the variation of the criteria used by each school to judge who among the different school agents should be considered fit to receive the bonus provided in the Award. Without breaching the rules, schools found loopholes to boost the agents considered most deserving because they contributed to the learning of the class responsible for school awards. It was also verified that, in spite of the fact that PENDez aims to strengthen Paic actions, combat educational inequalities and improve school performance, its meritocratic component, which gives social prestige to the award-winning schools, has a negative impact on the agents school students and, especially, the students of the supported schools, as reported by the implementing agents.