Since quality education is a human right, it cannot be considered a neutral or isolated factor. It is constructed through the action of public policies at all levels, with the agents involved, and their personal and social interests. Current paper provides the Excellence Program in Basic Education (PEEB), developed by the Centro de Ensino Superior de Maringá (UNICESUMAR) in the state of Paraná, Brazil, and analyzes its impacts on school performance and in the quality of education under different aspects inherent to school management and identified with the teacher, family, organized civil society within the municipal school network. Twenty-five municipalities with 73 government-run schools of basic education are investigated, involving the participation of all Years 4 and 5 students, all educational professionals of the schools, their families and organized civil society. Current exploratory and field research had the direct involvement of the researcher to familiarize herself with the milieu and the retrieval of information that foregrounded data analysis and their interpretation. Research was also quantitative and qualitative due to its aims and the target public. Activities comprised a structured questionnaire, assessment in Portuguese and Mathematics, formation workshops and specific and eventual meetings with school managers, pedagogues, teachers and other officers for the discussion of results that students had on the applications of tests. Formation meetings with families were held and a socio-economic questionnaire was applied to compare parents´ responses with those of their children. Results reveal a lack of a pattern in school management, school units, hierarchies and even of the family which has ceased to exercise its primary role in children´s development and teaching.
Keywords: quality education; school management; basic education; school performance, family and education.