Brazil's Highest Ideb Score: Lessons From a Small Town

Deputado Irapuan Pinheiro, a town of about 9,000 people in the central backlands of Ceará, scored 9.3 on the Ideb for the final years of elementary school — the highest score in Brazil. The national average was 5.3. The usual explanation gets summed up as "management," but what worked there has a name, a frequency, and a cost. We break down what any school, public or private, can copy, and what can't be copied because it depends on money and a state-level rule.

The results, in numbers

The Ideb (Basic Education Development Index) is calculated by Inep based on two things: students' scores on the Saeb exam, in Portuguese and math, and the pass rate. A school system only gets a high score if students learn and move up a grade. The 2025 results were released on August 5, 2026:

• Brazil, final years (6th to 9th grade): 5.3, up from 5.0 in 2023. It's the best result in the series, but still below the National Education Plan's target of 5.5.
• Deputado Irapuan Pinheiro: 9.3, first place in the country, located 292 km from Fortaleza.
• The trajectory: 5.1 in 2017, 5.4 in 2019, 7.0 in 2021, 8.8 in 2023, and 9.3 in 2025. Four consecutive increases. In 2023, the town ranked third in Brazil.
• It's not an isolated case: close behind are other towns in Ceará, such as Ipaporanga (9.2), Coreaú, and Pires Ferreira (9.1 each).

That last point matters, and we'll come back to it: when several towns in the same state top the ranking, something is happening at the state level, not just the town level.

What the town does

According to a report by the newspaper O Povo, the municipal school system has 893 elementary school students across four schools. What the city government describes as its key differentiators:

• Its own assessment every three months. The Irapuense System for Permanent Education Assessment (Siape) tests students from 1st to 9th grade every quarter. It doesn't wait for the Saeb, which runs every two years.
• The whole picture, not just the test. The education department cross-references Siape scores with attendance, year grades, and pass rates. In the administration's words, the idea is to see "the student's real proficiency."
• Results turn into action. The difficulties identified determine where teaching effort gets concentrated, both in the same year and the next.
• Full-time schooling at every school in the municipal system.
• Incentives. The 40 best students in each grade get a laptop, and school staff receive a 14th-month bonus salary.

None of this is new in theory. The difference is that it's done consistently, every quarter, and that each measurement leads to a decision.

What the story leaves out: money and a state rule

The version making the rounds, including in economist Ricardo Amorim's newsletter, where we first saw the case, is that "quality education doesn't depend only on how much money is invested, but on how it's used." That's true, but the phrase hides two pieces that the small municipality had and that most schools don't.

The money grew. Fundeb transfers to the town went from R$8 million in 2020 to R$29 million in 2026, more than three and a half times as much. Full-time schooling, laptops, and the 14th-month bonus all cost money, and that increase covered part of the bill.

The state has rewarded results since 2007. State Law 14,023 of 2007 determined that, of the 25% of ICMS tax revenue that Ceará passes on to municipalities, 18% is distributed according to an education quality index, measured by pass rates and student performance on assessments. In other words: for almost twenty years, a Ceará mayor who improves learning outcomes has received more money. A study by CAEN, at the Federal University of Ceará, estimated that the change raised student proficiency in the school system by 4 to 6 points on the Saeb scale. That's why the top of the ranking is full of towns from the same state.

The takeaway that holds up: management works when someone holds you accountable for results and pays for them. The quarterly assessment is the tool; the state incentive is the engine.

An honest caveat

A school system with 893 students across four schools lets the education department know every class closely. In a system with 50,000 students, the same method requires a system, a team, and months of implementation. And an index that combines test scores and pass rates can be gamed in ways that aren't real learning, like teaching to the test. Nothing suggests that's the case here, but it's the caution any school should take when copying this model: measure in order to teach better, not to climb the ranking.

What your school can copy

The part that doesn't depend on ICMS or Fundeb funding fits any school, including private ones:

1. Your own diagnostic assessment, every quarter. Short, covering Portuguese and math, using the same scale from the start to the end of the year so results are comparable. It doesn't replace regular subject tests — it measures progress.
2. A dashboard per student, not just per class. Assessment scores, attendance, and subject grades side by side. The student who misses a lot of school and scores poorly is the one who needs attention first.
3. A short gap between measuring and acting. Two weeks after each assessment, every teacher should know which students need extra support and which topics need to be revisited in class. Measurement without action just becomes a report in a drawer.
4. Recognition that rewards progress. Rewarding only top performers incentivizes students who are already doing well. Recognizing whoever improved the most from one quarter to the next reaches the students who need it most.
5. Share results with families. Parents want to know if their child is learning, not just their report card grade. Showing progress in plain language helps retain students and attract new ones: our post on what families research before enrolling shows that the school search is local and practical.

Spreadsheet or system?

Up to about 200 students, a well-organized spreadsheet gets the job done: one tab per quarter, one row per student, formulas that flag who's falling behind. The problem shows up when the school grows or when more people need to see the data at the same time — coordinators, teachers, families. That's when the spreadsheet turns into copy after copy, and nobody knows which version is the right one.

At that point, a simple system solves it: the test is given on a computer or on paper with automatic grading, results land on a dashboard per student and per class, and families get a summary. That's the kind of tool included in our agency's Escola 3.0 program, along with using AI to give each student exercises at their own level. The post what Escola 3.0 is explains the concept and how to implement it without it becoming a shelved project.

A note for anyone getting excited about technology: the Ceará case doesn't depend on any sophisticated software. It depends on measuring consistently and acting fast. Technology only helps once that habit already exists. That was the same conclusion we reached when analyzing the American school running two hours a day with AI: the tool impresses, but the result comes from follow-through.

What this means for your school

The lesson from Deputado Irapuan Pinheiro isn't "spend less and manage better." It's more precise than that: measure every quarter, look at the whole student, act within weeks, and recognize progress. The money and the state rule explain why Ceará did this at scale; the method, any school can adopt next quarter.

If you'd like to set up a diagnostic assessment and tracking dashboard for your school, reach out to our team through the Escola 3.0 program page.

Sources

• O Povo, "Irapuan Pinheiro is the municipality with Brazil's highest Ideb score in the final years of elementary school" (August 6, 2026) and a report on Siape in O Povo+ (August 22, 2026).
• Inep/MEC, 2025 Ideb results, released on August 5, 2026.
• Ceará State Law No. 14,023, of December 17, 2007 (Ipece).
• CAEN/UFC, "Improving education quality through budgetary incentives for mayors: the case of the ICMS Law in Ceará."
• Ricardo Amorim, "Na Mira" newsletter, 53rd edition (September 30, 2026), where we first saw the case.