This paper presents the results of a research aimed at understanding ongoing curricular and assessment policies in the State of São Paulo. It is taken as reference the year of 2007, marked by changes in curricular organization in São Paulo public state schools with the implementation of a unified curriculum in all schools and linkage of this curriculum with the learning assessment system. Documents that shape curriculum and the assessment process defined by the guidelines established by SARESP are analyzed. The documental analysis permits stating that, although the curricular foundations praise the importance of cultural diversity and teacher autonomy, in the school routine, diversity and autonomy are lost in the midst of an assessment process that, due to the school classificatory character and its use as a criterion for education worker remuneration, ends up defining what should be taught. The survey data allow to state that SARESP took the role of curricular policy inductor in the State of São Paulo.