This article condenses a research for assessment of an experience with cooperative schools (Programa de Escolas Cooperativas), in a program implemented at Maringá (PR), starting in 1991 and interrupted in January, 1993, as decided the new mayor, then taking office. The program may be considered a process of decentralization of precisely the municipal educational network and the study is presented in three parts: the first one describes the system of cooperative schools; the second explains and analyzes the methodology for the assessment; the third points out the foremost conclusions of the comparative assessment between the new system and the non-cooperative schools that had continued coexisting in the local educational network, during the two-year experience. Said assessment had its conclusions limited because the cooperative schools had been established in the peripheric urban zone of the municipality, while the non-cooperative continued to render their services in the rural area.Avaliação da experiência do Programa de Escolas Cooperativas de Maringá (PR). Descrição do sistema de escolas cooperativas. Metodologia para avaliação do programa. Avaliação comparativa entre o novo sistema e as escolas não cooperativas.