Purpose – Using a large-scale school improvement program in Sweden as a case, this article aims to explorethe state governance of a large-scale school improvement program in Sweden and how officials at the stateagency level made sense of the reform ideas and operationalized them in policy actions.

Design/methodology/approach – Data were integrated from Swedish Government Official Reports andformal directives from the Ministry of Education. Officials of the Swedish National Agency for Education(SNAE) were also interviewed. Data were analyzed to identify how regulatory rules, professional norms andcultural–cognitive beliefs shaped SNAE’s design of the program.

Findings – The article shows how different types of governance (i.e. regulatory rules, professional norms andcultural–cognitive beliefs) set the direction for managing large-scale school improvement. In particular, in thestudied case, the lack of clear regulatory directives enabled sensemaking processes clearly influenced bynormative ideas and cultural–cognitive beliefs.Research limitations/implications – The findings are mostly presented from the perspective of managers,so further study is required to attain a broader understanding of the state agency level’s role and function.

Practical implications – By illustrating the strengths of understanding various dimensions of educationalgovernance, the findings are highly relevant to both policymakers and educational managers at different levelsof school systems.

Originality/value – The article offers a valuable perspective on large-scale school improvement andeducational governance by focusing on a level that has hitherto received little attention