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This paper presents research results, funded by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), about the configuration and diffusion of graded schools in Brazil. It analyzes the representations that legitimized the adoption of graded schools by public educational authorities as well as the particular variations of this model that emerged in different parts of the country. One of the most fundamental characteristics of graded schools in Brazil was the persistence of classification of schoolchildren after their attainment groups which led to the formation of purportedly homogenous groups as school classes. This model prioritized the correspondence between distributions of spaces and pedagogical rationalization: In each schoolroom, only one class should work and this class had to be conducted by one teacher. Throughout the Primeira República (1889-1930), several Brazilian states looked for the implementation of this modern type of school: São Paulo (1893), Rio de Janeiro (1897), Maranhão and Paraná (1903), Minas Gerais (1906), Bahia and Rio Grande do Norte, Espírito Santo and Santa Catarina (1908), Matto Grosso (1910), Sergipe (1911), Paraíba (1916), Goiás (1921) and Piauí (1922) (Nagle 2001; de Souza 1998; Silva and Teive 2009). In all these regions, graded schools became the model school in the transition from the 19th to the 20th century. This implied different and simultaneous goals such as the creation of citizens, social and economic development, the construction of the nation and the moralization of habits (Silva, Sá & Souza, 2013; Vidal 2006). Beyond these common features, the extensive survey showed in this paper will discuss the question of bureaucratization in different constellations of graded schools in Brazil, particularly focusing on their pedagogic organization and on selected elements of the school culture.