External evaluation in municipal level: The impacts of an experience

Abstract

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14244/198271991256

External evaluation is a consolidated reality in our country. Besides the state and federal ones, some municipalities developed their own evaluation programs. To contribute with the debate about external evaluations, this article presents data from a research that aims to identify the Educational Secretariat’s actions from a city in São Paulo, Brazil, facing the results of PROMASE (Municipal Assessment of the Educational System) and its impact in school units. It is still being analyzed the path taken by the program to of explain its conception of teaching quality. This way, the qualitative research was chosen based on the interviews with the Educational Secretary, teachers and school’s managers. In accordance with the Secretary, after PROMASE, improvements in the buildings, curricular restructuring and continued education were made. Even without the rankings and performance payments, it is noticeable in schools the construction  of what is called “hidden” rankings and “adjustment” of the pedagogical and evaluative practices to both the matrix and the evaluative instrument of the program to improve teaching quality, identified with index increase. For an evaluative system to bring contributions to the network, the system must be anchored to social quality, which establishes the school as the protagonist in the process of looking at itself, not blaming the teachers for the standardized tests results, which, consequently, favors the students’ social, political, cultural and human formation.

Keywords: External evaluation, Evaluation on municipal level, Teaching quality.