School management and external evaluation: Experiences of schools from Sao Paulo Municipal System

Abstract

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14244/19827199919

The centrality acquired by external evaluation in recent decades did emerge questions about its implications for everyday school life, some of which are intended to be demonstrated in this paper, based on an ongoing master's degree research conducted in four public schools from São Paulo. The aim is to explore and analyze possible ways of appropriation of these assessments’ results by school management teams. Initially, we seek to indentify elements to conceptualize school management assignments and understand the trajectory of external assessment in basic education, and provide information on the methodology used. After that, we present data collected in field interviews and describe experiences, conceptions and reluctance from management teams over external evaluations. We then conclude that, inside the schools, from the management team’s perspective, there is concern and tension between the potentials and limits of external evaluations’ contribution on quality improvement of teaching.

Keywords: School management, External evaluation, Public schools.