Institutional evaluation of Portuguese schools: Policies, processes and practices

Abstract

In this paper, after a brief reference to the emergence and consolidation of evaluative agenda, we explore some of the rationales that underpin the argumentative constellation that supports it, organizing these arguments between the pole of the emancipation and promotion of reflexivity of the actors, at one end, and the pole of the control and panoptical surveillance, on the other. The following is a presentation of the external evaluation model of schools in use in Portugal, with reference to its limited impact on improving the provision of educational services. We assume the school as a complex educational organization and we recognize the technical density of the evaluation process, but we emphasize above all its political face.