The 1980s and Large-Scale Evaluations as a Historical Phenomenon

Abstract

Currently, large-scale evaluations are one of the most effective actions in defining the directions of education in Brazil. But what is the historical scenario of large-scale evaluations and what are the implications of such a scenario for strengthening these assessments? How did such action become a political guideline nowadays? Based on a bibliographical research based on an analytical-reconstructive methodology, the text assumes that large-scale evaluations emerge as dated and historical phenomena especially from the 1980s. In this sense, the objective is to discuss historically and historically the 1980s as a preparation scenario for the reforms of the 1990s, which also included the emergence of large-scale evaluations, tied to two positions: a) large-scale evaluations as an international agenda that materialized, in the field of educational policies, an ideological tendency referenced and strengthened in the installation and expansion of the evaluating State, and b) large-scale assessments as a contingency of current educational reality. As a conclusion, it is assumed that the historical context of the 1980s represented, on the one hand, the ideological support for the aforementioned evaluations and, on the other hand, promoted the social justification for the emerging mechanisms of large-scale evaluation.