Adriana Bauer

Avaliações em larga escala: uma sistematização do debate

Educational reforms in recent decades have been characterized, among other features, by the use of large-scale assessments as a management tool of school systems and of educator accountability. This phenomenum has occurred differently in each country. In Brazil there has been widespread use such assessments with standardized tests, which generates in the academic and educational community not consensus but a debate in which there are different positions, ranging from the extreme opposition to the recognition of the contribution of large-scale assessments and educational measures to guide educational policies and programs, including restrictions on the use made of their results. Considering positive and negative arguments, including technical and political dimensions, this article, on the one hand, presents a reflection that recognizes the usefulness of these evaluations, and, on the other, questions some of its uses for educational management, for example, allocating resources in schools with best results, setting bonuses for teachers, establishing rankings which stimulate competition between schools and school systems, and understanding test results as a unique and primary indicator of education quality. The objective of this article is to discuss the main pros and cons to large-scale assessments in the national and international literature and systematize the debate on their potential. For this, it focuses on two recurrent themes in literature: the role and validity of large-scale assessments in the education reforms and the use of their results for the management of educational systems and schools.

Indicadores para avaliação de programas educacionais: desafios metodológicos

This paper discusses the methodological strategies used to meet the challenge of establishing indicators to compose the impact evaluation of an in-service teacher training program called “Letra e Vida”. This program was implemented in the school system of the state of Sao Paulo, from 2003 to 2006, in order to improve the practice of literacy teachers working in the early years of elementary school. Preceding the methodological discussion, some concepts are discussed based on contributions from the academic literature, such as the notion of indicators, types of indicators, and their properties, as well as the political and technical aspects underlying the definition of indicators, which might support the evaluation of educational programs.

Formação continuada de professores e resultados dos alunos no SARESP: propostas e realizações

This work presents results of a study conducted between 2005 and 2006 entitled The use of the results of the saREsP Exam: the role of assessment in teacher education policies (uso dos resultados do saREsP: o papel da avaliacao nas politicas de formacao docente), whose purpose was to analyze possibilities and limits of the use of the results obtained by pupils in the SARESP Exam (School Performance Assessment System of the State Sao Paulo) to formulate and direct teacher education policies. The attention was focused on education programs for teachers of Portuguese Language to pupils in fundamental education. Four out of the thirteen Regional Education Directorships of the State of Sao Paulo were visited to gain acquaintance with the teacher education programs they developed and to investigate to what extent they could be related to the results achieved in the SARESP exam. The qualitative study adopted as its main strategy the exploratory survey, with the use of semi-structured interview and observation scripts. The theoretical framework employed brought together contributions by Dennis Palumbo (1998) and Marcus Figueiredo and Argelina Figueiredo (1986) to understand the concept and stages of public policy, as well as by Elba Barreto and Regina Pinto (2001), Blaine Worthen, James Sanders and Jody Fitzpatrick (2004), and by Almerindo Afonso (1998) on the discussion about assessment programs, among others. It concludes that, the statements in the teacher education program and in the SARESP documentations about the correlation between the former and pupil assessment results notwithstanding, the actual achievement of positive results depends on the effective commitment of the professionals working at the Education Directorships. Formal actions by the Secretariat for Education to foster this use of the results have proved insufficient to ensure the proposed link between pupil assessment and teacher education.

Indicators for the evaluation of educational programs: methodological challenges

This paper discusses the methodological strategies used to meet the challenge of establishing indicators to compose the impact evaluation of an in-service teacher training program called “Letra e Vida”. This program was implemented in the school system of the state of Sao Paulo, from 2003 to 2006, in order to improve the practice of literacy teachers working in the early years of elementary school. Preceding the methodological discussion, some concepts are discussed based on contributions from the academic literature, such as the notion of indicators, types of indicators, and their properties, as well as the political and technical aspects underlying the definition of indicators, which might support the evaluation of educational programs.

Indicadores para la evaluación de programas educativos: desafíos metodológicos

This paper discusses the methodological strategies used to meet the challenge of establishing indicators to compose the impact evaluation of an in-service teacher training program called “Letra e Vida”. This program was implemented in the school system of the state of Sao Paulo, from 2003 to 2006, in order to improve the practice of literacy teachers working in the early years of elementary school. Preceding the methodological discussion, some concepts are discussed based on contributions from the academic literature, such as the notion of indicators, types of indicators, and their properties, as well as the political and technical aspects underlying the definition of indicators, which might support the evaluation of educational programs.