Three generations of assessments of basic education in Brazil: interfaces with the curriculum in/of the school

Abstract

Three generations of large scale assessments of education are analyzed in this article based on the objectives and designs usual in initiatives of this kind implemented in Brazil. The first generation consists in the diagnostic assessment of the quality of education, without attribution of direct consequences for schools and for school curricula. The other two generations articulate the results of the assessments to accountability policies, with the attribution of symbolic or material consequences for the school agents. Taking as a parameter of analysis the objectives and designs of these assessments, as well as studies and researches that produced results about this theme, possible implications for the school curriculum are explored. On the one hand, a discussion is made of the risks that standardized tests, with evaluations that make reference to accountability policies involving weak and strong consequences, may exacerbate the concern of teachers and principals with the preparation for the tests and for the activities they include, leading to a narrowing of the school curriculum. On the other hand, the text points out the potential of the second and third generation assessments to stimulate an informed discussion of school curriculum in terms of the fundamental abilities of reading and mathematics which have not yet been guaranteed to all pupils.