Evaluation policies of educational systems: A comparative study between Spanish autonomous communities in basic education

Abstract

The relevance of evaluation policies for the agendas of the states makes them an unavoidable reality in the analysis of educational systems. This paper presents an analysis of the policies developed by the Spanish autonomous communities (Andalusia, the Canary Islands, Catalonia and the Basque Country) to evaluate their education systems at the basic education levels. Specifically, both administrative and properly evaluative and methodological policies are studied. Following a comparative methodology and through different qualitative strategies of information collection and analysis, the research presents results that expose some limitations of the evaluation programs that are currently being developed at the regional level and provide clarity to current debates around the evaluations of educational systems.