Evaluation and Quality of Education. Which Point of Arrival?

The relationship between evaluation and quality is intrinsic: quality to be perceived is always appreciated, that is, at least implicitly, measured and evaluated; in its social resonance evaluation is expected as a process that leads to a judgment of quality and a direction of improvement of what it evaluates. The concept of quality in itself escapes a uniform and definitive delimitation since it is also substantiated by the variable visions and expectations of the subjects involved. The paper traces the itinerary of the concept of evaluation that from a punctual act, mostly exercised in full autonomy by the evaluator, over time has assumed the characteristic of an area in which different subjects and dimensions coexist, with a high social significance. This conditions the relationship between evaluation and quality and generates important issues from a pedagogical and methodological as well as social and ethical point of view, to the point of bringing out the hypothesis of redistributing the evaluation responsibility between school and society in the articulation of all its actors.