Valutare serve? L’esperienza della valutazione trentina

The paper presents a methodological device designed and implemented for the project “External evaluation of schools and training institutions” assigned by IPRASE Trentino to Catholic University of Sacred Heart in the school year 2007/2008. Moving from this experience, the purpose of the contribution is to consider the evaluation’s usefulness for school and for different stakeholders and the criteria that make the evaluation suitable for sustainability and the strategic use of data. The focuses is not the presentation of the whole project but the description of the methodological structure in relation to the context needs. In the research activity data are important but for giving them meaning it’s necessary to create a methodological structure which have to be valid, suitable and situated.