Avaliações externas em larga escala no contexto escolar: percepção dos diretores escolares da rede estadual de ensino de Minas Gerais

Abstract

The present research aimed at apprehending and analyzing the perception of school principals from Minas Gerais regarding the effects of the Programa de Avaliação da Rede Pública de Educação Básica (PROEB) to their school context. We started from previous studies regarding educational reforms in the 90s, which took place in a different geographic, political, social, economic and cultural context, in post-bureaucratic State, where we tried to point out specificities, similarities and differences from the Brazilian experience. Our studies perceived the centrality of educational evaluations as structuring axis of these reforms and the plea that they contribute to an increase in the quality of education. We decided to carry our research on the state of Minas Gerais, since it is one of the pioneer in the field of educational evaluation, having consolidated a dynamics of work in the schooling network sustained by the relation between evaluation, planning and control. An educational evaluation program was implemented in that state in the year of 1992, and advanced with the creation of the Sistema Mineiro de Avaliação da Educação Pública, in 2000, currently composed of three evaluations: PROEB, PROALFA and PAAE. Our research prioritized the period known as Choque de Gestão (2003-2014), which had characteristics of the New Public Management model. Our researched was based on a quali-quanti approach. We collected data from forms sent online to principals from all state-managed schools from Minas Gerais, having received response from 26,7% of them. Data was organized and analyzed according to categories that best define school context, chosen according to researchers previous experience as a teacher and as basic education public-network manager and previously described in studies from Tardif e Lessard (2012) and André (1992). Our results show that according to principals perception the external evaluation are relevant to schools and their professionals have good comprehension of the results and the proficiency index from PROEB. As to their effect on schooling context we detected that, according to principals perception: evaluations present positive aspects that contribute for a better education, the internal learning evaluation favors the compromise of teachers to the teaching learning process; teachers focus, overall, on teaching in accordance to the curricular proposition from SEE-MG, and there is no reduction in time destined to other dimensions of the students formation; evaluations does not interfere negatively on the collaborative practices among school professionals. Over half the principals do not feel pressed by SEE-MG or School Collegiate, but recognize that they exert some degree of pressure over the teachers for better students results, and they consider that the segment from which teachers receive the least pressure is from the students parents. We also verified the perception that external evaluation contribute for a greater participation of the community in the schools.