Alternatives to evaluate the social quality of education

Abstract

The analysis of the quality of education and its assessment is permanent object of discussion of the educational policies and is becoming especially relevant given the critical analysis of the evidence collected in the different paths that have been busy in the field of evaluation of the quality of education and by the theoretical contributions from different perspectives put back into the issue.

Although no longer in this discussion the importance of evaluating the educational systems, what is meant by quality of education and how it could be assessed continues to be a diversity of positions.
This paper deals with the concept of "social quality" for on the basis of its analysis depth to the discussion of what we mean by educational quality and its evaluation. There is a need to redefine the problem of quality in the political by proposing a change of gaze that allows us to overcome simplificantes approaches a complex issue. Therefore, to assess the social quality of the education of a system, it is inescapable considering it in its entirety - with all the levels and patterns - as well as take into account different forms of approximation, diverse and complementary. This is supported by a democratic conception of assessment that requires the participation and commitment of all the subject educational understanding the construction of the quality of education as social responsibility and as a right of all.