School systems evaluation in Italy, Finland and Spain, a comparative perspective

Abstract

For several decades, the question of quality in education has arisen as one of the key topics in national and international debates. It is now widely recognized that school quality is linked to the quality of educational systems as a whole and to the evaluation and improvement interventions that can be implemented. Starting from these premises, the contribution aims to analyze the ways in which the school system is evaluated in Italy, Finland and Spain. Through an exploratory documentary analysis of reports, legislative acts, institutional websites and sector literature, the evaluation practices of educational institutions implemented in each context are described from a comparative perspective. Despite the heterogeneity of evaluation models, each country has built its own evaluation practices by placing schools and the actors involved in them at the centre.