ABSTRACT
The 1970 Ley General de Educación (LGE) promised a radically new approach to educational evaluation which it did not deliver: student assessment (and above all the summative examination) remained the principal mode of evaluation, and rates of ‘failure’ stayed high. This chapter examines the gathering interest in a broader range of approaches to evaluation, especially in the light of LOGSE; the author looks at implications for evaluation at the different levels of system, school, curriculum, teachers and students. Of particular interest is his discussion of the links between teacher in-service training and remuneration, and the provisions in LOGSE for student progress from year to year or from cycle to cycle. Equally significant for an assessment of the current situation in Spain are some of the omissions: no reference, for example, to teacher appraisal, to standardized testing of children at specific ages, to provision for systematic moderation of assessment between schools. The author outlines some of the reasons why the university entrance examinations should not be expected to correct for some of these omissions and his criticisms retain their force even in the wake of recent efforts to promote greater consistency of standards between entrance examinations. The editors’ postscript provides details of the constitution of the newly established INCE, and some results of a report of the Inspectorate on the implementation of the reform programme.
