ABSTRACT
The challenge of an educational evaluation lies in the complexity of educational processes, which start at birth, develop through social interactions with people, objects, and facts, and involve multiple agents and institutions. Agents of basic and secondary education include parents, teachers, technical-pedagogical teams, classmates, and friends. Participating institutions include the community, the school, and the family. The educational process combines reason and emotion in a relationship encompassing contents, attitudes, language, and people. Education plays a decisive role in building citizenship. Through education, a society seeks to assure that its citizens receive public goods, services, and knowledge; the capacity to live with other cultures at home and abroad with tolerance and solidarity; and the possibility of character development. Much of this complexity has been beyond the scope of educational evaluation.
