Monitoring Student Progress in Mathematics and Science
External large-scale evaluation studies are well established in Spain. These studies focus on key competencies and have a diagnostic purpose. There are two different levels: the General Diagnostic Evaluation is conducted at the national level and administered to a national sample of students, and the Diagnostic Evaluation is conducted by the autonomous communities and administered to a census of students. The General Diagnostic Evaluation provides important data used to evaluate the educational system and compare results among communities, while the Diagnostic Evaluation aims to evaluate individual schools and provide them with feedback. Both diagnostic evaluations on the acquisition of key competencies are carried out in Grades 4 and 8, though some autonomous communities also administer external assessments at other grades.13
Primary school teachers are responsible for evaluating individual student progress. The evaluation of student achievement is ongoing and global, and takes into account student progress in all areas and elements of the curriculum. Teachers use the evaluation criteria specified for each content area as the basis for determining the levels of competence that students attain. Primary schools use qualitative grades to inform students and their parents about student learning progress at the end of each term. When a student’s progress is inadequate, schools must adopt remedial measures as soon as the difficulties are detected. These measures are designed to guarantee the acquisition of essential skills so that the student can progress within the education system.
Schools use assessment results to plan interventions to guarantee student achievement in key competencies during the third cycle of primary education (Grades 5 to 6). These results allow schools both to evaluate instruction and teacher performance, and also (where appropriate) to analyze, evaluate, and redirect the actions they developed for the first two cycles of this level. At the end of the primary level, schools prepare student reports evaluating the degree to which students have achieved the expected learning skills, particularly those that most affect their educational progress.