Performance Evaluation or Standardized Testing of Aptitudes? Innovations at the Margins Mexico's of School System

This paper argues the need for broader criteria than are customarily used, for measuring pupil achievement, school effectiveness and impact on educational policy in the plural and highly unequal societies of Mexico and Central America. We proceed by first presenting the context of highly centralized mainstream educational provision, concentrated in urban areas contrasting with the extremely limited services available in rural communities. Second, we describe grass-roots educational solutions to this latter condition. Finally, we will situate these solutions within the framework of international scholarship on assessment, evaluation and impact measurement in order to permit the achievements of these experiences to be credited and lessons to be drawn from them. We conclude that comprehensive, contest-sensitive evaluation establishes a two way communication between the educational system and local school experience.