Abstract

The evaluation of schools has been a strategy implemented as a tool for improvement. However, few studies have addressed the processes and eventual achievements experienced by schools in the subsequent trajectory. This article offers a preliminary analysis of the effect of the Evaluation and Performance Orientation Visits carried out in Chile by the Education Quality Agency, as a mobilizing device for the progress of its educational institutions. The research, which was carried out through a mixed convergent method design, considered in its quantitative phase a survey applied to 85 school leaders of schools evaluated in 2014, in the trial period of the School Education Quality Assurance System in Chile, whose first plan has ended in 2019. The first reports reveal positive effects in the planning of pedagogical and institutional management, as well as in the motivation and commitment of the educational community; nevertheless, they grant a lower incidence in the improvement of educational, learning and internal efficiency achievements reached later. Likewise, the principals consulted agree on demands for moving more quickly in the feedback, effectiveness in the accompaniment and periodicity in the monitoring of processes and indications highlighted in the visit. From their point of view, the evaluation has a mobilizing effect, but its objective of contribution to improvement is limited, due to lack of focus on support and guidance.