"Critical balance of baccalaureate national tests in high school as a students' knowledge certificaton tool" Core Findings

Abstract

This article is the product of the investigative activity of the Program Profiles, Dynamics and Challenges of Costa Rican Education, from the Center of Research and Teaching in Education (CIDE) from the National University of Costa Rica (UNA). This is a diagnostic work, with different levels of analysis: exploratory, descriptive and correlational, which utilized a mixed methods strategy of concurrent triangulation, incorporating quantitative and qualitative methods. There were participation of diverse informants such as former ministries of education, regional directors of the Ministry of Education (MEP), directors from public, private, subsidized, urban and rural secondary education centers, evaluation specialists, union representatives, professors and students. There were made semistructured interviews and structured questionnaires, it analyzed student´s performance in bachelor tests data bases from MEP, sociodemographic and socioeducative data, as well as social indexes associated to the examined population. The analysis of data reflects some transcendental aspects in matters of educative equity, inclusion and conditions of social development, to be taken into consideration for the interpretation of the results of the national bachelor test in the country.