THE FICTION OF EVALUATION IN POLISH PRIMARY SCHOOLS – A CASE STUDY

This article is meant to present and discuss the actions taken by heads of educational institutions in preparation for external evaluation conducted by educational authorities. Some of those actions taken by school heads undoubtedly influence the final results of the evaluation, which creates a fictitious outcome of it, often called organizational pathology. Appointing particular individuals for the interviews, practising the right way of answering the questions or filling in the tests by other people that those indicated by the authorities impair the credibility of the conducted interviews, observations and data analyses, creating an unreal or formal image of a given school.

The obtained results of the external evaluation can then be influenced or modified according to the needs of the school head. That sort of actions is unethical and defies the moral principles of conducting external evaluation, whose aim is to determine the present state of a given educational institution.

This study is based on particular examples coming from the results of qualitative studies carried out among school heads. The authors aim at starting a critical discussion on the way in which school prepare for external evaluation carried out in Poland.