Abstract:

The assessment of the skills (competences) in the Mexican Higher Secondary-Education system is based in the institutional guidelines established by the Common Curricular Frame (CCF). Whithin an educational institution the sole responsible body for the assessment is the Collegiate Staff or School Academy. Either one, the Collegiate Staff or School Academy´s duty, is to set up the strategies and criteria for assessment and accreditation. Among other functions, the collegiate group is the one who has to foster the students´ comprehensive academic formation, by promoting human and social values, generic and disciplinary competences as well as collaborative work along the educational process.

The CTAB No. 198 understands educational assessment as a continuous and comprehensive process in which several pertinent assessment instruments are employed. The aforesaid instruments must be in accordance to the skills which are planned in the prior didactic strategies. Some of the elements that the mentioned assessment instruments consider important are the attitude towards the formation for life, honesty, respect, tolerance, teamwork, responsibility, along with the skills related to effective verbal and written communication such as orthography, documents writing, scientific referencing, interpreting and argumentation over specific topics. It is pertinent to remark that the Collegiate Group´s tasks are carried on under the guidance of the regulations and provisions that foresee and avoid drop outs.

Therefore, this study will provide the opportunity to generalize the peer assessment process in the academic courses offered by the institution. This research approach is descriptive and its main objective is to assess the students’ opinion about the teaching staff´s teaching and learning practices.
The results are presented below. They reflect the starting point for the collegiate work in the institution for the period 2013-2014.