GESTÃO ESCOLAR E CULTURA AVALIATIVA

This article critically analyzes the role of school principals in mediating the evaluative culture and their contribution to promoting student learning, based on references from pedagogical leadership, educational assessment, and democratic management. This is a qualitative, bibliographic study that discusses the tensions between formative and summative evaluation logics, particularly in the context of accountability policies and external assessments. The article argues that principals, as pedagogical leaders, can play a strategic role in reframing evaluation results, aligning them with the school's political-pedagogical project and teaching practices. Critical mediation of assessments is understood as a communicative and political practice grounded in listening, dialogue, and the collective construction of meaning, according to Habermasian principles of communicative rationality. The study demonstrates that effective leadership goes beyond technical management and involves ethical commitment, ongoing professional development, and the construction of a democratic evaluative culture focused on equity and the right to quality education. It concludes that investing in the critical training of school principals is essential to overcoming reductionist evaluation practices and strengthening a humanizing and emancipatory school management.