ALGEBRA IN AN EXTERNAL EVALUATION: ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS AND THEIR USES

The appropriation of algebraic concepts by students in the final years of elementary education is essential to their formative process. The analysis of results from external assessments, such as those conducted by the Municipal Basic Education Evaluation System (SAME), proves to be a valuable tool for (re)directing pedagogical practices and educational policies. This study aims to identify and analyze the algebra results of students from the final years of elementary education at three schools in a municipality located in the northwest region of Rio Grande do Sul, based on the 2021 edition of SAME, as well as to investigate how these results are being used. The research adopts a qualitative approach and is grounded in a theoretical-deductive method. The analyses were conducted using Discursive Textual Analysis (DTA). The corpus comprises items and student performance results from the external assessment, along with transcripts from recordings of study group meetings involving teachers and researchers. The study revealed that, depending on the school year, assessment items may present varying levels of complexity, which can be associated with the form of presentation, the approach taken, and the type of representation used. Furthermore, as teachers gain a deeper understanding of the descriptors and items along with their complexity and the conceptual relationships they encompass—the potential for external assessment results to contribute to the (re)direction of pedagogical practices increases, thereby enhancing formative educational processes.