Significado de la evaluación en educación media superior: ¿evaluar para medir o evaluar para mejorar los aprendizajes de los alumnos? Meaning of evaluation in high school: evaluate to measure or evaluate to improve student learning?

The assessment of learning is a fundamental element when talking about education, it is a factor present in daily school life that provides information about each student. Knowing what evaluation is like in a school and what meaning students and teachers give it is essential to be able to direct actions aimed at the continuous improvement of the evaluation process, with the aim of adapting the evaluation to the needs of students. For this reason, a qualitative research was carried out in a private high school institution, located in the city of Torreón, Coahuila. The study covered the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years. The ethnographic approach was used to describe the school culture and collect data through the voice of the educational actors themselves through interviews and a focus group. Likewise, participant observation and the field diary were used as important tools to rescue data in the field of action. Thanks to the research, it was possible to understand the different meanings and relationships attributed to evaluation, which varied according to the position of the participating subject; the characteristics of the educational institution; the activities carried out by teachers;and the harmful effects of evaluation on students. Based on these findings, various strategies were proposed to improve evaluation practices, contextualizing them in the school environment and aligning them with the learning and evaluation process of eachstudent.