Challenges and opportunities for the school system

Abstract

Educational agencies are going through a difficult transition, with important consequences in terms of de-legitimacy of the social mandate historically assigned to the school. The reason for this widespread unease can be traced to the fact that today we live in a complex system. This paper arises within this problematic framework with the intent to outline the most important lines of change affecting education agencies during the last fifteen years, paying particular attention to the new institutional and normative framework that redefined the whole educational structure in Italy. The objective of this paper is to contribute to the development of a new vision of the education system, more in line with the challenges posed by the global and complex society that emphasizes both the importance of evaluation of education agencies, on the basis of Quality Assurance more attentive to results, and the community’s responsibility to education.