MONITORING AND EVALUATION PRACTICE IN THE CONTEXT OF REFORMING OF THE RUSSIAN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

The paper analyzes modern trends related to reforming of education systems in different countries, including Russia, focusing on monitoring and evaluation processes. The author describes functional models of vocational education and conditions that affect the structure and contents of the monitoring and evaluation activities. The concept of “evaluation” in education is introduced and considered as an integrative category of evaluation-analytical activity in the context of improving the quality of education. This paper analyzes the use of the concept both in foreign educational systems and in Russia, defines its role in the process of creation and development of the Russian system of the education quality assessment which is considered to be a combination of organizational and functional structures, norms and rules that provide the assessment of student performance. While forming the Russian system of education quality assessment, the improvement of the quality of monitoring and evaluation of educational results is very important and is implemented in Russian modern education through a number of activities. In this regard, particular attention is paid to the introduction of mandatory state final certification for a certain category of citizens in the form of a unified state examination (USE). The author considers this exam as the Russian interpretation of foreign experience in the part of the final assessment of educational results in connection “school – university” and shows the positive and negative features of this process in the Russian educational practice.

The problems indicated in the paper suggest the necessity for further study of the reforming the monitoring and evaluation activities in the national education system in relation to the methodology and tools of this process.