Abstract

Thanks to the administration of INVALSI standardized tests to primary and secondary school students, Italy falls into line with the countries sharing the «global testing culture». However, the use of testing and its results in different parts of our Country is not well accepted by the school world. In the first part of the paper, the meanings of "assessment" and "assessment culture" are analyzed. In the second part, the rationale of the INVALSI tests is considered, in particular of comprehension tests, of which some limitations are highlighted and integrations are suggested.