DESCRIPTIVE JUDGMENT IN ITALIAN PRIMARY SCHOOL EVALUATION

measuring and classificatory logic. To overcome these limits, the Ministerial Order 172/2020 has introduced new procedure of students’ assessment: descriptive judgment. It replaces the decimal mark with an assessment through “learning level” that allow to monitor the evolutionary process of the student (Castoldi, 2021). Furthermore, the fundamental characteristics of descriptive judgment are: transparency and clarity. Therefore, it is necessary to involve pupils in the assessment process and provide them with continuous feedback on the progress made. The descriptive judgment also has negative aspects: it creates a gap between the disciplinary judgment and the judgment expressed based on the competence certification model. It does not pay attention to the peculiarities of the different disciplines: a single criterion is used for the evaluation without consider the differences between the various subject areas. Finally, the Ministerial Order introduced this change only in primary school and consequently a fracture is created with the lower secondary school. Despite the negative aspects, descriptive judgment represents a way that goes beyond simple performance but allows you to focus on the learning process from the perspective of lifelong learning.