Part of the education policy area, the contribution to EERA is centered on providing empirical evidence from a study of the professional and educational guidance system. Financed by the Center for Educational Investigation and Documentation of the Spanish Ministry of Education and performed in the autonomous region of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain), as well as in other regions, the evidence encountered supports the suitability and relevance of designing an evaluation model centered on professional and educational guidance in view of the fact that this a student right and an education quality factor. There are three reasons for selecting this region: a. The socioeconomic and political context of the region (rural areas, geographic dispersion, economic modernization, decentralization…) that tests the educational policies, which are aimed at favoring quality and equality in education. b. The important legislative development that has occurred since education competencies were transferred in 1999 to the present, which explains the design processes, administration, dissemination and general availability of the new systems and guidance programs in this subject. c. The progressive generalization of the regional guidance model and its relation with the new educational demands and associated emerging public problems, in the framework of a school system which defines itself as inclusive. These questions allows us to observe the tendency to re-adjust the current model from 2005 to present. The objectives that guide our contribution to EERA are the following: 1. Describe the political decision-making process regarding guidance in Castilla La Mancha. 2. Pursue more in-depth theoretical development regarding the significance, the role and the possible ways in which public guidance policies are utilized as elements of quality and equality in education in a context like the one inherent to Castilla La Mancha. 3. Propose the basic dimensions that would define an evaluation tool directed at improving professional and educational guidance. The proposed empirical evidence is derived from the extensive study of the regional guidance model of the Castilla La Mancha. This work is set in the framework focused on “policy making” (KINGDOM, 1995), relying on the concurring interests of the “top-down” (MAZMANIAN and SABATIER, 1989) and “bottom-up” (HULL and HJERN, 1987) models. Its purpose is to generate knowledge that exceeds policies based on opinions (DAVIES, 2004) and replaces it with policies based on evidence (OCDE, 2007), directed towards a formative and conclusive evaluation (WEISS, 1997; CHEN, 1990) and overcoming the limitations of impact evaluations (LLOYD and O’SULLIVAN, 2004).

This is a case study focused on evaluation (GUBA and LINCOLN, 1989; GOMM, HAMMERSLEY and FOSTER, 2000). Some authors emphasize the need for combining several methods (multi-method designs), before considering that conclusions drawn from investigation are evidence for designing policies (COOK and GOORARD, 2007). In our case, we have combined several methods for collecting data: Document reports, formal polls, interviews and group discussions using qualitative methods that defend the applied nature of this analysis, where traditional descriptive and prescriptive analysis of public policies are integrated.

1. Evaluations of educational policies regarding guidance are centered on the impact of theses policies; they do not contemplate formative evaluations. 2. The evaluations must introduce descriptive and prescriptive components of the analysis of policies that are linked to the objectives of the territory. 3. Empirical evidence that strengthens the suitability of moving forward in the design of an evaluation model for educational and professional guidance.