In a time of globalization the discourses of standards and accountability are strongly predominant in the practical construction of school external evaluation system (Taubman, 2009). A critical perspective of this method is defined by the double interconnected movement internationalization and nationalization (Hua, Wenjun & Pinar, 2014). In spite of the policies of school external evaluation are apparently becoming more globally uniform, what actually happens within schools varies widely around the world (Anderson-Levitt, 2009), it is relevant that the developing knowledge networks enable policies to move through and adapt on other contexts (Ball, 2012).

In Portugal, the Law No. 31/2002 of 20th December defined the Portuguese system of school external evaluation and that the practices of evaluation schools lie on the shoulders of the Portuguese Inspection in collaboration with the Universities. The process is framed in transnational and supranational regulatory processes and policies that promote accountability and responsibility (Afonso, 2009) and school external evaluation is linked, among other things, to the autonomy of schools, the professional development of teachers (Alves & Flores, 2011) and the movement of effective schools and school improvement, focusing, respectively, in the studies of effectiveness and efficiency.

In the beginning the school external evaluation process only happened in some public schools and occurred with some normalcy. As a result, the process was extended to all national public schools and suffered some changes over the first cycle of evaluation based on the proposals made by the National Education Council. In 2011, Portugal entered the second cycle of school external evaluation after the process suffered some important changes to answer the demands of the National Education Council. The main alterations happened in the number of dimensions that are evaluated and in the fact that schools have, now, the chance to refute the finds presented by the team of inspectors and the teacher from a University (Rodrigues, Queirós, Sousa & Costa, 2014).

In spite of the changes, it was never carried out a study on the impact or consequences of its application. 

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