Los indicadores como herramientas para la evaluación de la calidad de los sistemas educativos

this work presents the background regarding the development of social and educational indicators, as part of a trend to measure social policies. we provide fine points concerning these concepts, in particular when applied to the evaluation of the quality of the educational systems. proposals are offered for a systematization of the methodology for the construction of indicators, as well as considerations on the possibilities and the restrictions of these tools, to prevent the risk of expecting too much from the indicators, or to ignore the complexity of the tasks that its development implies (i.e. believing they can be carried out in a brief time).