Evaluations of educational systems, at regional, national and international levels, are becoming increasingly important throughout the world, including Spain. These evaluations are an excellent means of obtaining data to carry out diagnoses of the educational system and to develop strategies for its evidence-based improvement. Very often the data obtained in high-impact educational evaluations are not used in an exhaustive and rigorous way. In this symposium, four papers are presented in which some alternatives are offered.

In this symposium, four studies are presented which provide some innovative alternatives for the exploitation of data from high-impact assessments. For example, the use of network and latent classes analyses will allow for richer and more rigorous exploitation of the results, bringing to light opaque options for more conventional analyses. The papers presented will use regional, national and international data, and will analyse both cognitive and orectic variables.

José Muñiz Fernández obtained a degree in Psychology from the Complutense University of Madrid, and a PhD from the same university. He was a lecturer at the Complutense University until 1984 when he obtained the Chair of Mathematical Psychology at the University of the Balearic Islands. Since 1987 he has been Professor of Psychometry at the University of Oviedo. He has published numerous papers in national and international journals in the field of Psychometry and Psychological Assessment. Among his books on various aspects of psychological measurement are those of Classical Theory of the Test, Introduction to Psychometry, Item Response Theory, Psychometry, Analysis of Items, or Introduction to Psychophysics. He is member of the Editorial Committee and a reviewer of several scientific journals. He founded the journal Psicothema where he was the director for 30 years. As a Fulbright Scholar, he carried out research projects at the University of Massachusetts (USA), where he is still collaborating in different research projects. He was the president of the European Commission on Tests and Testing, President of the International Test Commission (ITC) and of the European Association of Methodology (EAM). He represented Spain in the international committee that developed the ISO 10667 standard aimed at regulating the evaluation of people in work environments, and he chaired the National Committee that adapted this rule in Spain. Among the different University services that he has lent, it is worth mentioning that he was Vice-Rector for Teaching at the University of Oviedo, Member of the School Board of the Principality of Asturias, President of the Scientific and Technological Research Advisory Council (CAICYT) of the Principality of Asturias, Dean of the Faculty of Psychology and Director of the Department of Psychology of the University of Oviedo, member of the Spanish Academy of Psychology.