This paper aims to place the educational assessment in a contemporary context. The author reviews the concepts of educational assessment and curriculum assessment, recognizes their contribution, mainly, as tools for a better knowledge about the educational institutions, their ways and contents, their actors, processes and practices, and their improvement and development. He recognizes the value of the participation of civil society in monitoring and evaluation processes, and her ability to strengthen educational processes in institutions, but warns about the potential biases, which can lead to unfair consequences for institutions and their actors. On this basis, he proposes to define criteria and conditions for an unbiased assessment, in which the goals, processes and outcomes be the service of improvement and transformation, not punishment, exclusion and extreme control.