In the author's position as director of institutional effectiveness and currently as a department assessment chair, he relates that he has found it useful to use an analogy between flossing one's teeth and instituting assessment. There are more similarities between flossing and assessment than one might imagine. In this article, the author…

This article presents the author's response to Arend Flick. The author states that Flick is correct that the issue of rubrics is broader than interrater reliability, though it is the assessment practitioner's primary armament against what the author has heard dubbed "refried bean counting" (insinuating that assessment statistics are not just bean…

In this article, the author discusses what rubric really is. A rubric is not a technical specification nor is it a checklist for ailing student performances in need of therapy. It is the finest description of what teachers think is important for their students right now, in the service of their learning. Most important, it is a statement of their…

This article presents the author's critique of R. Stephen RiCharde's argument in his essay on the humanities and interrater reliability in the July-August 2008 issue of "Assessment Update." RiCharde suggests that the humanities' historical commitment to a dialectical pedagogy, a "nonlinear" process that values disagreement and debate, is at odds…

Griffith, Day, Scott, and Smallwood (1996) state, "Planning cannot survive without a budget, [and] neither planning nor budgeting can survive with integrity without assessment." If the integrity of planning and budgeting processes is affected by assessment, then this author argues that there are effective ways in which assessment can be…

Over the last twenty years, colleges and universities have invested considerable effort and resources in programs that are designed to improve undergraduate learning and enhance student success. These programs range from first-year seminars and learning communities to service-learning programs and capstone courses. Given the costs associated with…

For several years, the author has coordinated the introductory business course for freshmen, GB101: World of Business, at Bentley College. Recently, another faculty member and the author redesigned the course based on assurance of learning principles. The redesign of GB101 did not change the basic description or goals of the course but did not…

Summative measures of learning collected at the conclusion of an associate or bachelor's degree program are insufficient to help educators and students maximize learning and personal development across the college years. Managing the desired outcomes of college requires an understanding of when learning and growth occur during the educational…