Over 2000 years ago, Aristotle wrote of four distinct causes at play in the world we know. Those causes, the material cause, the formal cause, the efficient cause, and the final cause, were meant to refer to ontological and, by extension, epistemological concerns, and were powerful enough to be seized upon and used in some form by those of very…

There is a general tension between the individualised nature of current assessment practices in higher education and a collaborative approach to learning. This results in many dilemmas for educators as they try to balance academic integrity concerns and student preferences with social or collaborative assessment practices, including peer…

This issue of "Assessment Update" presents a three part series on fixing assessments. In Part 1, David Eubanks advocates for a collaborative model of assessment as the field enters a fourth decade of low return on investment. In Part 2, Megan R. Good laments the opportunity cost of continuing the define-measure-improve assessment model…

There has been a recent increase in attention toward the proper targets of evaluation in science funding policy. Specifically, some claim that we should 'fund people, not projects' to allow for increased autonomy for researchers. Critics argue that this movement unduly opens room for biases against several marginalized groups of scientists. In…

Programme evaluation has developed tremendously over the past 50 years, with a proliferation of evaluation research, an increase in the institutionalization of evaluation, and growth in the professionalization of evaluation. However, existing research and developments are still largely in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, with…

History has shown that despite favourable changes in policy and perception, undesirable or ineffective educational practices in the Caribbean have remained largely unchanged, or superficially or inadequately changed. It has also shown that high stakes summative assessment wields considerable influence on the content to which students are exposed…

This issue of "Assessment Update" presents a three part series on fixing assessments. Assessment means different things, but it almost always includes accreditation reporting. In Part 1: David Eubanks describes what went wrong with the accreditation standards on learning assessment and the compliance culture that they created. This…

This article presents a comprehensive exploration of ipsative and sociomaterial assessment methodologies, dissecting their theoretical frameworks, practical implementations, and the resultant effects on educational paradigms. The purpose of this article is to introduce a combined ipsative-sociomaterial assessment framework for science education at…

Instructional strategies employing complex problem-solving examine how learners represent the problem space and argue for decisions. Unlike problems with few solutions (e.g., multiple choices), instructors struggle to evaluate solutions to ill-structured problems quickly and consistently across students. This prevents instructors to provide timely…

Published studies of intervention effects probably report effect sizes that are larger than the true effect size. There are probably many reasons for this, but one can be thought of as a "winner's curse." In this essay, I discuss evidence from two recent studies that highlight how evidence clearinghouses might inadvertently expose…

Our purpose is to highlight the contributions of TalkBank initiatives to improved understanding of clinical impairments in adult and child speakers and examine remaining challenges and proposed solutions. We review the origins and development of TalkBank initiatives that have targeted a wide array of typical and atypical child and adult…

Enhancing student learning, a primary purpose of assessment, can be fostered through integrating modified program theory and implementation fidelity processes into curricular, instructional, and assessment practices. Another assessment priority, reporting student learning outcome results for accreditation which may include inadequate evidence…

This issue of "Assessment Update" presents a three part series on fixing assessments. In Part 1: "Assessment Standards are Broken," David Eubanks highlights the challenges with the assessment standards articulated by institutional accreditors. In this article, Part 2: Megan R. Good, discusses the opportunity costs faced and…

The George Mason University (Mason) offices responsible for institutional reporting and assessment were merged to strengthen and solidify their functions and expertise. The organizational structure creating the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Planning (OIEP) was intended to engineer a new paradigm where assessment would inform the…

"Through-year assessments" are assessments that are administered in multiple parts and at different times over the course of a school year that also produce summative scores that can be used with state accountability systems (Lorié et al., 2021; Dadey & Gong, 2023). These assessments are alternatively known as instructionally…