The Alverno College faculty reports on its development and use of assessment (rather than testing) to elicit, diagnose, and certify student abilities as part of its outcome-centered approach to liberal education. Assessment is defined as a more complete challenge to both the process and the content of a student's learning, achieving a more personal, specific and integrated view of her developing competence. The book raises several inevitable questions (e.g., reliable observing, accurate sampling of a student's abilities, defining appropriate criteria), and explains how the faculty of this small, urban Catholic college for women discovered assessment as essential to their approach to liberal learning. It is shown that the authors' view of competence as "generic,""developmental" and "holistic" requires certain qualities in each Alverno assessment technique. Ways in which faculty members design assessments are demonstrated, as well as how assessors are recruited and trained. In one chapter, students reflect on the experience of being assessed and learning to assess. A final chapter reviews the elements of the college's assessment system, and assessment's impact on the faculty. The book repeatedly stresses beginning with a clear focus on the outcomes to be assessed, in developing individual techniques or an overall system. It is emphasized that assessment is a learning experience for students and faculty alike. (Author/LBH)