Remedial courses have been part of the college landscape in the United States since at least the 1800s when nearly 250,000 students were placed into remedial courses. Traditionally, students who enrolled in remedial courses were placed into that course solely based on one test score. Students who enrolled in traditional remedial courses were more…

For more than 30 years, James Madison University (JMU) has used Assessment Days to collect longitudinal data on student learning outcomes. Our model ensures that all incoming students are tested twice: once in August before beginning classes and again in February after accumulating 45-70 credit hours (Pastor, Foelber, Jacovidis, Fulcher &…

This issue of "Assessment Update" presents the following articles: (1) Organizing for Learning Improvement: What It Takes (Andrea M. Pope and Keston H. Fulcher); (2) Editor's Notes: The Leadership Imperatives for Assessment Excellence -- Imperative #2, Attracting and Retaining Talent to Support Assessment Excellence (Stephen P. Hundley);…

In this paper, we study the relationship between the use of "crib sheets" or "cheat sheets" and performance on in-class exams. Our extensive survey of the existing literature shows that it is not decisive on the questions of when or whether crib sheets actually help students to either perform better on an exam or better learn…

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is implementing a large scale exploration of digital pedagogies, including connected learning and open education, in an effort to promote digital fluency and integrative thinking among students. The purpose of this study was to develop a classroom assessment toolkit for faculty who wish to document student…

Assessing learning does not by itself result in increased student accomplishment, much like a pig never fattened up because it was weighed. Indeed, recent research shows that while institutions are more regularly engaging in assessment, they have little to show in the way of stronger student performance. This paper clarifies how assessment results…

Increasingly across the United States, institutions of higher education (IHE) are offering a wide array of postsecondary educational (PSE) opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities (ID). As more students with ID aspire to college, it is incumbent upon IHEs to engage in rigorous program evaluation to assess student outcomes and…

The "Anti-Tobacco Media Blitz" (ATMB), a social-norms marketing program, was utilized for tobacco prevention with middle and high school students. University students assisted middle and high school students with the implementation of this campaign, which included a variety of media. Students worked in teams to design, develop, and…

Few would disagree that grade inflation is a major problem at colleges and universities across the country. In this article, the author argues that a significant contributing factor-perhaps the single most important factor has been the institution of the now almost universal practice of administering anonymous, multiple-choice student evaluations…

The author of this study used content analysis as the methodology by which to examine student evaluations of community college faculty. The study sought to answer three questions: (1) What is the nature of faculty evaluation of teaching effectiveness in the community colleges of Virginia and Maryland? (2) What is the nature of the student forms…