Testing assessments of undergraduate political science students is predictable and stagnant. A missing, yet valuable, testing assessment tool that can contribute to the repertoire of political science is the oral examination. Borrowing this testing tool largely from foreign language departments, oral exams require students to "think on their…

One corporate university makes measurement a priority by dedicating resources and assigning responsibilities to a centralized analytics function: the assessment, measurement, and evaluation team. As more measurement became a focus for learning and business leaders alike, the more the team became motivated to take a critical look at how it was…

This study aimed to investigate how students' conceptions of assessment relate to one another, how students define assessment, and how student conceptions of assessment relate to their definitions of assessment. A nationally representative sample of New Zealand secondary students (N = 705) responded to a 45-item Conceptions of Assessment inventory…

This paper examines the practice of metaevaluation as indicated by the Metaevaluation standard of the Program Evaluation Standards, as the evaluation of a specific evaluation to inform stakeholders about the evaluation's strengths and weaknesses. The findings from an analysis of eighteen metaevaluations, including a description of the data…

Institutions often engage in elaborate assessment and planning processes that have little or no relationship to each other. Highly effective institutions are characterized by strategic planning activities that are intentionally informed by assessments of both student learning outcomes and the extent to which human and fiscal resources are being…

Get an in-depth understanding of how to create fun, engaging, and challenging performance assessments that require students to elaborate on content and demonstrate mastery of skills. This update of an ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) classic includes new scoring methods, reading assessments, and insights on navigating…

The ideas and examples in this book help teachers successfully collaborate to raise student achievement through the use of formative assessments. Here, Todd Stanley and Betsy Moore, educators with over 40 years of combined experience, offer proven formative assessment strategies to teachers in a professional learning community. Contents include:…

Traditional literacy instruction is perhaps still necessary but is certainly no longer sufficient to prepare learners for participation in the range of literacy practices that characterize an increasingly participatory culture. This article identifies discrepancies between traditional instructional practices that emphasize individual mastery of…

Assessment of clinical skills is a critical element of undergraduate medical education. We compare a traditional approach to procedural skills assessment--the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) with the Integrated Performance Procedural Instrument (IPPI). In both approaches, students work through "stations" or…

Jaschik's January 2009 article, "Assessing Assessment," describes initiatives designed to extend and broaden nascent assessment of college students learning. In the post-Spellings era of No Child Left Behind, many responded to the continuing discussion, "Why now?" He reports on two organizations, the National Institute for…

Evaluation capacity building (ECB) is seldom mentioned in the environmental education (EE) literature, but as demonstrated by the lack and poor quality of EE evaluations, is much needed. This article focuses on an online course, Applied Environmental Education Program Evaluation (AEEPE), which provides nonformal educators with an understanding of…

Proponents of performance assessments purport that they allow more options for student choice and autonomy and, therefore, are more motivating and more preferred by students. This study explored the role of stakes and the student's familiarity with the format in these examination preferences. A survey of 148 college students suggested that: their…

There is mounting evidence from faculty and employers that a broad set of skills and abilities are essential for student success as graduates, citizens, and employees. The traditional approach to general education with an emphasis on exposure to a menu of knowledge no longer suffices. Graduates need to be able to integrate their learning, apply it…

Various applications of item response theory often require linking to achieve a common scale for item parameter estimates obtained from different groups. This article used a simulation to examine the relative performance of four different item response theory (IRT) linking procedures in a random groups equating design: concurrent calibration with…

Scope and method of study. This quantitative survey study examined teachers' understanding of assessment, their practices in assessing student learning and their use of assessment data to guide their teaching. Specifically, this study sought to determine if level of training had an impact on teachers' understanding of assessment, teachers'…