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Assessment can be defined in many ways, and is
often used to describe evaluation processes that
co-exist on several levels (level of the learner,
the classroom, the program, the institution). The
following quote by Thomas Angelo captures clearly and
succinctly the essential elements of assessment. It
describes the assessment process, and points to the
connections between assessment of student
learning/performance and program/institutional
integrity and improvement.
Assessment is an ongoing process aimed at understanding
and improving student learning. It involves making our
expectations explicit and public; setting appropriate
criteria and high standards for learning quality;
systematically gathering, analyzing, and interpreting
evidence to determine how well performance matches those
expectations and standards; and using the resulting
information to document, explain, and improve performance.
When it is embedded effectively within larger institutional systems,
assessment can help us focus our collective attention,
examine our assumptions, and create a shared academic
culture dedicated to assuring and improving the quality
of higher education.
Thus, assessment is an active and typically shared
involvement/commitment to understanding and improving
student learning. Assessment often leads to thoughtful
change and deeper questions about learning, curricular
coherency, and student success. The following quote, by
key resources at Alverno College (a nationally recognized
leadership institution in the area of ability-based
education and assessment), delineates the difference
between assessment and testing/measurement:
Testing can tell us how much and what kind of knowledge
someone has. Assessment gives us a basis for inferring
what that person can do with that knowledge. By judging
a person's performance against pre-set, agreed-upon and
public criteria, assessment aims to give it a meaning
out of which he or she can build future performance.
From a skill standards-based perspective, the critical
aspect is designing and implementing assessment methods
that require learners to perform to the level of knowledge,
skill, or ability as described in the standard (thus,
outcomes-based or competency-based assessment). Faculty
need to create and facilitate learning opportunities for
exposure, practice, and demonstration of the key skills
and abilities. Assessing those skills and abilities
(to the level of the standard) can, and should be, both
formative and summative. Faculty must determine what will
constitute evidence of learning, and build into the
assessment process ways for learners to perform successfully
(to meet or exceed the learning outcomes).
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