This study looks at use of curriculum maps, rubrics, new grading paradigms, use of the course management system in assessment, use of standardized testing, competency based courses, focus groups, pandemic-era special measures, and much else about the practice of student assessment in colleges and universities. Data and commentary in the report are derived from a survey of chief assessment officials and related officers at 40 colleges and universities.The study also looks at spending on assessment, trends in assessment office salaries and budgets, and relations of the assessment office with other student and college administrative services. In addition, the study gives detailed data on the perception of assessment officers and those with similar college functions on the impact of their assessment efforts and the level of cooperation with them from faculty and administration. It includes an assessment of stakeholder (state government/boards of directors/accreditation agencies/etc.) of pressure for assessment-related results. Survey participants also list some of their favorite sources of assessment-related advice and name the college assessment efforts that they most admire – and why they admire them.
The report is designed to give its readers a tour of the assessment horizon, quickly enabling its readers to get up to speed on peer opinion and where that opinion is going – and why.
Just a few of the report’s many findings are that:
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27.5% of those sampled felt that faculty more or less just “paid lip service” to the college’s assessment efforts.
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Research oriented institutions were much likelier than others to say that assessment-related pressures from stakeholders had markedly increased in recent years.
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A mean of 8.24% of students test out of the basic English writing and composition course designed for fist-year-students.