Assessment Essentials

List of Exhibits and Figures xiii
 
Foreword xv
Jillian Kinzie
 
Preface xix
 
About the Authors xxiii
 
1. Defining Assessment 1
 
Some Definitions 1
 
Pioneering in Assessment 3
 
Quality Assurance: An International Perspective 7
 
Assessment Purposes 9
 
Values and Guiding Principles 11
 
2. The Essentials of Assessment 15
 
Planning Effective Assessment 16
 
Engaging Stakeholders * Establishing Purpose * Designing a Thoughtful Approach to Assessment Planning * Creating a Written Plan * Timing Assessment
 
Implementing Effective Assessment 22
 
Providing Leadership * Selecting or Designing Data Collection Approaches * Providing Resources * Educating Faculty and Staff * Assessing Resources and Processes as Well as Outcomes * Sharing Findings
 
Improving and Sustaining Assessment 31
 
Obtaining Credible Evidence * Ensuring the Use of Assessment Findings * Reexamining the Assessment Process
 
Additional Thoughts 36
 
3. Engaging Faculty and Students in Assessment 39
 
Involving Faculty in Assessment 41
 
Faculty Responsibility * Assessment Resources for Faculty * Faculty Rewards * Maximizing the Role of Faculty and Faculty Acceptance * Some Stumbling Blocks in Understanding Assessment * The Nature of Resistance
 
Involving Students in Assessment 54
 
Student Responsibility * Resources for Students * Student Rewards * Maximizing Student Acceptance of Assessment
 
Acting with Integrity 63
 
4. Setting Expectations and Preparing to Select Measures 65
 
Intentions for Learning: Goals, Objectives, Outcomes 65
 
Defining Terms * Learning Taxonomies
 
Developing Statements of Expectations 69
 
Statement Content * Curriculum Maps * Using Matrices and Other Tools
 
Selecting Methods and Approaches 73
 
Inventories of Existing Activities * Developing Criteria for

TRUDY W. BANTA is a professor of higher education and senior advisor to the chancellor for academic planning and evaluation at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. She is the founding editor of Assessment Update, a bimonthly periodical published by Jossey-Bass.
 
CATHERINE A. PALOMBA is director emeritus of assessment and institutional research at Ball State University.