Assessment Terms

• Assessment
  • A process for gathering information to make decisions
  • A strategy for understanding and improving student learning
• Stakeholder
  • People who have a share or interest in the education of students
• Accountability
  • Being responsible for the education of students
• Quantitative Assessment
  • Data usually collected in numerical form
  • Useful for comparison assessment
  • Can tell us what students have learned
• Qualitative Assessment
  • Data collected in various ways to capture quality of learning criteria
  • Useful for evaluation and assessment of the quality of student learning and for making decisions about the modification of teaching strategies
  • Types of qualitative assessment may include observation, quality criterion referenced rubrics, interviews, focus groups, open-ended questions, other less-structured methods
  • Can tell us how students learn
• Informal assessment
  • Appraisal by casual observation or by other non-standardized procedures
• Formal assessment
  • The collection of data using standardized tests or procedures under controlled conditions
• Rubric
  • A rubric is an explicit summary of the criteria for assessing a particular piece of student work, plus levels of potential achievement for each criterion. Rubrics produce assessments that are far more detailed than a single, holistic grade.
• Artifact
  • Any assignment-driven student-produced work such as a project, demonstration, lab report, speech, performance, or portfolio, that can be assessed to determine student achievement of course objectives or one (or more) of the CSLOs
• Common Student Learning Outcomes (CSLOs)
  • CSLOs encourage deeper learning by focusing on generally accepted goals, such as critical thinking, communication, and quantitative skills.
  • Included on all SJC course syllabi
  • Think, Learn, Communicate, Integrate, Act