A practical, comprehensive manual for assessment design and implementation Assessment in Student Affairs, Second Edition offers a contemporary look at the foundational elements and practical application of assessment in student affairs. Higher education administration is increasingly called upon to demonstrate organizational effectiveness and engage in continuous improvement based on information generated through systematic inquiry. This book provides a thorough primer on all stages of the assessment process. From planning to reporting and beyond, you'll find valuable assessment strategies to help you produce meaningful information and improve your program. Combining and updating the thoroughness and practicality of Assessment in Student Affairs and Assessment Practice in Student Affairs, this new edition covers design of assessment projects, ethical practice, student learning outcomes, data collection and analysis methods, report writing, and strategies to implement change based on assessment results. Case studies demonstrate real-world application to help you clearly see how these ideas are used effectively every day, and end-of-chapter discussion questions stimulate deeper investigation and further thinking about the ideas discussed. The instructor resources will help you seamlessly integrate this new resource into existing graduate-level courses. Student affairs administrators understand the importance of assessment, but many can benefit from additional direction when it comes to designing and implementing evaluations that produce truly useful information. This book provides field-tested approaches to assessment, giving you a comprehensive how-to manual for demonstrating—and improving—the work you do every day. Build your own assessment to demonstrate organizational effectiveness Utilize quantitative and qualitative techniques and data Identify metrics and methods for measuring student learning Report and implement assessment findings effectively Accountability and effectiveness are the hallmarks of higher education administration today, and they are becoming the metrics by which programs and services are evaluated. Strong assessment skills have never been more important. Assessment in Student Affairs gives you the knowledge base and skill set you need to shine a spotlight on what you and your organization are able to achieve.

In the World Library of Educationalists, international experts themselves compile career-long collections of what they judge to be their finest pieces extracts from books, key articles, salient research findings, major theoretical and practical contributions so the world can read them in a single manageable volume, allowing readers to follow th

This study enables the lecturer to explore issues, dilemmas and situations which confront the stakeholders in further and higher education. It explores how assessment and evaluation of student learning and tutors teaching are affected by institutional and governmental arrangements.

Education is a hot topic. From the stage of presidential debates to tonight's dinner table, it is an issue that most Americans are deeply concerned about. While there are many strategies for improving the educational process, we need a way to find out what works and what doesn't work as well. Educational assessment seeks to determine just how well students are learning and is an integral part of our quest for improved education. The nation is pinning greater expectations on educational assessment than ever before. We look to these assessment tools when documenting whether students and institutions are truly meeting education goals. But we must stop and ask a crucial question: What kind of assessment is most effective? At a time when traditional testing is subject to increasing criticism, research suggests that new, exciting approaches to assessment may be on the horizon. Advances in the sciences of how people learn and how to measure such learning offer the hope of developing new kinds of assessments-assessments that help students succeed in school by making as clear as possible the nature of their accomplishments and the progress of their learning. Knowing What Students Know essentially explains how expanding knowledge in the scientific fields of human learning and educational measurement can form the foundations of an improved approach to assessment. These advances suggest ways that the targets of assessment-what students know and how well they know it-as well as the methods used to make inferences about student learning can be made more valid and instructionally useful. Principles for designing and using these new kinds of assessments are presented, and examples are used to illustrate the principles. Implications for policy, practice, and research are also explored. With the promise of a productive research-based approach to assessment of student learning, Knowing What Students Know will be important to education administrators, assessment designers, teachers and teacher educators, and education advocates.

Science educators in the United States are adapting to a new vision of how students learn science. Children are natural explorers and their observations and intuitions about the world around them are the foundation for science learning. Unfortunately, the way science has been taught in the United States has not always taken advantage of those attributes. Some students who successfully complete their Kâ€"12 science classes have not really had the chance to "do" science for themselves in ways that harness their natural curiosity and understanding of the world around them. The introduction of the Next Generation Science Standards led many states, schools, and districts to change curricula, instruction, and professional development to align with the standards. Therefore existing assessmentsâ€"whatever their purposeâ€"cannot be used to measure the full range of activities and interactions happening in science classrooms that have adapted to these ideas because they were not designed to do so. Seeing Students Learn Science is meant to help educators improve their understanding of how students learn science and guide the adaptation of their instruction and approach to assessment. It includes examples of innovative assessment formats, ways to embed assessments in engaging classroom activities, and ideas for interpreting and using novel kinds of assessment information. It provides ideas and questions educators can use to reflect on what they can adapt right away and what they can work toward more gradually.

Evaluability assessment (EA) can lead to development of sound program theory, increased stakeholder involvement and empowerment, better understanding of program culture and context, enhanced collaboration and communication, process and findings use, and organizational learning and evaluation capacity building. Evaluability Assessment: Improving Evaluation Quality and Use, by Michael Trevisan and Tamara Walser, provides an up-to-date treatment of EA, clarifies what it actually is and how it can be used, demonstrates EA as an approach to evaluative inquiry with multidisciplinary and global appeal, and identifies and describes the purposes and benefits to using EA. Using case examples contributed by EA practitioners, the text illustrates important features of EA use, and showcases how EA is used in a variety of disciplines and evaluation contexts. This text is appropriate as an instructional text for graduate level evaluation courses and training, and as a resource for evaluation practitioners, policymakers, funding agencies, and professional training. “The most impressive aspect of this book is that it positions EA as an approach that perfectly fits within the current philosophical views on program evaluation… The authors do a great job connecting these theories to practice, and provide good guidelines.” —Sebastian Galindo-Gonzalez, University of Florida “This book is focused on one very important topic in the scope of program evaluation content. It establishes the foundation for a variety of applications: impact assessment, program development, and formative evaluation. This text provides new insights and methods for conducting evaluability assessment.” —S. Kim MacGregor, Louisiana State University “The book is written in a very readable style, is well organized and referenced. I like the inclusion of case studies, guidelines for actually doing EA, and the extensive discussion of its alignment with other models of evaluation process.” —Iris Smith, Emory University

The expert guide to the major issues, the chief trends, and the most effective models of program evaluation in gifted education! The readings in this ready-reference report on specific program evaluations, offer critical guidance in the development and utilization of instruments for assessing gifted and talented programs, and are designed to stimulate the discussion of issues surrounding the evaluation of gifted programs. Key features include: Carolyn M. Callahan′s comprehensive and insightful examination of the past, present, and hopeful future of gifted program evaluation Research-informed theories, practical guidelines, and successful models of evaluation Recommendations for future exploration Program evaluation has been considered an important, but neglected component of gifted education for the last three decades. Program Evaluation in Gifted Education provides much needed direction to program developers and practitioners who desire to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their gifted programs. The ERGE Series: The National Association for Gifted Children series Essential Readings in Gifted Education is a 12-volume collection of seminal articles from Gifted Child Quarterly. Put the knowledge and power of more than 25 years of research on giftedness and talent into your hands with the leading theories, studies, and findings the experts in the field have to offer.