Building a Scholarship of Assessment [Paperback]

In this book, leading experts in the field examine the current state of assessment practice and scholarship, explore what the future holds for assessment, and offer guidance to help educators meet these new challenges. The contributors root assessment squarely in several related disciplines to provide an overview of assessment practice and scholarship that will prove useful to both the seasoned educator and those new to assessment practice. Ultimately, Building a Scholarship of Assessment will help convince skeptics who still believe outcomes assessment is a fad and will soon fade away that this is an interdisciplinary area with deep roots and an exciting future.

Preface ix

The Authors xiii

Part One: History and Current Status of Assessment 1

1 An Emerging Scholarship: A Brief History of Assessment 3
Peter T. Ewell

2 Promoting Academic Improvement: Organizational and Administrative Dynamics That Support Student Assessment 26
Marvin W. Peterson and Derek S. Vaughan

Part Two: Theoretical Foundations of Assessment 47

3 The Roots of Assessment: Tensions, Solutions, and Research Directions 49
Peter J. Gray

4 A Scholar-Practitioner Model for Assessment 67
T. Dary Erwin and Steven L. Wise

5 Enacting a Collaborative Scholarship of Assessment 82
Marcia Mentkowski and Georgine Loacker

6 The Scholarly Assessment of Student Development 100
George D. Kuh, Robert M. Gonyea, and Daisy P. Rodriguez

Part Three: Methods of Assessment 129

7 Measurement Issues in Outcomes Assessment 131
Gary R. Pike<lS[