什么是评税?

教师 sometimes say that they are already doing assessment by giving students tests.  Test data can certainly be useful in assessment. 然而，评估不仅仅是 tests – it relates to what the students know and can do at the end of a course or 毕业后.  Specifically whether or not students attain a set of 学习成果 (i.e., what faculty want students to know or be able to do as a result of taking (班级或竞争课程).  Learning outcomes can be formulated for application 在几个层面上. At the classroom level, a learning outcome might focus on a very 特定技能(e).g.,学生 will have the ability to identify common minerals), at the department/program or institute level they are typically broader (e.g.,学生 will identify and use the appropriate technique(s) to evaluate field samples).  An important characteristic of a good learning outcome is that it is something that can 容易衡量. 

Assessment should take place at multiple levels within an institution, including:

1. Classroom assessment in which instructors determine whether students are achieving 课程的学习成果.
2. Department/Program assessment in which faculty determine whether their department curriculum is teaching students the material and skills necessary to meet the department 学习成果. Departments/Programs that contribute to the general education core curriculum also do a separate assessment of those classes to see if they are fulfilling 学生在整个课程中的需求. 
3. Co-curricular assessment, in which non-academic offices/programs (e.g.学生服务; residential life, physical recreation) assess their progress in helping students to 取得学习成果.
4. Institute assessment, in which we attempt to determine whether students are meeting the 学习成果 that apply to the entire campus.  此时，NMT选择了 not to pursue this particular optional assessment activity.  

它为什么有价值??

There are several reasons that assessment is a valuable endeavor.

1. Classroom assessment provides instructors with feedback on the actual results of instruction.  Tests can be a valuable part of classroom assessment by relating specific test questions 对课堂学习成果的影响.  However, effective classroom assessment should also involve periodic assessments, which can include simple, non-graded activities such as asking students to quickly write down on a piece of paper the portion of a lecture that they found most difficult to follow, briefly explain a computational method, or demonstrate 实验技术.  If many students indicate they are having difficulty with a particular concept related to a learning outcome, you can spend more time on it in the next lecture, rather than waiting for the final exam to find out that they 遇到了麻烦.
2. Department assessment helps faculty focus on the skills and knowledge they want their graduates to have, and to determine how well they are doing at achieving these goals.  The process of formulating department-level 学习成果, and determining which classes contribute to those outcomes is very useful in its own right. 有一些等级吗? material not contributing to achieving the 学习成果?  也许是材料 is being taught because such classes traditionally cover this material, but if a concrete reason for including the material does not readily come to mind, more useful content 可以代替它吗.  从本质上讲, just planning for department-level assessment is valuable in that it encourages faculty to focus on more than their specific courses, but rather to think in terms of the broad goals they have for their students 毕业后.  
3. Co-curricular assessment helps non-academic offices to focus on how their activities 影响学生在校学习.  Students engage in a wide variety of activities related to these programs that enhance and reinforce formal academic instruction.  For example, our Office of Student Affairs has hosted a variety of activities that help students to appreciate diverse cultures and ethic diversity.  课余活动 have also been demonstrated to increase student engagement and have a major impact on student mental and physical health, which obviously help with their performance 各种各样的结果.

评估工作流程 

Regardless of assessment level, the workflow is always the same:

1. Define 学习成果 – the knowledge/skills you want the students to have. 
2. Formulate an assessment methodology – how you will measure student performance on 一个结果.
3. Identify a benchmark or target you would like the student population to reach (e.g., 80% of students will demonstrate mastery of a skill).
4. Evaluate how students are doing on the outcomes. 
5. Determine what actions, if any, should be taken to improve student performance. 这 item is critical because without it the assessment exercise is ultimately worthless. 

评估报告  

To view assessment reports, forms, and templates, visit the 报告页面，或索取报告副本 迈克尔•杰克逊.

进一步的阅读

安吉洛,T.A.克罗斯，K.P, 1993, Classroom assessment techniques (2nd ed.)、Josset-Bass 427 pp.， isbn 1-55542-500-3.

德里斯科尔,. 伍德，S。., 2007, Outcomes-based assessment for learner-centered education, 《威尼斯人app》，275页.， isbn 1-57922-195-9.