256 pages
215 x 232 mm
ISBN-10: 1 57922 088 6
ISBN-13: 978 1 57922 088 4
Pub date: June 2004
Published by Stylus Publishing, LLC

This book offers colleges and universities a framework and tools to design an effective and collaborative assessment process appropriate for their culture and institution. It encapsulates the approach that Peggy Maki has refined through hundreds of successful workshops.
She presents extensive examples of processes, strategies and campus practices, as well as key resources, guides, worksheets, and exercises -- to assist all stakeholders in the institution to develop and sustain assessment of student learning as an integral and systematic core institutional process.
This book sets the assessment of learning within the twin contexts of: (1) the level of a program, department, division, or school within an institution; and (2) the level of an institution, based on its mission statement, educational philosophy, and educational objectives. Each chapter explores ways to position assessment within program- and institutional-level processes, decisions, structures, practices, and channels of communication.
Here is a process that any campus can adapt and use to engage all its constituencies -- institutional leaders, faculty, staff, administrators, students and those in governance -- constructively to forge a vision and commitment to action.
Contents:
Introduction:
Chapter 1: Developing a Collective Institutional Commitment
Chapter 2: Beginning with Dialogue about Teaching and Learning
Appendix A: Meta-sites for Active Learning and Teaching and Learning Inventories
Chapter 3: Making Claims about Student Learning within Contexts for Learning
Appendix: Example of Leveled Outcome Statements
Chapter 4: Identifying or Designing Tasks to Assess the Dimensions of Learning
Appendix: Strategies for Reviewing and Selecting Standardized Instruments
Chapter 5: Reaching Consensus about Criteria and Standards of Judgment
Author: Peggy L. Maki is a higher education consultant specializing in assisting institutions integrate assessment of student learning into educational practices. Formerly Senior Scholar and Director of Assessment at the AAHE, Associate Director of the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc., she has also served as a Dean and Chair at various institutions.
Reviews:
'The book would be a rich resource for assessment committees or university officers charged with assessment duties.' - NACADA Journal
"Maki's book offers a systematic approach to assessment that is meant to address the general questions, 'How well do we achieve our educational intentions?' and 'How well do our students learn?'…I consider this book to be an extremely valuable source for anyone involved in education. Its primary contribution is how it forces us to conceptualize 'assessment' as an integral part of the university system. Learning assessment is meant to be a core institutional process linked to all aspects of university life." - Effective Teaching