Systemwide Assessment of Utah's General Education Courses

Autor/in	Kramer, Philip I.
Titel	Systemwide Assessment of Utah's General Education Courses
Quelle	In: Assessment Update, 17 (2005) 2, S.4-6 (3 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1041-6099
Schlagwörter	General Education; Public Colleges; Program Effectiveness; Governing Boards; Faculty; College Students; Pilot Projects; Higher Education; Pretests Posttests; Accountability; Utah; Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Allgemein bildendes Schulwesen; Allgemeinbildung; Governing body; Governing bodies; Leitungsgremium; Academic Staff; Lehrkörper; Collegestudent; Pilot project; Modellversuch; Pilotprojekt; Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Verantwortung
Abstract	In 1998, the Utah State Board of Regents ordered a sample administration of American College Testing's Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP), a test of general knowledge, for Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) students. The pilot test was administered to 3,148 Utah college students who were completing their sophomore year at one of Utah's nine public colleges or universities. Although Utah college and university students scored above the national average, the results of the CAAP were considered a disappointment. Faculty throughout the state believed that the CAAP was an inadequate test of general education because: (1) the test was not aligned with course content or objectives; (2) the CAAP did not correlate with students' grade point averages; (3) the findings were too general and failed to offer any guidance to faculty; and 4) the CAAP was not administered to students who had taken any specific courses in common or completed similar degree requirements. Consequently, the Regents' Task Force for General Education, an ad hoc faculty committee charged by the regents with examining general education in the state, asked the regents to allow faculty members to create their own assessment instruments to measure the general education knowledge of Utah college and university students. After agreeing on general education competences, statewide faculty began to develop the pilot assessment. It was then administered to 2,141 students at the nine USHE institutions at the beginning and the end of the spring 2001 semester. There were dramatic improvements in student learning between the beginning and the end of the semester. A subsequent study was conducted to examine the purposes of the pilot assessment, how the pilot assessment was organized and implemented, what methodological issues were involved in creating the pilot assessment, and what recommendations participants in the study had for future assessment endeavors. This article highlights the major findings of the study and presents several recommendations for practioners and researchers. (Contains 1 note.) (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Jossey Bass. Available from John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774. Tel: 800-825-7550; Tel: 201-748-6645; Fax: 201-748-6021; e-mail: subinfo@wiley.com; Web site: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/86511121
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10