Assessment Glossary

Assessment

These glossary terms are primarily related to student and program assessment. Some related terms are located under the Program Management category. More comprehensive glossaries of terms can be found in the Greenwood Dictionary of Education (Collins & O’Brien, 2011) and the Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation (Newcomer, Hatry, & Wholey, 2015). 

affective domain

1. Definition: “A part of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives for student attitudes, values, and emotional growth. The affective domain includes five basic categories: receiving, responding, valuing, organization, and characterization by a value” (Dembo, 1994. p. G-1).

2. Compare with COGNITIVE DOMAIN and METACOGNITIVE DOMAIN.

alternate assessment

1. Definition: “Examination of student progress through direct observation of student performance and judgment of learning products through a collection of authentic sources such as behavior, student presentations, and work” (Collins & O’Brien, 2011, p. 18).

2. Compare with ASSESSMENT, DIFFERENTIATED PLACEMENT, DIRECTED SELF-PLACEMENT, PLACEMENT, and PLACEMENT TESTING.

assessment

1. Definitions: (a) “Process of applying systematic formal and informal measures and techniques to ascertain students’ current competencies and abilities; (b) Process of determining students’ strengths and weaknesses in cognitive and affective areas for the purpose of generalized placement; (c) Act of assessing, or taking a measurement by counting, rating, or estimating the amount of skill, ability, or knowledge of some element of an individual or a program); (d) ASSESSMENT should be as objective as possible (value-free), as opposed to EVALUATION, which suggests that value has been added. Assessment does not assume, in advance, what is good, worthwhile, or desirable. In analogy to science, assessment is observation. Although objectivity is always relative, it is important to separate the measurement from the interpretation of its meaning” (Collins & O’Brien, 2011, p. 36); and (e) “While ‘ASSESSMENT’ means “measurement,” the term is increasingly used in the higher education context to refer to a systematic cycle of collecting and reviewing information about student learning. The complete cycle involves: clearly stating expected goals for student learning, offering learning experiences, measuring the extent to which students have achieved expected goals, and using the evidence collected to improve teaching and learning” (Office of the Provost, n.d., para. 1).

2. Examples: College entrance examination scores, scores on pretests for all students enrolled in a course, and graduation rates for students in a particular academic degree program.

3. Compare with ALTERNATE ASSESSMENT, CAUSATION and CORRELATION, DIFFERENTIATED PLACEMENT, DIRECT SELF-PLACEMENT, EVALUATION, PLACEMENT TESTING, PROGRAM GOAL, PROGRAM OBJECTIVE, RESEARCH, and SYSTEMIC SELF-STUDY.

backwash

1. Definition: Describing the positive or negative impact that an assessment of a specific skill has on whether that skill has been acquired.

2. Examples: (a) Instructors organize their class learning activities directly to prepare for high-stakes tests that can impact funding for the school; and (b) Supplemental learning topics are ignored to permit more time for the instructor to teach to the test.

baseline

1. Definitions: (a) Natural occurrence of behavior before intervention; and (b) Data collected to establish a point of comparison between previous behavior and that which occurs after an intervention is introduced.

behavioral change

1. Definition: Difference in performance that is observable and documentable.

2. Examples: Course dr