Outcomes
Assessment
Reports
a newsletter and Web log
by Frank Vozzo
 
Director of Student Learning Outcomes Assessment
 

 
February 6, 2006

In this report:

There was an error in the numbers I reported last week for SCA: specifically, the mean and standard deviation for the "Quality Ratings" of computer labs.  The correct numbers should have been: 3.59 and 1.08.

There are several commercially produced standardized tests that can be administered to undergraduates to assess their General Education learning outcomes.  I mentioned several in my first OARs Newsletter.  One of the newest (available as of January 2006) is called MAPP.  Produced by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the Measure of Academic Proficiency and Progress is claimed to be different from other tests, in that it does not rely on a single score but rather reports the results of a series of skills proficiency tests.  Reading and critical thinking are “measured in the context of the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences.”  The test can be administered to undergraduates at any point in their four years, so it can be useful for entrance and exit comparisons (a study of “value added” by a Sage education).  This new test may be particularly useful in assessing learning outcomes at Sage After Work.

The Graduate Record Exam, or GRE, is a product of the Educational Testing Service.  The test is used by many graduate schools as one of the measures of the quality of an applicant for admission.

The test comes in two forms: a general knowledge test, and a bank of subject tests.  Within each of the test types, there are analytical writing, verbal and quantitative skills measurements.

The ETS has issued guidelines for appropriate and inappropriate use of the GRE test scores.  The scores are to be considered valid only if they are received directly from ETS (not from the student), so it is considered inappropriate for an undergraduate program to ask their graduates to take a GRE and self-report the results.  An undergraduate program can arrange to receive an “Institutional Summary Statistics Report” directly from ETS, which contains anonymous information about GRE test takers who have graduated from the program within the past two years.  The cost is only $75 per report.

There are a number of published reports to assist institutions and departments with GRE data interpretation and analysis, which makes this a very convenient outcomes assessment tool.  The ETS, however, is aggressively promoting its other outcomes assessment products to institutions interested in the knowledge level and skill of its graduates; this may soon result in diminished ETS support for the use of the GRE results by undergraduate institutions doing outcomes assessment.

 
 

In next week's OARs: outcomes assessment in undergraduate Business programs.

Home...