Assessment Essentials: Planning, Implementing, Improving

by Catherine A. Palomba, Trudy W. Banta

This is a one-volume Assessment 101....A comprehensive, useful introduction for novices and a valuable review and update for veterans.
--Thomas A. Angelo, associate professor and director, The Assessment Center, School for New Learning, DePaul University

This step-by-step guide provides the most current practices for developing assessment programs on college and university campuses. Assessment Essentials outlines the assessment process from the first to the last step and is filled with illustrative examples to show how assessment is accomplished on today's academic campuses. It is especially useful for faculty members and others who may be new to the assessment process. In clear, accessible language, Palomba and Banta describe effective assessment programs and offer a thorough review of the most up-to-date practices in the field.

Each chapter of the book addresses a specific aspect of assessment and is designed to walk users through various steps of the assessment process. This comprehensive resource shows how to:
* Develop plans and goals that are right for the needs of an individual campus
* Encourage involvement and support from students, faculty, alumni, and employees
* Select useful methods and approaches
* Use the most advantageous performance measures
* Develop tests and classroom assignments
* Choose appropriate surveys and focus groups
* Accurately assess general education, campus environments, and student experiences
* Effectively analyze, report, and use the assessment results

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Grad School

432 pages, Hardcover

First published May 15, 1999

Reviews

[Elliedakota]

Class requirement - basically a long lot review; name drops the same programs over and over

[Brad]

Perhaps my review is colored by the later chapters, but I found the examples and discussion to be very general and vague. This did not come off as a practical guide, but a more general discussion about the merits of assessment.

[Eric Viets]

Excellent book on Assessment in Higher Education

This was a required textbook for my doctoral class in Education. I found it to be engaging and helpful for those who are wanting to understand Assessment in Higher Education.

[Tori]

I work in high education assessment & accreditation. This book was informative regarding the pioneer institutions of assessment; however, I wish it would have used other institutions as references also.

[Renee]

It was fine, read for a class

[Gladys]

The definitive book on assessment in higher education.

[Dylan Walgate]

Read for grad school

[Benjamin]

This is a good example of what happens when education is industrialized and the study of education is turned into a social science. It also illustrates how easy it is to get 5-star reviews on Amazon. The book (even at 350 pages) is bloated and repetitive. Apparently, in order for schools to think about and reflect on what they're doing and how well they're doing it, and to take appropriate steps for change when needed, it is necessary to create a whole new bureaucracy for the school, the whole purpose of which is assessment. Surveys, focus groups, standardized tests, etc. are essential, which justifies the continued existence of the assessment bureaucracy.

[Robyn]

First introduction into the field of institutionalized assessment. This is a great resource to warm your shelf and inform your work throughout various stages of operationalizing and maintenancing assessment systems in educational contexts. No big ah-ha's here, rather a treasure trove of the small nips and tucks that can go a long way in this work.

[Laura]

Read most of this for class, but did not get to it all - still giving myself credit for completing it! This is a well-written and useful guide to assessment in higher education with a lot of real world examples.

[Dianna LeFevre]

Boring and thin.