Assessment Clear and Simple: A Practical Guide for Institutions, Departments, and General Education (Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education)

Assessment Clear and Simple is "Assessment 101" in a book--a concise and step-by-step guide written for everyone who participates in the assessment process. This practical book helps to make assessment simple, cost-efficient, and useful to the institution, while at the same time meeting the requirements of accreditation agencies, legislatures, review boards, and others. Assessment Clear and Simple explores a variety of topics and shows how to:

• Build on assessment already in place
• Use classroom work and grading process
• Get faculty and department on board
• Assess hard to define goals such as moral and civic development
• Development workable learning goals
• Tailor assessment to its purposes
• Select sensible assessment measures
• Make criteria explicit
• Use assessment to improve learning
• Establish effective oversight without an assessment bureaucracy
• Write an assessment report
• Interpret the institution's culture to external audiences

Barbara E. Walvoord is a fellow of the Institute for Educational Initiatives and concurrent professor of English at the University of Notre Dame. She has been coordinator of Notre Dame’s regional accreditation self-study, founding director of four faculty development programs, consultant to more than 250 institutions, and the author of Effective Grading from Jossey-Bass.