Assessment Essentials: Planning, Implementing, and Improving Assessment in Higher Education

This second edition of Assessment Essentials updates the bestselling first edition, the go-to resource on outcomes assessment in higher education. In this thoroughly revised edition, you will find, in a familiar framework, nearly all new material, examples from more than 100 campuses, and indispensable descriptions of direct and indirect assessment methods that have helped to educate faculty, staff, and students about assessment.

Outcomes assessment is of increasing importance in higher education, especially as new technologies and policy proposals spotlight performance-based success measures. Leading authorities Trudy Banta and Catherine Palomba draw on research, standards, and best practices to address the timeless and timeliest issues in higher education accountability. New topics include:

• Using electronic portfolios in assessment
• Rubrics and course-embedded assessment
• Assessment in student affairs
• Assessing institutional effectiveness

As always, the step-by-step approach of Assessment Essentials will guide you through the process of developing an assessment program, from the research and planning phase to implementation and beyond, with more than 100 examples along the way. Assessment data are increasingly being used to guide everything from funding to hiring to curriculum decisions, and all faculty and staff will need to know how to use them effectively. Perfect for anyone new to the assessment process, as well as for the growing number of assessment professionals, this expanded edition of Assessment Essentials will be an essential resource on every college campus.

TRUDY W. BANTA is a professor of higher education and senior advisor to the chancellor for academic planning and evaluation at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. She is the founding editor of Assessment Update, a bimonthly periodical published by Jossey-Bass.

CATHERINE A. PALOMBA is director emeritus of assessment and institutional research at Ball State University.