COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT PROGRAM

Assessment is primarily course-embedded and provides students with clearly defined expectations, personalized feedback on growth, and timely indications of areas needing extra attention. At the same time, faculty obtain the information needed to identify and respond to the strengths and weaknesses of individual students, of teaching/learning strategies, and of curricula. Finally, the assessment program assists faculty to create an integrated plan for cumulative learning. It is in these ways that assessment contributes to the enhancement of student learning.

The subtleties and complexities of the learning process make its effectiveness inherently difficult to measure. While students learn under a teacher's direction, they also learn beyond the parameters of a syllabus, the assimilation of information, or the acquisition of skills. At King's College all assessments (other than placement exams) are designed by faculty to be administered and evaluated within individual courses. For assessment to have a significant impact on the enhancement of learning, it must take place in the learning environment; and, it must be in the hands of those who assess — the faculty. Freedom to exercise creativity, professional judgment, and specific expertise, individually or collectively, is of pre-eminent importance in the creation, application and analysis of assessment strategies.

The following assessments represent components of the Comprehensive Assessment Program that occur within the Core Curriculum, and at critical junctures in the major, to ensure that students are combining learning in the major with learning in the Core.

• Placement Tests
• Course-Specific Assessment in the Core Curriculum
• Competency Growth Plans for the Transferable Skills of Liberal Learning
• The Sophomore-Junior Diagnostic Project
• The Senior Integrated Assessment
• King's Shares Assessment Program with Nation

In addition, the book on assessment in education by the late Dr. Donald W. Farmer, vice president for academic affairs at King's, Enhancing Student Learning: Emphasizing Essential Competencies in Educational Programs (1988), has been distributed nationwide. Members of King's faculty are frequently requested to give presentations on King's curriculum and assessment program throughout the nation, including seven times for the American Association for Higher Education.

In response to numerous requests from educators across the country for information on King's assessment program, Educators from across the country visited King's College to learn about the nationally recognized assessment program, the college hosted a conference, "A Case Study on Integrating Curriculum Teaching and Assessment." Twenty of King's faculty and administrators representing every academic division at the college gave presentations to approximately 50 educators from several states including California, Florida, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania.