Assessment Based On The Principles Of Theodore Marchese

Assessment is a process in which rich, usable, credible feedback from an act of teaching or curriculum comes to be reflected upon by an academic community, and then is acted on by that community, a department or college, within its commitment to get smarter and better at what it does (Marchese, 1997, page 93). All of which is to say, assessment is more than data gathering. It also encompasses essential functions of meaning-making, action, and commitment to improve. Absent any of these elements, the doing of assessment becomes hollow. Ted Marchese, Senior Consultant at Academic Search, served 18 years as vice president of the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) and was a Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is also a trustee of Eckerd College and of the Transnational 21st Century Learning Initiative. While at AAHE he edited Change (higher education’s most-read magazine), the AAHE Bulletin, and directed a foundation-supported project that resulted in his widely praised publication, “The Search Committee Handbook.” Assessment as ‘learning’ is not a third-party research project or someone's questionnaire; it must be viewed as a community effort or nothing, driven by a faculty's own commitment to reflect, judge, and improve. In this presentation the author provides some guidelines for conducting assessment utilizing the principles outlined by Theodore Marchese.