Although higher education institutions often engage in assessment practices, use of assessment results to improve student learning is rare (Blaich & Wise, 2011). We surmised that this rarity could be partially explained by unclear communication regarding what "use of results" means. The current study qualitatively investigated how…

Local assessment systems are being marketed as formative, benchmark, predictive, and a host of other terms. Many so-called formative assessments are not at all similar to the types of assessments and strategies studied by Black and Wiliam (1998) but instead are interim assessments. In this article, we clarify the definition and uses of interim…

This training module is intended to clarify the notion of portfolio assessment and help users design such assessments. The rationale for assessment alternatives is presented; and portfolio definitions, characteristics, pitfalls, and design considerations are reviewed. The use of portfolios in large-scale assessments is particularly demanding of…

This book, which is intended for adult educators and human resource developers, presents guidelines for assessing adult learning. The following are among the topics covered in the book's eight chapters: (1) basic principles of informal assessment (relationship between learning and assessment activities; sequencing learning and assessment…