AAC&U Assessment Rubrics

I would like to share a recent publication from the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U), “On Solid Ground" addressing large scale assessment. AAC&U has created and validated several types of analytical rubrics, which are used widely in higher ed, especially in addressing institutional and program core competencies. For example, WASC accrediting body focuses on five Core Competencies: written & oral communication, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking, and information literacy. These competencies are frequently assessed through regionally calibrated AAC&U rubrics. Key findings include.

• “On Solid Ground" includes results from the AAC&U’s national Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE) initiative focusing on critical thinking, written communication and quantitative literacy;

• Professors from 92 institutions uploaded 21,000 samples of student work which 288 trained educators scored. One-third were scored twice, to ensure consistency;

• Empowers faculty as both disciplinary and pedagogical experts and challenges them to interrogate their own teaching practices about how their students master knowledge, skills, and abilities. If faculty are truly the arbiters of the curriculum, they — in partnership with their students — can also own the learning;

• Rubrics could be used for judging quality of learning in different courses in different fields from different departments — a testament to the transferability of the initiative to institutions beyond the pilot group;

• Reliability - agreement among raters ranged from 84% to 94%; and

• Changed assessment from policing to enriching teaching conversations and how assessment can inform.