Valid Assessment of Student Learning: Taking Control of the Conversation

The VALUE (Valid Assessment of Student Learning in Undergraduate Education) project is part of a FIPSE funded effort to develop national practices to enhance assessment of student learning. Academics and business leaders have identified a comprehensive list of essential learning outcomes that students need to be successful in the 21st century. This project has worked with groups of faculty from across the country to synthesize rubrics for each of fourteen learning outcomes reflecting the expectations of learning at progressively more complex and sophisticated levels. These rubrics have been used by faculty on 12 leadership campuses to evaluate student work presented in their electronic portfolios. Initial findings indicate that there are shared expectations for learning across all types of campuses and that the rubrics can be utilized to assess student learning across the curriculum and co-curriculum. Samples of rubrics and e-portfolios will be presented to illustrate the project outcomes and leadership campuses will co-present to discuss how the project has been useful on their respective campuses. Campuses include San Mateo, San Francisco State University, Kapi’olani, Portland State University.