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Testing and Assessment

Guidelines for Assessment and Evaluation

The assessment of students’ achievement in both knowledge and professional skills & behaviors is an important function of the curriculum. Likewise, the evaluation based on the information derived from multiple assessment strategies is an important function of the curriculum. School of Medicine guidelines should provide direction for how both functions are carried out but allow faculty to determine specific assessment methods (measurement) and standards (evaluation).

What is the purpose of a student assessment and evaluation system?

Assessment of student achievement and performance generates information that provides the following:

  • feedback to individual students regarding their achievement
  • information to the administration regarding the individual student’s readiness for promotion, need for remediation, qualification for academic awards (such as AOA), and recommendation for residency applications
  • feedback on course and curriculum effectiveness to course directors and curriculum committees regarding students’ achievement on specified learning objectives and School of Medicine exit objectives

What are the School of Medicine expectations for a student assessment and evaluation system?

  • assessment strategies should be congruent with learning objectives
  • students should receive feedback from each assessment experience as expeditiously as possible
    • Adequate turn-around time will include time for appropriate analysis of test questions (descriptive statistics, validity issues) or checklist issues (reliability, validity); grades should not be posted until this process is completed.
    • Repeated posting of adjusted grades should be rare.
  • students should receive feedback regarding areas of proficiency and deficiency
    • Posting of correct answers with a copy of the test for a reasonable period of time, use of the AIMS (provides electronic personal performance profiles), or individual review of performance with course faculty will ensure the desired quality of feedback
  • faculty members are encouraged to work with the Office of Educational Development to improve the quality of their assessment instruments