Virginia Assessment Group

Pathways to careers in assessment vary widely, and so do the roles fulfilled by assessment practitioners. Further, the variability in preparation, job responsibilities, and orientations to assessment leads to a wide variety of perspectives on how and why assessment should be conducted. How, then, do we define and develop professional identity within assessment-related roles? Is it even possible to provide a universal definition of the role of the assessment professional in higher education and beyond?

This webinar will summarize the myriad roles filled by assessment professionals in various contexts, emphasizing the variety of skill sets that are needed to fulfill the needs of our partners across (and beyond) the college campus.

Caroline Prendergast, PhD is a psychometrician at the American Board of Surgery, where she collaborates with assessment developers, measurement specialists, and surgeons to develop, implement, and study board certification assessments. Her current research focuses on the implications of artificial intelligence for low-security assessments. She is also the author of multiple publications concerning assessment in higher education, including Improving Student Learning at Scale: A How-To Guide for Higher Education.

We share the creation of a rubric that aligns with outcomes assessment processes aimed to improve student learning and development in higher education. More specifically, the rubric was created to align with professional standards and explicitly evaluates equity-related aspects of each component of the outcomes assessment process. Additionally, we highlight the rubric as a necessary step in a broader change management effort. We then share procedures of the initial use of the rubric to evaluate outcome assessment reports. After analyzing rubric scores (e.g., G-study) and qualitative feedback from several raters, we then describe additional support resources intentionally created to facilitate more reliable ratings. We freely share the rubric, training reports, and support materials to enable a culture of improvement in higher education institutions.  

Reference: Finney, S.J. & Stewart, J. (2024, Sept). Facilitating the integration and evaluation of equity considerations into assessment and program improvement: A rubric to guide your way. Webinar presented to the Virginia Assessment Group, Virtual.

Sara Finney, PhD:

Dr. Sara Finney has dual appointment at James Madison University. As professor of Graduate Psychology, she teaches statistics and measurement topics for JMU’s Assessment & Measurement PhD program and Quantitative Psychology MA program. As Associate Director of the Center for Assessment and Research Studies, she oversees the creation of initiatives to emphasize the use of assessment results for learning improvement. Since 2001, Dr. Finney has been providing outcomes assessment-related support to professionals in the Division of Student Affairs at JMU. Currently, she oversees the Student Affairs Assessment Support Services (SASS) team. SASS aims to enhance the assessment capacity of student affairs professionals who coordinate programs with student learning and development outcomes.  Fulfillment of this mission occurs via direct consultation, educational activities, and the dissemination of scholarly work relevant to assessment practices. Dr. Finney’s work evaluating the effectiveness of university educational programming has garnered four national awards from the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) and the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Association (NASPA). Dr. Finney has published over 80 articles and chapters, with graduate students co-authoring over 75% of these publications. She has also contributed to the revision of the CAS Standards. Her research involves the incorporation of implementation fidelity assessment during the outcomes assessment process, the study of test-taking motivation and emotions during institutional accountability testing, and the application of latent variable modeling techniques to better understand the measurement of psychoeducational constructs. Her research has appeared in such journals as Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, Research & Practice in Assessment, Educational and Psychological Measurement, Applied Measurement in Education, and Educational Assessment. 

Jonathan Stewart, PhD:

Dr. Jonathan Stewart serves as the Director for Finance, IT and Assessment for the Division of Student Affairs at James Madison University. Within the Vice President’s office, he provides leadership and oversight on matters related to finance, IT and assessment.  He leads the Assessment Council, Student Affairs Technical Services, and the Student Affairs Finance Team. Jonathan also teaches in the CSPA program and JMU X-Labs. He previously served as an assistant professor of theatre and as the arts administration specialist for James Madison University’s School of Theatre and Dance. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Performance, his MBA from Seton Hill University, and a Ph.D. in Strategic Leadership Studies from James Madison University. His research interests include arts-based pedagogy, ethical reasoning, leadership development, and change management.