Using the cumulative deviation method for cross-institutional benchmarking in the Berlin progress test

Abstract

The Berlin Progress Test has grown to a cooperation of 13 universities. Recently, comparisons between the participating schools became an area of high interest. Muijtjens et al. [Muijtjens AM, Schuwirth LWT, Cohen-Schotanus J, Thoben AJNM, van der Vleuten CPM. 2008a. Benchmarking by cross-institutional comparison of student achievement in a progress test. Med Educ 41(1):82–88; Muijtjens AM, Schuwirth LWT, Cohen-Schotanus J, van der Vleuten CPM. 2008b. Differences in knowledge development exposed by multi-curricular progress test data. Adv Health Sci Educ 13:593–605] proposed a method for cross-institutional benchmarking based on progress test data. Progress testing has some major advantages as it delivers longitudinal information about student's growth of knowledge. By adopting the procedure of Muijtjens et al. (, b), we were able to replicate the basic characteristics of the cumulative deviation method. Besides the advantages of the method, there are some difficulties as errors of measurement are not independent, which violates the premises of testing statistical differences.

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Notes on contributors

Stefan Schauber

Stefan Schauber holds a master's degree in psychology and works as a scientific staff at the Progress Test Medizin, Charité-Universitaetsmedizin Berlin.

Zineb M. Nouns

Zineb Miriam Nouns (MD) works at Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin on progress testing for the German speaking medical schools in Europe. Besides working in medical education, she is in training for her clinical education in gynaecology and obstetrics.