Assessment and the fear of punishment: how the protection of anonymity positively influenced the design and outcomes of postsecondary assessment

Abstract

This study examines how a state system of higher education, located in the Rocky Mountains area of the United States, allowed faculty members from the state's public institutions of higher education to control the design and implementation of a pilot assessment of statewide general education courses. One of the primary reasons faculty were allowed to control the assessment process was to assuage the commonly held fear by faculty, academic departments, and institutions that they could be punished for the poor assessment results of their students who took the pilot assessment. An important conclusion of this study is that the promise of anonymity, given by the state board of regents (and tacitly by the legislature) to individual faculty members, academic departments, and institutions, was essential to the success of the assessment process.

Notes

1. General education courses are courses at the states' institutions that satisfy the freshman and sophomore requirements for fulfillment of the associate degrees, bachelor degrees, and other degree, program, or certificate requirements.

2. Pretest assessments were administered early in the 2001 spring semester. Posttest assessments were administered at the end of the same semester.