Assessment for Excellence

Reviews / Votes

Alexander W. Astin and anthony lising antonio have produced a most worthy successor to a genuine classic in our field: Assessment for Excellence. This second edition is a work of first-rank scholarship with a wide range of practical and policy implications. It is indispensable reading for anyone with a serious interest in assessment and evaluation in postsecondary education. -- Ernest Pascarella, professor and Mary Louise Petersen Chair in Higher Education, University of Iowa As with its predecessor, this volume is a timely tour de force of clarity in terms of explaining the philosophical, conceptual, and technical underpinnings of how assessment in postsecondary education should be conducted in order to serve students and society. -- George D. Kuh, Chancellor's Professor Emeritus, Indiana University; director, National Institute of Learning Outcomes Assessment When it first came out in 1991, Assessment for Excellence was a breakthrough book, rendering the new field of assessment both broadly comprehensible and academically legitimate. This new second edition, updated with coauthor Anthony Antonio, retains the flavor of the original-personal, down to earth, and wise-while acknowledging and harnessing the best of the two decades of assessment scholarship that the original helped stimulate.
Grounded in a well-articulated philosophy of research, Astin and Antonio believe that assessment is not a set of techniques, but a way of thinking guided by humane and helping values. Where they encounter methodological questions, they do not gloss their difficulties but, as good teachers, sensibly take their readers through them step by step. Decades of experience have given them scores of good stories to illustrate these approaches and they use them well. The 'piano lesson' remains one of the best portrayals of learning with effective feedback ever put forward. This book is more than useful; it is a classic that has stood the test of time. -- Peter T. Ewell, vice president, National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) Astin's talent development concept and I-E-O model have informed research and practice in outcomes assessment for almost three decades. In this new edition, the authors deepen our understanding of the model and give us detailed advice about measuring student inputs, educational environments, and developmental outcomes. Graduate students and campus assessment leaders in particular will find this clear explanation of applied research aimed at improving college student learning both useful and helpful in guiding their thinking and their work. -- Trudy W. Banta, professor of higher education, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis This revised edition of Assessment for Excellence remains the leading authority on virtually all aspects of assessment in higher education. Grounded in sound theory and extensive practical experience, rigorous in conception and methods, savvy in its advice, comprehensive in coverage, and updated for this era, the volume provides important, accessible, and timely guidance for administrators, teaching faculty members, legislators and policy analysts, and higher education students and faculty members. More important, the coverage is as solid as it is broad, but handled in a fashion faithful to the book's goal of making assessment do-able, credible, and useful in practice. -- Patrick T. Terenzini, distinguished professor and senior scientist, emeritus, Pennsylvania State University