The Assessment Skills Framework: A Taxonomy of Assessment Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes

S. Jeanne Horst & Caroline O. Prendergast   |    Volume Fifteen  |   

Well-developed professional development opportunities are a crucial component in ensuring that faculty engaging in assessment are equipped to do this work well. Creating these opportunities requires clear expectations of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to conduct assessment work. Additionally, the knowledge and skill requirements of faculty conducting assessment are often different from those of professionally trained assessment practitioners. Although higher education student affairs organizations have developed frameworks for assessment skills, no formal framework of knowledge, skills, and attitudes exists to drive professional development in assessment within academic affairs. This article provides a framework of assessment-related knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are important to the professional development of faculty assessment practitioners, targeting three levels of complexity. This framework can be used to evaluate current professional development offerings and plan new, intentionally designed programs in accordance with backward-design principles.

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