History and Conceptual Basis of Assessment in Higher Education

• Published in: Enhancing Assessment in Higher Education Vol. 1; pp. 3 - 26
• Main Authors: Ewell, Peter T., Cumming, Tammie
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2017
• Edition: 1
• ISBN: 9781620363676; 1620363674
• DOI: 10.4324/9781003444534-2

This chapter explores the historical basis for modern assessment techniques and usage in higher education and accreditation. The intellectual roots of assessment as a distinct collection of concepts and methods for gathering evidence extend well before its emergence as a recognizable movement. Closely related to research on college student learning, a distinct literature on retention emerged in the late 1960s and the 1970s and had very specific impacts on assessment practice. The 1960s and 1970s saw the rise of program evaluation as an action research tradition. The mastery and competency-based learning movement began in elementary and secondary education, but quickly found postsecondary applications in adult and professional education by the mid-1960s. Most assessment work involves the collection and use of aggregated information about student abilities.