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Show Me
Armed with the world's first doctorate in assessment
and measurement, Robin Anderson
has the job market at her feet. "Part of my job search is going
to be narrowing the type of work I do because I believe I am prepared
for such a variety of different disciplines," Anderson says. "I'm
excited and at the same time slightly overwhelmed by all the possibilities.
What all these possibilities have in common is the need to meet the
growing cry of "show me" from consumers, taxpayers, legislators,
elected officials, boards, overseers - all of whom supply funding in
exchange for the delivery of goods and
services. "Today everyone expects to know what they're getting
for their money," says Dary Erwin, renowned leader in the assessment
field and director of JMU's Center for Assessment and Research Studies.
"When we shop at the grocery store, isn't it helpful to
read the breakdown of ingredients, nutrients, calories, sugar and fat
content? We wouldn't dream of buying food products without checking
that nutrition label on the back of the package." That attitude
now extends into the public arena, Erwin explains. Legislatures used
to take it on good faith and a handshake that the public agencies they
funded were doing what they said they were doing. "Today, money
is tight, competition for funding is fierce and legislators, like the
taxpayers who elected them, are demanding accountability.
Anderson's doctor of psychology degree in assessment and measurement
prepares her to show objective proof of the quality and effectiveness
of programs that have traditionally been difficult to measure. The field
of assessment is about producing the evidence to affirm claims of the
benefits and values of a service, program or product.
The doctoral graduate's expertise reaches into the heart of higher education
too.
"People want to know what the value of college is, what they are
paying for, want to understand where the money goes," Erwin says,
"and that would include elected officials.
"We can no longer just say, 'Yes, we produce people who have better
interpersonal communication skills,' for instance. We have to bring
some evidence to the table that says, 'This is where our people are
getting it, and these numbers show that," Erwin says.
"Legislators in statehouses everywhere are now saying to us, the
same as they do with every other entity, 'Show us. Give us some hard
evidence that this is happening.' That's what led to the SOLs in Virginia
and to similar programs in about half the other states in the country."
Ultimately, Anderson's mission will be to show that her future employer
- whether a college or a social service agency or a corporation - is,
in fact, delivering on the goods it promised.
It has not been done quite like this before. A solid base of psychology
courses separates JMU's assessment and measurement program, which began
in 1998, from traditional measurement programs. When assessing and measuring
the effectiveness of a program, Erwin explains, "We are dealing
with people, and so we need to know what's going on behind the scenes
with people as much as we can." Through courses in statistics,
psychology, public policy and communication, JMU's program charts new
territory by taking a comprehensive look at both the test and the test-taker,
Erwin says.
"In traditional measurement programs, people are given the tools
but do not know the whys, the reasons behind how people think,"
Erwin says. "In policy programs, they are given the whys, but do
not know how to do the measuring. What makes our program different is
that we are teaching our students how to design tools to measure subject-matter
knowledge, and then also how to pay attention to and measure how people
think and learn," Erwin says.
It was the right combination for Anderson. "What attracted me to
the program was the combination of the examinee and the exam,"
the doctoral graduate says. "My primary area of interest when it
comes to research is the psychology of the examinee. … And that's
where the psychology courses come in so handy - cognitive, social, developmental
- because our professors want you to understand the human beings that
you are assessing.
Anderson continues, "I think to be a good assessment person you
need to be a strong technician. You need to be good at the measurement
piece, and that's one part I like about the program. It gives you that
strong technical piece in measurement, but it was always how it related
to the assessment situation and to the students."
This novel mix puts Anderson at the forefront as the world's first graduate
in this field. Others will follow soon, however, as people realize they
have no choice but to show their own effectiveness.
For years, Erwin has been beating the warning drum about the trend toward
the demand for accountability. In this day when distance learning is
hot and research is just a mouse click away, people are asking, "Why
fund traditional colleges?" JMU's assessment and measurement program
and its graduates can answer that question. They can provide the numbers
and hard evidence that can affirm the importance of traditional colleges.
JMU is among the first to step up to the challenge. Two years ago, one
of Linwood Rose's first moves as JMU's new president was to create the
Division of Institutional Effectiveness to monitor the use of resources
and provide evidence that JMU is meeting its goals. The division, which
includes Erwin's assessment and measurement experts and other campus
oversight operations, has made accountability part of the JMU culture.
Anderson, who put her knowledge into practice at nearby Bridgewater
College for her doctoral internship, is sure that she and the applied
assessment and measurement professionals who follow her through JMU's
doctoral program will be the pioneers who will meet the public's increasing
demand for greater accountability.
"I can show employers that I know how to generate results, not
just that I have read about that or that I have taken tests about it,"
she says. "We come out of this program knowing how to do things."
By Bill Gentry
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