| Let’s
Discuss Your Assessment Strategy (Part 2: What Are the Elements
of an Assessment Strategy?)
by Steven B. Just
First: Do you need an assessment strategy? From
a corporate perspective, informal testing (i.e. quizzes, diagnostic
tests, some formative evaluations) can be done outside the
context of a broader assessment strategy. Of course, from
a psychometric perspective the results may be all but meaningless
if the tests are not created in a valid manner (garbage in,
garbage out), but if the tests are without consequence it
is not required that you have an assessment strategy in place.
However, if you are doing testing with consequences (i.e.
high stakes testing) – and that is increasingly the
case in most corporations – it is important to have
a documented process in place.
So, what goes into an assessment strategy? Here
are the elements you must consider:
- Governance and administration
- Legal issues
- Define terms
- Job competency analysis
- Make expectations explicit
and public
- Determine methods of
testing
- Establish assessment
frequency
- Assessment security
- Create fair, valid and
reliable assessments
- Determine cut (passing)
scores
- Remediation and consequences
- Recertification
- Program evaluation/Item
analysis
All of the above must be included in a written
document that is shared among training, corporate and HR management.
Let’s look at each of the elements in
turn.
Governance and Administration
Governance covers the rules and regulations under which your
assessment policy will be implemented. The three key elements
of Governance are people, structure and process:
- Who creates the policy?
- What are their roles?
- What is the governing
structure of the group of individuals with responsibility
for the policy?
- How often does this
body meet?
- Who sits on it?
- Who chairs it?
- How are decisions made?
- How is the policy updated?
Assuming you are in the Training Department
you will want to include representatives of those affected
by your policy even if only in an ex officio capacity (e.g.
VP Sales and Marketing, VP HR), and of course it is important
to have input from your corporate legal department.
(Next Time: Legal Issues)
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