Re: Assessment; evaluation of GRE scores

[Michael Edmiston <edmiston@BLUFFTON.EDU>]

Apparently I was not real clear and/or some of you are still having trouble
find the info...

We use the ETS Major Field Test for assessment in physics (and also
chemistry, biology, computer science, math, and some others).  I called it
the major field "exam" in my earlier post, but ETS calls it major field
"test."

The home web site is www.ets.org  (notice the org ending rather than com).

> From the home site you can choose "higher education assessment" to see what
all assessment products they have.  You can choose Major Field Test from
that page.  Or you can go directly to the major field test page by this
link...

http://www.ets.org/hea/mft/index.html

Note that we do not consider the ETS MFT as an ideal tool, but we do find it
useful.  If we abide by the "rules" stipulated by ETS, we faculty members
are not allowed to look at the exam.  This means we do not have detailed
analysis of what types of questions are being asked.  However, ETS does give
some examples on their website.  They also tell us which subject areas are
covered, and what percentage of the exam is in each subject.

The worst problem is the results are not broken down in the same manner as
the subject areas.  We get an overall score, and we get a score for
"introductory physics" and for "advanced physics" for each student.
However, ETS only reports assessment indicators indicating performance in
the individual subject areas for the group (rather than individual
students), and they don't even report those data if we have fewer than five
physics students taking the test.

How many of you graduate at least 5 physics majors a year?  According to APS
statistics hardly any of us graduate that many.  So for the majority of us,
ETS won't give us the data that would be most useful.


Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.              Phone/voice-mail:       419-358-3270
Professor of Chemistry & Physics        FAX:                    419-358-3323
Chairman, Science Department            E-Mail                  edmiston@bluffton.edu
Bluffton College
280 West College Avenue
Bluffton, OH 45817