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Re: Assessment; evaluation of GRE scores



We were forced to have an assessment program by our administration as part
of the assessment requirements of the North Central Association of Colleges
and Universities (who accredits us).

We needed a standardized test, and considered the GRE, but opted instead for
the Major Field Exam (also published by Educational Testing Service). The
GRE exam is obviously taken by students interested in graduate school. It
is more difficult than the MFE and also compares graduate to a different
group of people. Colleges and universities using the MFE presumably have
all students take it, so it is a better representation of "all" graduates as
opposed to grad-school-bound graduates. Indeed, I believe ETS developed the
MFE for this type of assessment purpose. They discuss the exam at the ETS
website.

The ETS can be administrated by you on your campus, and is scored by ETS. I
believe the cost is about $18 per student. Our academic affairs office pays
for this so it does not have to come from the department budget. Each March
I order a test for each expected physics graduate. Students take the test
in March and we get the results back in April along with normalization data.

Some sort of "senior comprehensive exam" is required for graduation (college
wide) so we have stated the ETS MFE constitutes this exam for physics. This
is how we "force" all physics students to take it. (We also use the
appropriate MFE for biology, chemistry, math, and computer science.)

Even though students are required to take the exam, there is no "passing"
score. In fact, our lawyers tell us we would be on thin ice if we "failed"
someone on this exam and kept them from graduating after they fulfilled all
graduation coursework with passing grades. If a senior passed all our
physics courses, and can't pass this test, then what's wrong with our
program?

So I explain to the students that this is for assessment and it is in their
best interest to give it a good try. If the college is not doing well, we
need to know that because our reputation and ultimately the value of their
degrees depend on this. The only thing we require is that they sit for the
full two hours. So we cannot stop them from twiddling their thumbs for 2
hours, but it does not appear that any do that.

The business/econ department actually gives a cash award of $100 to any
student scoring above some chosen percentile on the MFE. That's how they
get their students to take it seriously, and even study for it. In science
we don't know that we like the ethics of hanging a financial carrot in front
of the students. We also don't have the money to do this, unless we set the
score so high that no one can get it.

One problem with MFE or GRE or MCAT or any exam is whether it tests things
you are interested in. If our students do poorly on the Physics MFE, is
this really a problem? This is a tough question and we still struggle with
it. Fortunately, at this point, assessment requirements merely state we
must perform assessment. The NCA does not set any minimum level of
achievement. On the other hand, the State of Ohio does require a potential
high school physics teacher to pass yet another exam in physics, also
written by ETS. (It might be nice to own some ETS stock.) If students
don't pass this exam, they can't teach. If we had difficulty getting our
physics education students to pass this exam, that would indeed be a big
problem. This is new, and only one student in physics and one student in
biology have taken it so far. They both passed, but just barely... the pass
level is set quite high, and the State of Ohio expects a fairly high failure
rate on the first try.


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