THE CEA FORUM Summer/Fall 2010 - Roundtable - Designing Assessment for Postmodern Academia - Examining How a Move to a Postmodern Qualitative Assessment Changed a Department

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by SANS

CEA Forum Summer/Fall 2010 roundtable presents a case study from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, where composition faculty sought to reconnect assessment practices with the real competencies and skills taught in writing courses. After Accuplacer and unrelated standardized measures left faculty feeling disconnected, the team first implemented a year-long rubric-based portfolio assessment, then struggled to apply the data and remain isolated. The forum explains how faculty convinced administration to shift toward a more qualitative, postmodern assessment approach, outlining effects, methodology, outcomes, and concluding insights across five articles.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages2

Reading Time5 min

AccessFree to download

A CEA Forum Roundtable

Designing Assessment for Postmodern Academia

Faculty Experience and Motivations

Moving from Rubric-Based to Qualitative Assessment

Postmodern Methodology and Lessons Learned

FAQs

What assessment problem did the composition faculty face at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh?

Accuplacer was used both for placement and for tracking improvement, but the test’s assessed skills were rarely connected to the course competencies in the syllabi.

What approach did the faculty try before moving to a qualitative model?

They launched a year-long rubric-based portfolio assessment after recommendations from outside assessment consultants.

What does the roundtable claim about the value of the faculty’s transition to a qualitative model?

It argues the story of convincing administration to move from rubric-based assessment to a more qualitative model is interesting and beneficial for others facing similar challenges, and the articles detail how they did it and what was learned.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by SANS