The necessity of College Assessments

Creating a course assessment in college-level history departments serves multiple purposes. One being promoting accountability and formative improvement Accountability in-course assessment, potrays the effectiveness of an institution to the policymakers and accreditors, while formative improvement focuses on the improvement of internal stakeholders like the students, administrators, staff, and faculty     The course assessments in college-level history departments should no longer be an act of compliance but be geared towardsimproving history department.

College history teachers are not tasked with the job of assessing the learning outcomes of students.   This is because the school system follows the ‘one size fits all’ form of approach where the teachers are viewed as generalists and facilitators rather than experts. They are denied the responsibility to design assessment the way they think is best, but rely on others to formulate the assessment for history students. Nutting explains that history teachers rely on the schools of education, state offices of education, and the U.S Department of Education The teachers rather than formulating and conducting an assessment, follow what is prepared by generalists.

There is a need for the history department to be part of “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) where it is equally developed like other disciplines. However, the National History Center is an answer to history discipline where teachers, students, and other bodies understand the advantage of history to students. According to Nutting, history classes improve students’ communication skills, writing skills, research skills, critical learning skills, and technical skills  Understanding the significance of history to other disciplines promotes the history discipline. Besides, there is a need to view teachers as experts who explore the skills, attitudes, and knowledge of history students.

Bibliography

National Academic Press. “Supporting Students’ College Success: The Role Of Assessment Of Intrapersonal And Interpersonal Competencies”. National Academic Press, 2017. https://www.nap.edu/read/24697/chapter/6.Nutting, Maureen Murphy. “Correcting The Course: The Assessment Loop”. Teaching History: A Journal Of Methods 33, no. 2 (2008).