The purpose of this study was to empirically investigate the validity and reliability of portfolio assessment in two U.S. dental schools using a uniied framework for validity. In the process of validation, it is not the test that is validated but rather the claims (interpretations and uses) about test scores that are validated. Kane's argument-based validation framework provided the structure for reporting results where validity claims are followed by evidence to support the argument. This multivariate generalizability theory study found that the greatest source of variance was attributable to faculty raters, suggesting that portfolio assessment would beneit from two raters' evaluating each portfolio independently. The results are generally supportive of holistic scoring, but analytical scoring deserves further research. Correlational analyses between student portfolios and traditional measures of student competence and readiness for licensure resulted in signiicant correlations between portfolios and National Board Dental Examination Part I (r=0.323, p<0.01) and Part II scores (r=0.268, p<0.05) and small and non-signiicant correlations with grade point average and scores on the Western Regional Examining Board (WREB) exam. It is incumbent upon the users of portfolio assessment to determine if the claims and evidence arguments set forth in this study support the proposed claims for and decisions about portfolio assessment in their respective institutions.

The traditional method for the delivery of didactic instruction and patient care in dental schools has come under ire from a number of sources over the past several years. The American Dental Education Association and others have outlined numerous issues impeding the swift progression of student learning through the dental curriculum. Declining state revenues allotted to dental education, the increasing shortage of dental faculty, and the management of student learning in an already overcrowded dental school curriculum have led to the investigation of strategies that address solutions to these and other shortcomings in the current milieu of dental education. To address these deiciencies, strategies for change have been suggested. This article describes the development, implementation, and assessment of a new dental school that addresses these and other challenges to the education of today's dental student, thus creating the Arizona Model. Following seven years of operation, outcomes analysis at the Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health has shown positive trends in controlling educational costs, a shift to a modular curriculum, increasing student clinical experiences, and, consistent with the mission of the school, producing dentists who are well prepared for dental public health service.

The purpose of this article is to describe the process and procedures involved in the implementation of portfolio assessment at two dental schools. Portfolios can be deined as a purposeful collection of student work that involves relection in which students identify gaps in their knowledge and abilities and develop strategies for correcting those gaps. Framed within the current context of dental education and the calls for change in the ways dental students are taught and assessed, these two dental schools embarked upon an assessment strategy aimed at engaging students in self-directed learning and self-assessment. Where one school chose the implementation of programmatic portfolios based on all program competencies, the other school implemented portfolio assessment around speciic program competencies not typically captured easily with traditional assessment measures such as ethics and ethical decision making. In a competency-based dental curriculum in which competence has been deined as the ability to accurately self-assess, it makes sense that strategies aimed at developing the skill of self-assessment should be the goal of every dental education program.

In 2006, the Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health at A.T. Still University (ATSU ASDOH) implemented an intensive community-based education program for its inaugural fourth-year students called the Integrated Community Service Partnerships (ICSP) program. As part of the ICSP program, students spend half of their clinical experience (approximately ninety-ive days) in rotations at four or ive community-based clinics. More than sixty clinics in Arizona and throughout the country serve as rotation sites. ATSU ASDOH conducts focus groups with all fourth-year students prior to graduation for program improvement and research. The purpose of this study was to characterize critical incidents students identiied as instrumental to learning, as well as successes and challenges of the program. Qualitative data from the 2009 and 2010 focus groups were analyzed, including a total of 104 students. The types of critical incidents students chose to describe in the focus groups involved patient factors, contextual factors, and interpersonal factors. While students believed their ICSP program external rotation experiences were fundamental in their clinical and professional development, they also noted challenges associated with this intense communitybased education program.

The purpose of this study was to determine if A.T. Still University Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health (ASDOH) curricular content regarding community oral health has inluenced graduates' dental practice choice and volunteering activities in their communities. At ASDOH, the community oral health curriculum consists of three components: 1) coursework in public health resulting in a certiicate or master's degree in public health; 2) service-learning activities in the Dentistry in the Community series of course modules, wherein students plan and implement community projects; and 3) community-based clinical rotations of approximately ninety-ive days during the fourth year. To accomplish the purposes of the study, a survey was sent to ASDOH alumni who graduated between 2007 and 2010. Of the 208 graduates contacted, ninety-four responded (45.2 percent). Of those who responded, 85 percent reported that the community oral health curriculum inluenced their practice choice, and 76 percent reported that they volunteer. Additionally, 58 percent of the respondents reported that the amount of dental school debt they had incurred affected their career plans and professional decision making.