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Objective. To describe a systematic assessment process that provides continuous improvement in the curriculum, supports faculty development, and enhances student learning outcomes. Design. Teams of faculty members, students, and course instructors conducted course assessments, which consisted of monitoring the delivered instruction for agreement with planned content and course integration within the curriculum, and providing ongoing feedback for improving course content, course management, faculty teaching, and student learning experiences. Assessment. Areas needing improvement were identified and appropriate changes were made. Improvements were achieved in course policy standardization, course integration within the curriculum, faculty teaching behaviors, and student experiences. Conclusion. The curriculum assessment plan provides a structured method of monitoring and delivering continuous quality improvement.

Objectives. To assess preceptors' perceptions of the importance of experiential guidelines and identify and compare differences in perceptions. Methods. Active advanced and introductory pharmacy practice experience preceptors for the University of New Mexico were invited to participate in an anonymous electronic survey regarding the importance of specific tasks and abilities expected in new pharmacist practitioners as outlined in Appendix C of the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) Standards and Guidelines. Results. While the majority of preceptors rated most tasks (eg, communication, patient counseling) as very important or important, emerging tasks (eg, health literacy, public health, physical assessment) were not rated as highly by a majority of preceptors. Conclusion. The deficiencies identified in the study suggest potential reductions in the transfer of learning from preceptors to experiential students. Preceptor training programs should be structured to raise the perceived level of importance of these tasks.

Objective. To determine whether instructor-prepared classroom examinations for pharmacotherapy courses were aligned with course goals and objectives. Design. Assessment items from examinations in 2 pharmacotherapy courses were evaluated. Four categories of alignment (depth of knowledge, categorical concurrence, range of knowledge, and balance of representation) were used to match course assessments with objectives. Assessment. While assessments met the criteria for acceptable alignment, there were areas for improvement. Goals and objectives were unevenly assessed, with 1 goal aligning with 45% of all assessment items. The assessments covered all content categories and the range of knowledge established by the objectives, but objectives under specific goals were not evenly assessed. Conclusion. This alignment study provided quantitative data useful for review and revision of pharmacotherapy course objectives and assessments and demonstrated the usefulness of alignment assessment as a tool for continuous quality improvement.Keywords: alignment, assessment, curriculum objectives, pharmacotherapy INTRODUCTIONEffective educational outcomes require the coordination of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. One measure of educational outcomes is alignment, or the matching of test content to subject area content. Alignment is defined as ''. . .the degree to which expectations and assessments are in agreement and serve in conjunction with one another to guide the system toward students learning what they are expected to know and do. '' 1 Using this definition, the ''expectations'' within a higher education course become the course goals and objectives; the corresponding assessments are the examinations.In an aligned system, all parts of the system work together to guide instruction and facilitate student learning. 2Learning expectations and classroom assessments cover the same content and assessments accurately measure the students' knowledge across the depth and breadth of the goals and objectives. An analysis of alignment provides evidence of assessment content validity, identifies needs for improvement, and contributes to instructional accountability.The University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy Curriculum Committee monitors the development and delivery of the curriculum as part of an ongoing commitment to continuous quality improvement. Course goals and objectives are mapped to the expected competencies and outcomes. Instruction is audited for content and delivery methods. Written classroom assessments undergo test-item analysis. However, no work has been conducted to determine whether the written classroom examinations are aligned with the course goals and objectives.There are 3 major approaches to determining whether expectations and assessments are aligned: sequential development, expert review, and document analyses.2-4 Sequential development is a structured method of alignment. In this logical but time-consuming method the learning expectations are developed first and then used to develop the curriculum. ...

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