12: Creating a Culture of Formative Assessment: The Teaching Excellence and Assessment Partnership Project

Abstract

created a Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)faculty development project. T7Jis project was targetedatdepartments across campus at St. Cloud State University, with the intent ofcreating auniversity climate cfformatiue assessment while improving teaching and learning. T7Jis article describes the purposes, stages ifimplementation, andresults ifthe project asmeasured l!J a pre-test andpost-test survey. The pre-andpost-test sunxysindicate that theproject was highly effective inimpacting the USt ifCATs among participants andtheir departmental colleagues. INTRoDucnoN The Partnership St. Cloud State University has both a Faculty Center for Teaching Excellence and an Assessment Office. Although these two offices were established to operate independently, it was recognized that projects dealing with both improvements of teaching and learning as well as assessment in the classroom of student learning offer rich opportunities for collaboration. This project was an initial effort at collaboration between the two offices. TIle Teaching Excellence and Assessment Partnership Project 195