Transforming Grades into Meaningful MPA Program Outcomes: Lessons from Benchmarking Learning Objectives in the Public Budgeting and Finance Course

Rubrics as a Foundation for Assessing Student Competencies: One Public Administration Program’s Creative Exercise

“…This variety of assessment approaches is nothing new. Indeed, scholars document that focus groups (Sink, 1991), capstone projects (Durant, 1997;Fitzpatrick & Miller-Stevens, 2009), portfolios (Powell, 2009;Williams, 2002), exam grades (Dalehite, 2008), surveys of alum ni (Newcomer, Allen, & Baradei, 2010), and more (see Aristigueta, M., Gomes, K., & Wood, Byrd, & Associates Inc., 2006) have long been utilized to assess student achievement. While some argue that public administration educa tion should agree on evaluation methods beyond individual schools (Diaz, 2014), it is clear that there is currently no one-size-fits-all assessment model.…”