Page 55 - International Journal of Process Educaiton (Special Issue)

Assessment vs. Evaluation (1991) A

Assessment is a process used for improving quality; evaluation is a process used for judging quality.
An assessment is an analysis of current performance aimed at improving future performances by
clarifying the reasons behind current performance strengths, determining potential improvements
and implementing action plans for making them, and gaining insights and learning from each
performance.

The term assessment has been present in the educational Differentiating the Processes
lexicon for decades. Alverno College has been talking
about it since 1973 (Alverno College, 1985). Trudy Banta The terms assessment and evaluation are often used
became a central figure in the assessment movement with interchangeably and sometimes with variable meanings.
the publication of her book Making a Difference: Out- To further confuse things, terms such as formative and
comes of a Decade of Assessment in Higher Education summative are often added to both terms. By clearly
(Banta, 1993), andAngelo and Cross made “the first serious distinguishing and differentiating the concepts of
effort to meld assessment techniques with teaching tips” assessment and evaluation from one another, Pacific Crest
in Classroom Assessment Techniques (Angelo & Cross, eradicated a lot of ambiguity. It declaimed that assessment
1988). Nevertheless, the goal of creating an assessment is a process for improving quality and is offered by a mentor
culture at most institutions of higher education has been whose desire it is to inspire growth while evaluation is a
elusive. process for judging quality with consequences such as
promotion and failure (Apple, 1991; see Figure 1). This

Figure 1 EVALUATION ASSESSMENT

Determines whether a standard was Provides feedback on performance to
met; the result is success or failure. improve future performance; Strengths,

Strong | High Areas for Improvement, and Insights.

Performance

Using a higher standard, Sගඉඖඌඉකඌ A MEASUREMENT SCALE AREAS for IMPROVEMENT
the evaluator determines
that the current performance Feedback on how
was a FAILURE. the performance
can be improved.
INSIGHTS
CURRENT PERFORMANCE Feedback on what was learned
from performing the assessment.
Using a lower standard, Sගඉඖඌඉකඌ B STRENGTHS Feedback on what
the evaluator determines made the performance
that the current performance as strong as it was.
was a SUCCESS.

Weak | Low 53

Performance

International Journal of Process Education (February 2016, Volume 8 Issue 1)