Criteria: Statements about the dimensions of competency that will be assessed. Criteria specify important components of the desired knowledge or skill that the student should learn and be able to demonstrate. For example, for oral communication, one criterion could be maintaining eye contact with the audience.

Source: New Horizons for Learning (http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm)
and California State University, Long Beach (http://www.csulb.edu/~senate/assessment/assessment_glossary.html)

Curriculum Alignment: The degree to which a curriculum's scope and sequence matches a testing program's evaluation measures, thus ensuring that teachers will use successful completion of the test as a goal of classroom instruction.

Source:  New Horizons for Learning  (http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm)

Direct Assessment of Learning: Gathers evidence, based on student performance, which demonstrates the learning itself. Can be value added, related to standards, qualitative or quantitative, embedded or not, using local or external criteria. Examples: most classroom testing for grades is direct assessment (in this instance within the confines of a course), as is the evaluation of a research paper in terms of the discriminating use of sources. The latter example could assess learning accomplished within a single course or, if part of a senior requirement, could also assess cumulative learning.

Source:  Beyond Confusion:  An Assessment Glossary, Association of American Colleges and Universities (http://www.aacu.org/peerreview/pr-sp02/pr-sp02reality.cfm)

EBI Assessments:  EBI Assessments include exit surveys administered to graduating students (undergraduate or MBA) in business schools. Questions ask students for their perceptions regarding the learning experience in their program (including support services). Confidential comparative data is reported to institutions to serve as benchmarks.

ETS Major Field Tests:  The Major Field Test in Business, administered by the Educational Testing Service, has 120 multiple-choice items to measure student knowledge in business content areas including Accounting, Economics, Management, Finance, Marketing and Quantitative Business Analysis.

Source: Educational Testing Service (http://www.ets.org)

Goals for Learning or Learning Goals: Goals are used to express intended results in general terms. The term is used to describe broad learning concepts, for example: clear communication, problem solving, and ethical awareness.

Source:  State University at Pottsdam  http://www.chapman.edu/provost/assessment/glossary.html

Indirect Assessment of Learning: Gathering of information about learning or other secondary evidence. For example, a student survey about whether a course helped develop a greater sensitivity to diversity or an employer survey asking for feedback on graduates’ skills.

Source:  Beyond Confusion:  An Assessment Glossary, Association of American Colleges and Universities (http://www.aacu.org/peerreview/pr-sp02/pr-sp02reality.cfm)

Learning Outcomes: Observable behaviors or actions on the part of students that demonstrate that intended learning objectives have occurred.

Source:  State University at Pottsdam (http://www.chapman.edu/provost/assessment/glossary.html)

Methods of Assessment: Selected procedures used to gather data on student learning. These methods are selected in relation to the specified learning outcome to be assessed, type of evidence of learning available, type of performance to be observed, and agreed-upon scoring procedures. 

Source:  California State University, Long Beach (http://www.csulb.edu/~senate/assessment/assessment_glossary.html)

Objectives for Learning: Objectives are used to express intended results in precise terms. Further, objectives are more specific as to what needs to be assessed and thus are a more accurate guide in selecting appropriate assessment tools.

Source:  State University at Pottsdam (http://www.chapman.edu/provost/assessment/glossary.html)

Primary Trait Method: A type of rubric scoring constructed to assess a specific trait, skill, behavior, or format, or the evaluation of the primary impact of a learning process on a designated audience.

Source:  New Horizons for Learning (http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm)

Rating Scale: A scale based on descriptive words or phrases that indicate performance levels. Qualities of a performance are described (e.g., advanced, intermediate, novice) in order to designate a level of achievement. The scale may be used with rubrics or descriptions of each level of performance.

Source:  New Horizons for Learning (http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm )

Rubric: Description of the standards that will be used to judge a student's work on each of the criteria or important dimensions of learning. It is a scoring guide that is used in subjective appraisals of student work. It makes explicit statements about the expected qualities of performance at each point on a scale.

Source:  New Horizons for Learning (http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm)

Sampling: A way to obtain information about a large group by examining a smaller, randomly chosen selection (the sample) of group members. If the sampling is conducted correctly, the results will be representative of the group as a whole. Sampling also may refer to the choice of smaller tasks or processes that will be valid for making inferences about the student's performance in a larger domain. "Matrix sampling" asks different groups to take small segments of a test; the results will reflect the ability of the larger group on a complete range of tasks.

Standards: Sets a level of accomplishment all students are expected to meet or exceed. Standards do not necessarily imply high quality learning; sometimes the level is a lowest common denominator. Nor do they imply complete standardization in a program; a common minimum level could be achieved by multiple pathways and demonstrated in various ways.  The instructor develops the standards to describe the proficiency level that must be attained by each student. Each student's work is compared to the standard, rather than to the work of other students. 

Source:  Beyond Confusion:  An Assessment Glossary, Association of American Colleges and Universities (http://www.aacu.org/peerreview/pr-sp02/pr-sp02reality.cfm)