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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The value of higher education is no longer taken for granted. Although the public regards higher education as important, the majority also questions whether it provides students with good value for the money invested. Social science research documents the labor market value of college education— on average, college graduates fare better on a number of dimensions, from avoiding unemployment to having higher paying jobs (Hout 2012)—but questions remain about whether higher education could do more to prepare students to transition into life after college.

Policymakers, too, are asking questions about the value of college. In recent years they have subjected higher education to increasing levels of scrutiny and calls for accountability. Although accountability has been part of the state policy conversations since the early 1980s (Ewell 1994), recent trends of rising tuition, the economic challenges brought forth by the Great Recession, low and declining graduation rates, and indications that college students may not be developing crucial 21st-century skills such as critical thinking and problem solving have raised accountability concerns to a new level, including getting the attention of the federal government

Student assessments are changing at an unprecedented rate. Our longstanding commitment to evidence-centered design of assessments helps us design and deliver assessments that reflect more closely the work that students and teachers create in the classroom. Better assessments mean better information for us to make meaningful decisions about students, teachers' and schools. I am conducting research topic of assessment trends and students involvement in higher education. This chapter provides brief context of Background of the study, statement of the problem rational of the study, and objectives of the study

1.1 Background of the Study

Educational assessment is the systematic process of documenting and using empirical data on the knowledge, skill, attitudes and beliefs to refine programs and 2 improve student learning. Assessment data can be obtained from directly examining student work to assess the achievement of learning outcomes or can be based on data from which one can make inferences about learning. Assessment is often used interchangeably with test, but not limited to tests. Assessment can focus on the individual learner, the learning community (class, workshop, or other organized group of learners), a course, an academic program, the institution, or the educational system as a whole. The word 'assessment' came into use in an educational context after the Second World War(“Educational assessment,” 2019).

As a continuous process, assessment establishes measurable and clear student learning outcomes for learning, provisioning a sufficient amount of learning opportunities to achieve these outcomes, implementing a systematic way of gathering, analyzing and interpreting evidence to determine how well student learning matches expectations, and using the collected information to inform improvement in student learning.

1.1.1 Assessment and Constructivism Constructivists view assessment as a process that involves both the instructor and the student. Educators who prefer to use constructivist methods and principles in evaluating student work have several different avenues to choose from that can help enhance the learning experience of students (Holt & Willard-Holt, 2000). Similarities between constructivist and traditional methods of assessment do exist. Even though constructivists continue to research and experiment with more interactive, experience based assessments, the more traditional methods still prevail and are being used in classrooms as the predominant means of assessment. Social constructivism is a variety of cognitive constructivism that emphasizes the collaborative nature of much learning. Social constructivism was developed by post- revolutionary Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky. He was a cognitivist, but rejected the