CURRICULUM PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT TOOL (CPAT): A NEW APPLICATION TO ASSESS GEOLOGY/GEOSCIENCE CURRICULA USING A NATIONAL STANDARD

The National Association of State Boards of Geology (ASBOG^®) is concerned primarily with the development of standardized written examinations for assessing qualifications of applicants seeking registration/licensure as professional geologists. The data generated during this process, however, can also be of great significance to academic departments in the assessment of the quality and relevance of geoscience curricula. The first of the two licensure examinations, the Fundamentals of Geology (FG), is used to evaluate the national competency of candidates who wish to become licensed professional geologists. This examination emphasizes knowledge and skills that are typically acquired in an academic setting and lead to a baccalaureate degree in geology. From the perspective of a university/college, the FG examination can be utilized to assess how well the geology curriculum is relating an educational background in geology to the practice of the profession.

Starting in 2008, ASBOG^® began collecting demographic data on the test form that allows for detailed statistical analysis of the content domain data from the FG examination by university/college and graduation year. This statistical analysis is useful for universities/ colleges by relating the geoscience curricula to the eight different content domains on the examination. By comparing the candidate’s scores to national averages in the different content domains by graduation year, the geology/geoscience curriculum can be assessed. This assessment allows for determination of areas of strengths and weaknesses in a particular geoscience program. To facilitate the assessment process, ASBOG^® has developed the Curriculum Performance Assessment Tool (CPAT) to compare candidate data, grouped by graduation year, to national averages.

CPAT has many different individual and comparative (national averages) statistical graphs, including z-scores, percentiles, percent above/below the national average, percent passing by graduation year, ratio, and normalized ratio scores. Currently CPAT is available in a desktop version running under the MS Access environment. Development of a web-based version is currently in progress. Individual departments with more than 10 candidates taking the FG examination will have access to CPAT.