Approaching Assessment

How does the Poorvu Center think about assessment? 

Assessment is a broad term, though at its heart, it is a tool for reflection and a guide for designing and cultivating meaningful learning. At the Poorvu Center, our approach towards assessment emphasizes alignment, equity, and practicality of gathering thoughtful data to support educational design. We think about data broadly and explore how we can put our data to work in actionable, sustainable ways. Most of our assessments are mixed methods, complementing quantitative data with qualitative analyses to both characterize educational experiences and describe meaningful patterns of how people engage with teaching and learning at Yale. 

The Poorvu Center offers personalized support and broad resources on how assessment can inform your work in and out of the classroom. Learn more about how we can support your assessments and peruse our resources by navigating the assessment tab. 

Under Classroom Assessment you will find resources and contact information for considering classroom and curriculum level assessment.

Under Educational Program Assessment, you can learn about the team that provides guidance and support for creatively thinking about how to assess the impact of educational projects going on within and across departments in the university. 

You can also learn about how the Poorvu Center assesses our own efforts to continuously refine our initiatives and integrate feedback into the work we do.

Finally, the Resources page will allow you to explore recommendations for collecting data creatively, building effective assessments while foregrounding equitable practices, and considering how to analyze and report out your findings. 

We look forward to collaborating with you on your vision of assessment both in and out of the classroom.