Education. Final Report.

This document reports efforts to address some of the problems of competency-based assessment by developing and utilizing unique measures of competence. Seven conceptual guidelines are identified for test development and utilization: (1) new competencies must be identified and operationally defined; (2) new competencies should have general significance to a wide variety of career and life outcomes; (3) new definitions of competencies and measures developed for their assessment should be easy for faculty and students to understand; (4) competencies should be empirically linked to external realities; (5) the discovery of new ways of measuring competencies should acknowledge levels of performance required for entry into roles outside of academic settings; (6) standards for awarding credentials should acknowledge levels of performance required for entry into roles outside of academic settings; and (7) new attempt