Assessing business-planning competence using the Collegiate Learning Assessment as a prototype

The assessment of competence has emerged as a critical issue as nations seek to develop their education systems, work forces, and their citizens’ capacity for life-long learning. While the assessment of competence may be critical to national well-being in the 21st century, as Hartig, Klieme and Leutner (2008, p. v) pointed out, «the theoretical modeling of competencies, their assessment, and the usage of assessment results in practice present new challenges for psychological and educational research». The purpose of this paper is to move the field forward by providing one possible model for assessing competence. The model presented here underlies the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA). Drawing on lessons from the CLA, the model was used to develop a concrete prototype for assessing business-planning competence. (DIPF/Orig.