Maki's book offers a systematic approach to assessment that is meant to address the general questions, "How well do we achieve our educational intentions?" and "How well do our students learn?" Assessment is viewed as a collaborative process and individual institutions are encouraged to develop practices that fit their unique collegiate environments. Central to the many themes presented in this book is the idea that assessment is a shared commitment. That is, several constituencies, including the chancellor, campus leaders, faculty, administrators, staff, and even students, represent stakeholders who contribute to assessment and the overall educational process. In each chapter, Maki provides worksheets, guides and exercises to reinforce key concepts.

At the beginning of the book, an emphasis is given to the coordination of committees and the initiation of dialogues that focus on the extension of assessment beyond students' achievements in individual courses. Maki argues that assessment should be framed in a definition of learning that includes meaning construction, strategy and ability development, and the repositioning of oneself in relation to a critical issue. The focus should be on the integration of three domains of learning: cognitive, psychomotor and affective.

Maki also shows how assessment discourse and dialogue should lead to the development of specific learning objectives and learning outcome statements. These statements can be parallel to, or even extensions of, the university's mission statement. The book shows how the three domains of learning can be classified into taxonomies to assist in the development of these outcome statements. The overall goal of this process is to allow program- and institutional-level expression of expectations, based on students' learning experiences.

The author offers some important guidance for selecting and/or developing assessment methods at the institution and the program level. For assessing the learning that has been communicated in an outcome statement, the use of multiple methods is suggested. Direct and indirect methods of assessment are discussed. For example, while direct methods capture the fit between students' output and assessment-based expectations, indirect methods address students' perceptions of their learning environments. Importantly, the author spends time addressing the need for establishing the reliability and validity of each assessment method employed.

Both norm-referenced and criterion-referenced approaches to the interpretation of student achievement are discussed. Maki presents specific strategies for developing and working with 'scoring rubrics'. These rubrics translate learning outcome statements into measurable and testable criteria and allow for the identification of learning patterns, students' areas of strengths and weaknesses, and the need for adjustments or revisions to pedagogy. Strategies are also offered for interrater reliability in the application of the rubrics.

While much of the book covers the 'what' of assessment (that is, the development of learning statements, the selection of assessment methods, and the criteria used to evaluate), Maki also extends the discussion to address the who, when, where and how of assessment. Methods of sampling (who?), times for assessment (when?), contexts for assessment (where?), and scoring options for assessment (how?), are all discussed in order to frame such issues into a 'cycle of inquiry'.

Finally, Maki suggests that assessment activities must be positioned in a way that will allow them to be embedded as part of the university's culture. This involves going beyond the initial development of and progression through one 'assessment cycle'. Rather, learning assessment must be linked to other campus practices, it must garner the support of the university in terms of human, financial and technological resources, and it must be a common thread through university structures, processes, decisions, and communication.

I consider this book to be an extremely valuable source for anyone involved in education. Its primary contribution is how it forces us to conceptualize 'assessment' as an integral part of the university system. Learning assessment is meant to be a core institutional process linked to all aspects of university life.

Bryan Schaffer,
UNC Asheville