Institutions Outside of Missouri
Background
College BASE offers institutions an effective, affordable option for assessing
general education skills. Skills are clearly defined in College BASE, which
enables institutions to better identify academic strengths and weaknesses of individual
students and to evaluate general education curriculum. College BASE may
also be used as a requirement for students seeking admission to teacher education
programs, or to meet regional accreditation requirements.
College BASE is scheduled by institutional administrators at a time and
place convenient for its students and academic calendar. ARC charges for test materials
and for scoring and producing College BASE reports, but there are no annual
administration fees.
College BASE consists of 180 multiple-choice questions and an optional
essay prompt. The content is organized into four subject areas:
- English
- Mathematics
- Science
- Social studies
The modular format of College BASE allows institutions great flexibility
in selecting the components that best meet their goals and educational objectives.
Institutions can choose 1-4 subject areas, an optional essay prompt, and a short-form
option (College BASE 1:1).
As a broad-based achievement test, College BASE assesses basic and enduring
knowledge in each of the four subject areas and provides performance rankings in
higher order thinking skills (interpretive, strategic, and adaptive reasoning abilities).
The specific skills tested on College BASE are described in more detail
in the College BASE
Test Content and Informational Brochure.
Uses of College BASE Data
Individual student data may be used to:
- assess each students' relative strengths and weaknesses;
- evaluate the preparedness of students for upper-level coursework; or to
- measure individual performance pre- and post-completion of general education requirements.
Institutional Summary Data
- establish institutional general education goals;
- assess campus-wide performance for institutional improvement;
- aid the review and/or revision of general education curricula;
- aid completion of longitudinal studies of institution-wide performance; or to
- compare with national normative data or with a specific cohort group.
The most commonly used formats for College BASE are the standard subjects option,
the College BASE 1:1 option (short form), and the basic skills option.
College BASE
provides flexibility in selecting subjects for assessment that meet the needs of
the individual institution. In the standard subjects option, students may be tested
in 1-4 subjects, with all students assigned to the same area(s). The essay may also
be included.
College BASE 1:1 option provides institutional summary data for all 4 subjects of
the exam, but each student is assigned only 1-2 subjects. Using sampling guidelines
provided by the Assessment Resource Center, the institution receives data as valid
as if the entire population had been tested on all four subjects. The College BASE
1:1 option reduces administration time for each student and saves time and costs
for the institution.
Institutions may use College BASE to assess certain populations of students for
basic skills (English and mathematics) only. The essay assignment may be included
to assess student achievement of general education objectives for writing.
Order Forms and Informational Brochure for Institutions Outside of Missouri
Use the following forms to order College BASE materials, standard scoring options,
and/or customized services and reports.
A complete description of the College BASE exam may be downloaded below and printed
for distribution and discussions at your institution. For further information contact
the College BASE Coordinator at 1-800-366-8232, or email
collegebase@missouri.edu.
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