Building the ACS exams anchoring concept content map for undergraduate chemistry

Abstract

The ability to coherently assess content knowledge throughout an entire undergraduate career represents a significant advantage for programmatic assessment strategies. Chemistry, as a discipline, has an unusual tool in this regard because of the nationally standardized exams from the ACS Exams Institute. These exams are norm-referenced and allow chemistry departments to make comparisons between the performance of their own students relative to national samples; however, currently there appears to be no systematic means for noting students content knowledge growth over a four-year degree. The Exams Institute is undertaking the task of organizing content along an anchoring concept or "big ideas" framework to facilitate this type of analysis. © 2012 The American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.