The interplay between content coverage and assessment has been an important component of how Chemistry Education Research has influenced teaching over the past decade. With large course enrollments a common feature of general chemistry, there are logistical pressures that influence how students are tested. In most cases, large enrollment courses utilize multiple choice tests to help mitigate concerns over large-scale subjective grading of open-ended responses from students. This choice, however, imposes constraints on what can be measured. Because chemistry as a discipline has organized nationwide, norm-referenced testing for decades via ACS Exams, data from exam development and administration may shed light on how the instructional efforts in chemistry confront these measurement constraints. This presentation will explore the data from the past 20 years of ACS Exams to determine if there is evidence of whether or not measurement capacity leads the adoption of a content curriculum, or follows it.

Measuring what we value vs. valuing what we measure in general chemistry

247th National Meeting (2014)

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