Assessing Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Competencies

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The importance of higher education has never been clearer. Educational attainment—the number of years a person spends in school—strongly predicts adult earnings, as well as health and civic engagement. Yet relative to other developed nations, educational attainment in the United States is lagging, with young Americans who heretofore led the world in completing postsecondary degrees now falling behind their global peers. As part of a broader national college completion agenda aimed at increasing college graduation rates, higher education researchers and policy makers are exploring the role of intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies in supporting student success.

Supporting Students' College Success: The Role of Assessment of Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Competencies identifies 8 intrapersonal competencies (competencies involving self-management and positive self-evaluation) that can be developed through interventions and appear to be related to persistence and success in undergraduate education. The report calls for further research on the importance of these competencies for college success, reviews current assessments of them and establishes priorities for the use of current assessments, and outlines promising new approaches for improved assessments.

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262 pages · 6 x 9 · paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-45605-3
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-45606-1
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17226/24697

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National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. Supporting Students' College Success: The Role of Assessment of Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Competencies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

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Joan Herman

JOAN HERMAN is co-director emeritus of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research has explored the effects of testing on schools and the design of assessment systems to support school planning and instructional improvement. Her recent work focuses on the validity and utility of teachers' formative assessment practices and the assessment of deeper learning and 21st century competencies. Dr. Herman is noted in bridging research and practice. She is past president of the California Educational Research Association; has held a variety of leadership positions in the American Educational Research Association, National Organization of Research Centers, and Knowledge Alliance. Dr. Herman is current editor of Educational Assessment, serves on the Joint Committee for the Revision of Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, and chairs the Board of Education for Para Los Niños. She is a member of the NRC Board on Testing and Assessment and has served on many prior NRC committees, most recently the Committee on Developing Assessments of Science Proficiency in K-12. She received her Ed.D. in learning and instruction from the University of California, Los Angeles.

David Bills

DAVID BILLS is associate dean for Academic Affairs and Graduate Programs in the University of Iowa College of Education and professor of the sociology of education. His research interests are in social stratification, education and the workplace, labor markets, technological and organizational change, educational demography, and social inequality. He is the author of The Sociology of Education and Work and recently completed a term as editor of Sociology of Education. Dr. Bills has held short-term appointments at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung and the Institute for the Study of Social Inequality in Amsterdam. He is collaborating on various projects with colleagues from Brazil, Germany, Ukraine, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Albania. Dr. Bills holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Corbin M. Campbell

CORBIN M. CAMPBELL is assistant professor of higher education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Campbell’s research focuses on developing a new understanding of college educational quality for the broader public based on college teaching and learning, in contrast to the current mechanisms (e.g., U.S. News & World Report), which focus largely on resources and reputation. Her secondary agenda explores the institutional contexts that facilitate faculty agency in professional lives. Dr. Campbell’s research on assessing student learning and educational quality has been highlighted in news venues such as the Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, and the New York Times. She serves on the editorial boards of Research in Higher Education and the Journal of College Student Development. Prior to coming to Teachers College, Dr. Campbell worked in institutional research and also served as an evaluator on an NSF ADVANCE grant and an NSF IGERT grant. Dr. Campbell holds a Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Maryland, a M.A. in higher education and student affairs from Ohio State University, and a B.A. in psychology from the University of Virginia.

Tabbye Chavous

TABBYE CHAVOUS is professor of education and psychology and associate dean for academic programs and initiatives at the Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan (UM). As part of her administrative role, she engages in and helps lead efforts related to admissions evaluation processes, including considering criteria and practices for more effective admissions decision-making that leads to high quality, diverse student populations. Dr. Chavous' research interests and projects center around social identity processes (around race/ethnicity, gender, and social class) among ethnic minority adolescents and young adults in secondary and post-secondary education contexts and implications for students' academic identity development (including academic engagement and motivation), subsequent academic performance and persistence, and psychological adjustment. Her work also focuses on measurement and impacts of diversity and multicultural climates within secondary and higher education settings. She is a principal investigator and co-director of the UM’s Center for the Study of Black Youth in Context, a center funded through the National Science Foundation (NSF) and focused on research, training, and community outreach/engagement related to promoting positive development among diverse populations of black youth and families. Dr. Chavous currently has an NSF grant for a project examining race, gender, and academic identification processes among college students pursuing academic pathways in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. Dr. Chavous is currently a member of the NRC Committee on Barriers and Opportunities in Completing Two- and Four-Year STEM Degrees. Dr. Chavous received her Ph.D. in community psychology from the University of Virginia.

Greg J. Duncan

GREG J. DUNCAN is distinguished professor of education at the University of California, Irvine. He has published extensively on issues of income distribution, child poverty, and welfare dependence. He is co-editor with Richard J. Murnane of Whither Opportunity? Rising Inequality, Schools, and Children’s Life Chances (2011) and co-author with Aletha Huston and Tom Weisner of Higher Ground: New Hope for the Working Poor and Their Children (2007). He continues to study neighborhood effects on the development of children and adolescents and other issues involving welfare reform, income distribution, and its consequences for children and adults. Duncan is a member of the interdisciplinary MacArthur Network on the Family and the Economy. He was elected president of the Society for Research in Child Development for 2009-2011. Dr. Duncan is member of the National Academy of Sciences, has served on numerous NRC committees, and is currently a member of the Division Committee for the Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, NRC Report Review Committee, and the Committee on Supporting Parents of Young Children. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan.

Sylvia Hurtado

SYLVIA HURTADO is professor and served more than a decade as director of the Higher Education Research Institute at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Graduate School of Education and Information Sciences. Just prior to coming to UCLA, she served as director of the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan. Dr. Hurtado has published numerous articles and books related to her primary interest in student educational outcomes, campus climates, college impact on student development, and diversity in higher education. She has served on numerous editorial boards for journals in education and served on the boards, including the Higher Learning Commission and is past-president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education. In 2015, she was awarded the Exemplary Research Award from the Postsecondary Division of the American Educational Research Association. Dr. Hurtado has coordinated several national research projects, including a U.S. Department of Education-sponsored project on how colleges are preparing students to achieve the cognitive, social, and democratic skills to participate in a diverse democracy. She is engaged in two National Institutes of Health projects on the preparation of underrepresented students for biomedical and behavioral science research careers. Dr. Hurtado has served on many NRC committees and is currently on the Committee on Barriers and Opportunities in Completing Two- and Four-Year STEM Degrees. She obtained her Ph.D. in education from UCLA, Ed.M. from Harvard Graduate School of Education, and A.B. in sociology from Princeton University.

Patrick C. Kyllonen

PATRICK C. KYLLONEN is senior research director of the Center for Academic and Workforce Readiness and Success at Educational Testing Service in Princeton, N.J. Center scientists conduct innovative research on (a) higher education assessment, (b) workforce readiness; (c) international large scale assessment research; and (d) 21st century skills assessment, such as creativity, collaborative problem solving, and situational interviews. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Educational Research Association. He served as a member of the steering committee for the NRC Workshop on Assessment of 21st Century Skills and as member of the NRC committee on Defining Deeper Learning and 21st Century Skills. Dr. Kyllonen received his B.A. from St. John's University and Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Dan P. McAdams

Dan P. McAdams is the Henry Wade Rogers professor of psychology and professor of human development and social policy at Northwestern University. Currently, he also serves as the chair of the psychology department. Author of over 200 scientific articles and chapters, numerous edited volumes, and 6 books, Professor McAdams works in the areas of personality and life-span developmental psychology. His theoretical and empirical writings focus on concepts of self and identity in contemporary American society and on themes of power, intimacy, redemption, and generativity across the adult life course. Professor McAdams is most well-known for formulating a life-story theory of human identity, which argues that modern adults provide their lives with a sense of unity and purpose by constructing and internalizing self-defining life stories or “personal myths.” He is the winner of the Henry A. Murray Award from the American Psychological Association for research on personality and the study of lives, the 2006 Theodore Sarbin Award for contributions to theoretical and philosophical psychology, and the 2012 Jack Block Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology for career contributions to personality psychology. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 8) and the American Psychological Society, has served on the Executive Committee of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and is a founding member of the Association for Research in Personality. Professor McAdams received his B.S. degree from Christ College, Valparaiso University in 1976, and his Ph.D. in Psychology and Social Relations from Harvard University in 1979.

Frederick L. Oswald

FREDERICK L. OSWALD is a professor in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology program within the Department of Psychology at Rice University. His expertise deals with personnel selection and psychological testing in organizational, education and military settings. Substantively, his work deals with defining, modeling and predicting societally relevant outcomes (e.g., job performance, academic performance, satisfaction, turnover) from psychological measures that are based on cognitive and motivational constructs (e.g., cognitive abilities, personality traits, situational judgment tests, job knowledge and skill, and biographical data). His statistical work in meta-analysis, structural equation modeling, and adverse impact also informs personnel selection issues and psychological testing in the research, practice and legal arenas. Dr. Oswald is a fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP, APA Division 14), Evaluation, Measurement, and Statistics (APA Division 5), the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science. He is currently a member of the NRC Board on Human-Systems Integration, and a member of the Committee on Measuring Human Capabilities: Performance Potential of Individuals and Collectives. He hold a B.A. in psychology from the University of Texas at Austin, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Minnesota.

Jonathan Plucker

JONATHAN PLUCKER is the Raymond Neag Endowed professor of education at the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education. He was previously a professor of educational psychology and cognitive science at Indiana University, where he was the founding director of the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy. His work focuses on education policy and talent development. His research examines education policy and talent development, with over 200 publications to his credit. Recent work includes a research collaboration with the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and studies of creative and affective assessment. He recently became editor for the Research-Based Decision Making for Gifted Education and Talent Development book series at Palgrave-Macmillan and the Psychological Perspectives on Contemporary Educational Issues series at IAP. His work defining and studying excellence gaps (http://cepa.uconn.edu/mindthegap) is part of a larger effort to reorient policymakers’ and educators’ thinking about how best to promote success and high achievement for all children. Dr. Plucker is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and a fellow of the American Associate for the Advancement of Science and recipient of the 2012 Arnheim Award for Outstanding Achievement from APA and 2013 Distinguished Scholar Award from the National Association for Gifted Children. Dr. Plucker received his B.S. in secondary chemistry education and M.A. in educational psychology: special education from The University of Connecticut. He received his Ph.D. in educational psychology with emphasis in statistics and research methodology from the University of Virginia.

K. Ann Renninger

K. ANN RENNINGER is the Eugene M. Lang research professor in the Department of Educational Studies at Swarthmore College. Her research interests include: (a) the role of interest in learning and development; (b) the relation between interest and other motivational variables, (c) change in the cognitive and affective functioning of learners; and (d) links between theory, research and practice as these pertain to changed understanding. Her research program focuses on the role of interest in learning and conditions that support the development and deepening of learner interest. She studies these questions across a variety of contexts both in and out-of-school, including children's play and students' work with: expository text, mathematical word problems, and science. Her studies are typically undertaken in collaboration with practitioners. For example, with funding from the Sloan Foundation, she has recently been studying access and retention of undergraduates in STEM disciplines, considering the relation among variables that practitioners consider important but that in the research literature are usually considered separately (e.g., the relation among demographic characteristics, future plans, course work, instruction and interaction, achievement motivation, and interest); funding from the Mellon Foundation also provided support for her collaboration with faculty members in the physical sciences to identify and respond to the needs of their students. She is co-editor of the American Educational Research Association volume, Interest in Mathematics and Science Learning (AERA, 2015). She is the lead co-author of the forthcoming volume, The Power of Interest for Motivation and Engagement, which will be released by Routledge later this year. She received her Ph.D. in education and child development from Bryn Mawr College.

Brian Stecher

BRIAN STECHER is a senior social scientist at the RAND Corporation, an associate director of RAND Education, and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. His research focuses on measuring educational quality and evaluating education reforms, with a particular emphasis on assessment and accountability systems. He has directed prominent national and state evaluations of No Child Left Behind, mathematics and science systemic reforms, and class size reduction. His measurement-related expertise includes test development (prototype performance assessments for teacher certification, hands-on science tasks for middle school students), test validation (the quality of portfolio assessments in Vermont and Kentucky), and the use of assessments for school improvement (formative and interim assessments, the quality of classroom assessments, and measures of interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies). Stecher has presented findings to policymakers at the state and national level, to practitioners, and to the public. He is a member of the NRC Board on Testing and Assessment, and has served on several BOTA committees, most recently the Committee on Incentives and Test-Based Accountability. He has published widely in professional journals and is currently a member of the editorial board of Educational Assessment. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

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Assessing Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Competencies

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Assessing Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Competencies

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Featured publication

Supporting Students' College Success: The Role of Assessment of Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Competencies

Description

Contributors

Committee

Sponsors

Staff

Major units and sub-units

Contact

Contact us

Provide feedback

Request materials

More like this

Review of the draft United by Nature assessment

Modernizing Mathematics Education for Grades 9-14

Health Care Financing to Improve Availability of Affordable Contraception: Identifying Promising Practices

Modernizing Mathematics Education for Grades 9-14

Enhancing the Reach and Contributions of Informal STEM Learning

Workshop on Media Literacy Education

Defining and Measuring Character and Character Education: A Workshop

Helping Science Teachers with Assessment During NGSS Implementation

Developing Indicators for Undergraduate STEM Education