National Board of Medical Examiners, Philadelphia, PA 19104-3102, USA.
Med Teach. 2010;32(6):516-20. doi: 10.3109/0142159X.2010.485657.
This collaborative project between the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) and Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine explored the design and use of cumulative achievement tests in basic science education. In cumulative achievement testing, integrative end-of-unit tests are deliberately constructed to systematically retest topics covered in previous units as well as material from the just-completed unit. CWRU faculty developed and administered a series of six web-based cumulative achievement tests using retired United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) step 1 test material and tools provided by NBME's Customized Assessment Services, and trends in student performance were examined as the new CWRU basic science curriculum unfolded. This article provides the background information about test design and administration, as well as samples of score reporting information for students and faculty. While firm conclusions about the effectiveness of cumulative achievement testing are not warranted after a pilot test at a single school, preliminary results suggest that cumulative achievement testing may be an effective complement to progress testing, with the former used to encourage retention of already-covered material and the latter used to assess growth toward the knowledge and skills expected of a graduating student.
国家医师考试委员会（NBME）与凯斯西储大学（CWRU）医学院之间的合作项目探讨了基础科学教育中累积成就测试的设计和使用。在累积成就测试中，综合单元末测试是有意构建的，旨在系统地重新测试以前单元中涵盖的主题以及刚刚完成的单元中的材料。CWRU 教师使用已退役的美国医师执照考试（USMLE）第 1 步测试材料和 NBME 的定制评估服务提供的工具，开发并管理了一系列六个基于网络的累积成就测试，同时随着新的 CWRU 基础科学课程的展开，检查了学生表现的趋势。本文提供了关于测试设计和管理的背景信息，以及学生和教师成绩报告信息的样本。在单个学校进行试点后，尚不能保证累积成就测试的有效性，但初步结果表明，累积成就测试可能是进步测试的有效补充，前者用于鼓励对已涵盖内容的保留，后者用于评估朝着毕业学生所需的知识和技能的增长。
