A short report on curricular ‘School Competencies and Objectives Progress Exam’ (SCOPE) assessments

Introduction: A private School of Pharmacy in the United States of America with a four-year programme began delivering a new curriculum in the autumn of 2021. To measure students’ performance in the curriculum, a comprehensive competency-based assessment was implemented in August 2022.
Methods: An ExamSoft question item bank was developed based on existing course questions, and questions were allocated to the assessment based on competencies, Bloom’s level, item difficulty level, and the count indicated on the exam blueprint.
Results: The reliability data for the assessment was good, but the results were lower than desired. Performance levels were modified to better reflect the status of first-time implementation.
Conclusion: The assessment was deemed reliable, but adjustments will likely be necessary over the next several years. The ‘School Competencies and Objectives Progress Exam’ (SCOPE) 1 workgroup will reconvene next summer to discuss any desired changes in question selection, weighting, and performance levels.