Faculty Development

Building Fair, Defensible Assessments

About this module

From blueprinting to standard setting to timely grade submission — the full lifecycle of a defensible assessment system, and what survey visitors look for.

Related LCME elements

Every module states its LCME elements explicitly. Tags link to the SILME standards reference (March 2026 edition); element numbers and titles below are quoted from that data.

Element 9.4 Element 9.6 Element 9.8 Element 4.5

Learning objectives

By the end of this module, participants will be able to:

• Blueprint an exam to objectives and competencies
• Describe common standard-setting methods
• Identify threats to fairness in grading and remediation

Module outline

1. The assessment system as a system (not a pile of exams)
2. Blueprinting 101
3. Standard setting: Angoff, Hofstee, borderline methods
4. Fair and timely summative assessment: policies that hold
5. What LCME survey teams ask about assessment

Discussion prompts

• Where does your assessment system have single points of failure?
• How are borderline students identified and supported?

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