E&E's mission is to help University teachers, researchers, and administrators with two tasks: testing University students and evaluating classes and programs at the University.

E&E has a long history on the University of Michigan campus. Its roots go back to 1927 when the Regents set up a Bureau of University Research to study the University's educational activities. As part of its studies, the Bureau began testing all incoming students in key subjects. The Bureau's freshman testing program is the direct ancestor of E&E's current program of placement testing of incoming students.

In 1930 the Regents approved a reorganization plan that moved the activities of the Bureau of University Research to a newly established Office of the Vice President of the University and Director of Educational Investigations. This office continued to be responsible for the University's placement testing program for nearly two decades. After World War II, however, the University shifted responsibilities for placement testing to a new office housed in the Rackham Building, the Evaluation and Examinations Division of the Bureau of Psychological Services. In 1953, Edward Furst was appointed chief of this division.

The Evaluation and Examinations Division grew under the leadership of John Milholland and Benno Fricke during the 1960s and 1970s. An important spur to growth was the introduction onto the UM campus of computer technology. The Division's first encounters with the new technology were a bit bumpy. The dedication of the Division's 1957 report on its testing program hints at the difficulties. The annual report is dedicated "To Two IBM Scoring Machines Who Were Disabled in Battle." The Division's 1959 report contains a plaintive description of the diminishing role of the Evaluation and Examinations staff in testing activities: "The 1959 Fall Freshman and Transfer Testing Program differed from previous programs because the processing of scores and cutting was done as a computer problem…Thus the work of the Evaluation and Examinations Division staff was reduced to that of administering and scoring the tests."

The Evaluation and Examinations Division soon learned to live with computer technology, however, and by the 1960s it had developed state-of-the-art computer programs for analyzing and reporting data from classroom exams. Although slow and clumsy by today's standards, these programs served as the foundation for E&E's current program of support for classroom tests.

In 1976 the University again re-drew the organization chart for the Evaluation and Examinations Division, and a re-christened Office of Evaluation and Examinations (OEE) found itself a part of the University's Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT). Since 1962 CRLT had served as the University's central unit for instructional and faculty development. In 1976, the main offices of CRLT were located in the University's 109 East Madison Building, and CRLT's director was the internationally renowned psychologist Wilbert McKeachie. Although McKeachie took on overall responsibility for OEE, Benno Fricke continued to manage day-to-day activities, the office continued to be housed in the Rackham Building.

In 1982, OEE moved to 109 East Madison, and in the same year CRLT Research Scientist James Kulik took over Benno Fricke's responsibilities as manager of OEE. CRLT continued to be the home for OEE for nearly two decades, and during this time, the Office took on important new responsibilities. One of these responsibilities was administering a computerized course evaluation system that CRLT had started developing under Kulik's direction since 1975. Another important responsibility was developing a program to support surveys and program evaluations carried out by University researchers and administrators. In 1990, OEE created the first custom questionnaires for this new program.

E&E's place in the University's organization plan changed again in 1998 when E&E separated from CRLT and became an independent office reporting directly to the Associate Provost for Academic Affairs Lester Monts. James Kulik was appointed director of E&E in 1998.

Today, E&E continues to offer services to the University in the two areas of evaluations and examinations, and its programs continue to serve large numbers of individuals in the University community:

• Last year, students in nearly 16,000 University classes filled out nearly 500,000 student rating forms that were designed, printed, scored, and analyzed with E&E help.



• Nearly 330 teachers in 435 classes asked E&E to score and analyze results from 700 classroom examinations.



• Nearly 6000 incoming students took 18,370 placement tests administered and scored by E&E. On the basis of results on these tests and admissions and survey data, E&E made placement recommendations for these students in eight subjects.



• Teachers, researchers, and administrators asked E&E for help in designing, scanning, and analyzing results from 50 instruments used in surveys and evaluations.