For a different take on some of these terms, here is a list of Assessment Terms generated by the Monmouth College Assessment Chair (Jon Grahe)

Course Embedded Assessment occurs when an assignment or testing situation is used for the purpose of assessment.

Criteria are standards in the assessment process. This term can be used to describe the level of learning students in a program should meet (i.e. 80 % of students should meet this goal). A second use of the term is the standard against which work is compared. In other words, a criterion is the correct answer to a question.

Formative assessment refers to assessment used to determine the skills of the student. This generally occurs early or during the student learning process so that adjustments can be made to the learning process.

Outcomes refer to skills that students should master or experiences that the student should be exposed to during the learning process.

Reliability refers to the whether you get the same response across multiple occurrences or multiple judges. Is the same result occurring each time you measure?

Rubrics are predetermined evaluation criteria that can be used to evaluate assignments. Note that the Monmouth College assessment program uses RUBRIC to define separate components of the general education program (i.e. BMWA is a Rubric)

Summative assessment refers to assessment used to evaluate the success of the program. This generally occurs at the end of the student learning process.

Validity refers to whether you are measuring what you are intending to measure. If you want to measure writing ability and measure that using a multiple choice test, your measure is NOT valid. A more valid measure would obviously involve writing of some sort.