NEWS RELEASE Contact: Communications Manager Tom Farmer

FOR IMMEDIATE USE 800-828-5787, tfarmer@pitsco.com

Comprehensive Business Exam measures up

Criterion-referenced test designed for college seniors in business
The Technological Fluency Institute and Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda
released the Comprehensive Business Exam® July 1, 2010.
The Comprehensive Business Exam, or CBE, is designed for graduating seniors completing a
four-year business degree. This criterion-referenced exam assesses eight of the most common
professional components taught in a four-year business program: accounting, management, marketing,
finance, economic environment, legal environment, social environment, and international business.
One of the strongest factors in its development is that the CBE is composed of high-quality
assessment items created by business college faculty from across the country. More than 25 professors
contributed to the item bank. Faculty and students who participated in the beta testing process agree that
the exam assesses what is actually taught in the courses, which makes it a strong exit exam.
Dr. Robert C. Hilton, Business Division Chair and Professor of Business at the University of the
Ozarks in Clarksville, Arkansas, has used the CBE since the first iteration entered beta testing in 2006. “It
is very rewarding for me to see the concept of the CBE develop into a commercialized product,” said
Hilton.
“The CBE has made and will continue to make a significant difference in the quality of our
educational product here at the University of the Ozarks.” Hilton continued, “As a permanent tool in our
outcomes assessment process, the CBE serves as one of two direct measures of the intended student
learning outcomes in Business, which are required by our specialized accrediting body.”
The CBE is delivered online using E-SESS™, an electronic testing engine developed by the
Technological Fluency Institute. E-SESS has been used to deliver competitive events for FBLA-PBL
since 2004. More than 100 student organizations at the national, state, and regional levels use E-SESS for
competitive event testing.
E-SESS enables students to receive immediate feedback on their exam, including their overall
score and proficiency levels for each tested professional component.

1
 Aggregate and disaggregate reports, as well as an institution comparison report, are provided
electronically to the sponsoring institution. Hilton explained how beneficial these reports are to the
University of the Ozarks. The CBE has “saved my colleagues and me much time and effort in
determining where changes and improvements are needed in our program. Needless to say, the detailed
student reports, the overall comparison report, and the comparative report benchmarking similarly
classified Carnegie institutions are extremely valuable to our work.”
The CBE is an affordable solution for outcomes assessment testing. Faculty and university
administrators can use the CBE results to:
• Compare the performance of their senior business majors to the performance of senior business
majors at peer institutions.
• Judge the effectiveness of their program in preparing students.
• Prepare accountability documents for governing boards and accrediting agencies.
The CBE was extensively beta tested in the United States and abroad. The exam was developed
through a partnership with the Technological Fluency Institute and Future Business Leaders of
America-Phi Beta Lambda. Development was in response to the need of colleges with business
programs to know how their students rank collectively and, therefore, how they as a business program
rank. These data are useful for (1) ensuring that students are being comprehensively and adequately
prepared, (2) recruiting students into their programs, and (3) reporting on program performance by
national demographic categories.
“The new CBE assessment is an excellent resource for business professors and instructors in four-
year institutions. We are delighted to partner with TFI to offer this great new product,” said Jean Buckley,
President and CEO of Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda.
To learn more about CBE and other products and services offered by the Technological Fluency
Institute, visit www.techfluency.org or call 866-277-5061.
###