  As part of an ongoing project to investigate student learning in
upper-division electrodynamics (E&M II), the PER research group at the
University of Colorado Boulder has developed a tool to assess student
conceptual understanding: the CURrENT (Colorado UppeR-division ElectrodyNamics
Test). The result is an open-ended post-test diagnostic with 6 multi-part
questions, an optional 3-question pretest, and an accompanying grading rubric.
This instrument is motivated in part by our faculty-consensus learning goals,
and is intended to help measure the effectiveness of transformed pedagogy. In
addition, it provides insights into student thinking and student difficulties
in the covered topical areas. In this paper, we present preliminary measures of
the validity and reliability of the instrument and scoring rubric. These
include expert validation and student interviews, inter-rater reliability
measures, and classical test statistics.
