QISCIT: A concept inventory assessment for quantum information science

Quantum information science (QIS) is a critical interdisciplinary field, deeply rooted in physics, that requires a well-educated workforce in the near future. Numerous researchers and educators have been actively investigating how to best educate and prepare such a workforce. An open issue has been the lack of a tool with a strong validation argument to assess QIS understanding without requiring college-level math. In this paper, we present the systematic development of and content validation argument for a new assessment instrument called the Quantum Information Science Concept Introductory Test (QISCIT). With feedback from 11 QIS experts, we have developed a 31-item version of QISCIT that covers concepts like quantum states, quantum measurement, qubits, entanglement, coherence and decoherence, quantum gates and computing, and quantum teleportation.