Celebrating Excellence in Assessment and Student Learning

Celebrating Excellence in Assessment and Student Learning

• Faculty
• 01/15/2026

Meaningful assessment is at the heart of student success.

The 2025 Assessment Awards honor individuals who exemplify best practices in assessment and demonstrate a sustained commitment to valuing, documenting, and advancing their professional development in support of continuous improvement in teaching and student learning.

Award recipients were recognized during Faculty Development Day for their dedication to professional growth and their meaningful contributions to assessment practices across the institution.

Nominees are ranked and awarded across three categories, with awards presented for both curricular and co-curricular assessment, for a total of six awards:

• Emerging Assessment Star
• Curricular Assessment Champion
• Excellence in Assessment

Emerging Assessment Star

This award recognizes an individual in curricular or co-curricular assessment that demonstrates professional engagement and growth in improving teaching and learning through assessment. The award recognizes efforts to improve courses, teaching, and learning through assessment for student learning as supported by the RVC Guidelines for Assessment for Student Learning. Furthermore, this award recognizes those that improve documentation of assessment, participate in assessment professional development events to enhance their understanding and practice of assessment, and uses the sharing of continuous improvement of learning stories (SCILS) to improve teaching and learning in their own courses or discipline/program.

The 2025 recipient of the Emerging Curricular Assessment Star award is Katie Buss from the Fitness, Wellness, and Sport Department.

Katie has approached assessment with curiosity and care, and it shows in how she reflects on student learning and adapts her courses.

Curricular Assessment Champion

This award recognizes an individual in curricular or co-curricular assessment that demonstrates effective leadership for improving teaching and learning through assessment. The award recognizes an individual that has demonstrated the RVC Guidelines for Assessment for Student Learning for multiple years in their leadership. The award recognizes comprehensive documentation that illustrates assessment efforts from measures to actions and changes in teaching and learning to foster student success. Furthermore, this award recognizes those that regularly participate in the development of or lead, as well as attend, assessment events; motivates and engages others in assessment efforts; and advances the sharing of continuous improvement of learning stories (SCILS) by sharing their own and encouraging others to do so.

This year's Curricular Assessment Champion is Dr. Maureen Lowry-Fritz from the Political Science Department.

Dr. Lowry-Fritz was last year's recipient of the Emerging Curricular Assessment Star award, and her consistency and leadership have helped make assessment a part of our shared practice, not just a requirement.

Excellence in Assessment

This award recognizes a department or individual in curricular or co-curricular assessment that provides the exemplar of an effective, comprehensive assessment practitioner and embodiment of the RVC Guidelines for Assessment for Student Learning. The award recognizes multi-year consistency in documentation that illustrates assessment efforts from measures to actions and changes in teaching and learning to foster student success. Furthermore, this award recognizes those that regularly participate in assessment events, motivates and engages others in assessment efforts, and advances the sharing of continuous improvement of learning stories (SCILS).

This year's award goes to Carl Trank from the Developmental Math Department.

Carl (and his department) have shown what assessment can look like when it's fully integrated into teaching and focused on student success.

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