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For Rachel Razza, the timing was perfect.

Razza, an associate professor at Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, was selected to participate in the Assessment Leadership Institute for ���ϲ����� faculty in the summer of 2019, just before she started serving as graduate director in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies.

Rachel Razza, an associate professor at Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, was selected to participate in the Assessment Leadership Institute in the summer of 2019.

“I participated in the Institute the summer before I began serving as graduate director, which was timely as I left the workshop feeling prepared and equipped with an action plan ready for implementation that fall semester,” Razza says. “One aspect of the Institute that was particularly significant for me was how we can involve students in the assessment process.”

Applications are now being accepted for mini-grants that will be awarded to faculty members who are responsible for coordinating program-level assessment and want to participate in the two-day from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. June 2-3. The deadline to apply for a mini-grant is May 14, and applications can be submitted through the using a ���ϲ����� netID and password.

���ϲ�����’s academic program assessment efforts, focused on student learning outcomes, are a faculty-owned and faculty-driven process. Faculty collaboration is critical to maintaining meaningful student learning outcomes assessment, and the mini-grant is designed to support faculty in facilitating program-level assessment activities to enhance student learning.

Here are the Assessment Leadership Institute’s learning goals:

• Participants will gain assessment knowledge and skills (for example, student learning outcomes development, identifying measures and criteria, curriculum mapping).
• Participants will identify and demonstrate facilitation techniques that they will use to guide assessment efforts.
• Participants will develop a sense of agency to inform program-level decision-making.

“The Assessment Institute was extremely beneficial in promoting my understanding of program assessment and equipping me with skills that I could immediately apply in our department,” says Razza, who last April received the from Falk’s graduate school. “The workshops included multiple approaches and examples for program assessment that could be revised for any discipline and allowed for rich idea exchange between faculty and staff from across the university.”

To learn more about the Assessment Leadership Institute, view the . And here’s a explaining the University’s framework for assessing student learning outcomes.

The institute is open to all full-time tenure, tenure track and non-tenure track faculty who are responsible for student learning outcomes assessment. Up to six $750 mini-grants are available and the mini-grant can be applied to a faculty member’s research account or through payroll. Visit for more eligibility and award information.

Notification of selection will be sent by May 18, and selected applicants should confirm their acceptance by May 21. For additional information and questions, email the Assessment Working Team at assessment@syr.edu.