Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Student Learning Outcomes

Nomination Form

This Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Student Learning Outcomes recognizes an academic degree program that is committed to best practices in assessment, improving student learning, and continuous program improvement.

Eligibility

Degree-granting programs are eligible (including all nine colleges, the Golisano Institute of Sustainability and the School of Individualized Study). The program shall not have been a recipient of this award in the preceding three years.

Criteria

To qualify for the Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Student Learning Outcomes, the program must: 

Involve Stakeholders in Assessment: Describe methods used by the program to involve stakeholders in assessment

  • Identify and share high quality program goals and student learning outcomes
  • Demonstrate engagement of program faculty in planning, collecting data, interpreting data, and using results to make improvements to curriculum, instruction, or assessment practices
  • Share results and recommendations for improvements with appropriate stakeholders

Establish Effective Assessment Planning and Implementation Processes: Describe the program's assessment planning and implementation process and outline how it meets each of the following:

  • Advocate for high standards in defining academic quality and setting appropriate benchmarks
  • Explain how program–level student learning outcomes are assessed using direct measures
  • Implement sustainable, annual data collection using effective tools and approaches
  • Maintain organized records of findings, results, recommendations, and action steps through an assessment management system

Demonstrate Continuous Improvement

  • Provide evidence of a consistent (multi-year) use of assessment results to guide program improvements that directly impact student learning
  • Evaluate the usefulness of assessment efforts and strategies to guide changes when needed

Nomination Process

Academic program leaders may self-nominate their programs. Also, nominations from college leadership are accepted. Each program will be reviewed by the award committee.

If you would like to nominate a program, please complete and submit a nomination form to Leah Bradley lmbdfp@rit.edu. The submission deadline is January 16, 2026. 

Awards Ceremony

Award recipients will be honored at the Celebration of Teaching and Scholarship awards in the spring semester. 

More information about ceremony

Award Recipients

Bachelor's of Science Marketing Program, RIT Dubai

The Sustainability Ph.D. program, Golisano Institute for Sustainability

Master of Science in Secondary Education for Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

Bachelor of Science in ASL English Interpretation program, National Technical Institute for the Deaf

Bioinformatics Master’s Program, College of Science

MS, Health Systems Management, College of Health Sciences and Technology

Program Director: Carla Stebbins, Ph.D.

Program Faculty: Richard Belloff, DBA, Chris Hyers, Sally Loughry, Jodi Lubba, Travis Masonis, William Myers, Ph.D., Larry O’Meal, Patricia Poteat, Ph.D.

The Digital Humanities and Social Sciences BS Program, College of Liberal Arts

Program Director: Jessica Lieberman

Administrative Council: Sharon Beckford-Foster, Peter Byrne, Tamar Carroll, Jonathan Kruger, Michael Laver, Kelly Martin, Brian Schroeder, David Schwartz, Stephen Zilora

Program Faculty and Staff: Jason Arena, Dan Bogaard, Shaun Foster, Robert Glick, Trent Hergenrader, Stephen Jacobs, Ammina Kothari, Elizabeth Lawley, Hinda Mandell, Anne Royston, Corinna Schlombs, Jonathan Schroeder,David Simkins, Whitney Sperrazza, Rebecca Walker, Tammara Wickson

Master of Science for Teachers (MST) Visual Arts—All Grades program, School of Art, College of Art and Design
Glen Hintz, Department Chair
Lauren Ramich, Program Director
Department faculty and staff: Robert Antonucci, Melanie Martinek, Fran Chinnock, Janet Gibbons Morris, Chris Jackson, Lauren Purvis

BS Chemical Engineering, Kate Gleason College of Engineering
Steve Weinstein, Chair
Department Faculty and Staff: Paul Gregorius, Poornima Padmanabhan, Anju Gupta, Vicki Rocha, Stephanie Hart, Reginald Rogers, Jen Kamish, Kenneth Ruschak, Karuna Koppula, Patricia Taboada-Serrano, Brian Landi, Yasemin Dilsad Yilmazel, Julie Olney

Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts Faculty and Staff
Suzanne Bamonto, Brian Barry, Joseph Baschnagel, Robert Bowen, A. Eleanor Chand-Matzke, Jessamy Comer, Kirsten Condry, Caroline DeLong, Nicholas DiFonzo, John Edlund, Stephanie Godleski, Andrew M. Herbert, Rebecca Houston, Jennifer Lukomski, Scott Merydith, Vincent Pandolfi, Susan Powell, Esa Rantanen, Lindsay S. Schenkel, Paula Schneider, Alan Smerbeck, Tina Sutton, Christine VanHemel

AAS Administrative Support Technology, National Technical Institute for the Deaf
Mary Lou Basile; Department Chair, Business Studies Department
AST Program Faculty: Adriana Kulakowski, Tracy Magin, Mary Beth Parker, Kathleen Szczepanek

Contact

Leah Bradley, Director of the Office of Educational Effectiveness Assessment, lmbdfp@rit.edu.