Shared Curriculum Assessment Committee

The role of the Shared Curriculum Assessment Committee (SCAC) is to continually assess and improve the shared core curriculum and to monitor its coherence with, and adherence to, New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) standards.

The SCAC is a joint committee comprised of faculty members and administrators and includes members from the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), the Sawyer Business School (SBS), and the University central administration.

Committee Members

  • Pelin Bicen, Associate Dean SBS
  • Gary Fireman, Associate Provost for Assessment, Chair of SCAC
  • Annette McGehee, Associate Professor of Biology
  • Richard Miller, Associate Professor of English
  • Lauren Nolfo-Clements, Associate Dean CAS
  • Melissa Renschler, Assistant Professor of Accounting & Business Law
  • Tracey Riley, Associate Professor of Accounting and Business Law
  • Erin Trauth, Instructor of English, Director of First-Year Writing
  • Dmitry Zinoviev, Professor of Math and Computer Science

Assessments & Rubrics

SCAC has implemented external assessment products for Information Literacy and Social, Cultural & Global Perspectives. SCAC has also adapted and developed two rubrics for the purposes of assessing Creativity & Innovation and Critical Thinking. In addition, the VALUE Scoring Collaborative at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) uses the Written Communication Rubric to assess our students’ writing.

Faculty are welcome to adapt the rubrics for use within their classrooms.

Creativity & Innovation

This Creativity & Innovation rubric contains criteria for measuring dimensions of students’ creativity and innovation such as strategies and skills, risk-taking and resilience, and problem-solving. The rubric below was adapted from AAC&U’s VALUE Creative Thinking rubric during the summer of 2022 and will be piloted in the Fall 2022 semester. The rubric is a derivative of "Creative Thinking VALUE Rubric" by AAC&U, used under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Creativity & Innovation Rubric [PDF]

Critical Thinking

This Critical Thinking rubric contains criteria for measuring students’ ability use analytical reasoning in problem-solving and decision-making situations; understand and employ theories, processes, and systems; and think and reflect critically. The rubric below was first developed and piloted during the summer of 2016, then revised in spring of 2021.

Critical Thinking Rubric [PDF]

Information Literacy

The assessment portion of the Credo Information Literacy Core is used to evaluate students’ information literacy. The Credo assessment will be piloted in the Fall 2022 semester.

Previously, the Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy (SAILS) was used in academic years 2020-21 and 2021-22.

Social, Cultural, & Global Perspectives

The Global Perspective Inventory (GPI) is used to assess students’ Social, Cultural & Global Perspectives. The GPI was piloted in academic year 2018-19.

Writing

This Written Communication VALUE Rubric contains criteria for measuring students’ written communication. The rubric below was developed by AAC&U.

Writing Rubric [PDF]