Barton Community College recently celebrated another graduation of sorts, this time among its employees. Members of the second Assessment Institute finished a year-long program.

Barton’s Assessment Institute is an in-house training program developed to educate faculty and staff on the assessment of student learning and to develop the next generation of assessment leaders.

“Last year we had a pinning ceremony,” Coordinator of Assessment Jo Harrington told the college trustees. “This year, if the Barton graduates couldn’t have one, we figured we couldn’t, either.”

The 2020 graduates were Kim Bradney, Sara Hoff, Claudia Mather, Scott McDonald, Heather Panning, Oleg Ravitskiy and Maggie Tracy.

Graduates from the first institute in 2019 were Danika Bielek, Charlotte Cates, Kenneth Kolembe, Kurt Konda, Sara Oberle, Laura Schlessiger and Kimberly Specht.

The institute meets six times during the course of the year, for about two hours once a month. Each participant receives a binder full of information that serves as the study book and then hands-on training gives them an opportunity to move the learning curve along.

“This is not just important to know, this is part of their job responsibilities,” Harrington said. “It’s not just about collecting data,” he added. Instructors use the information to reflect on how they can improve.

After a year in the institute the graduates go on to serve on assessment sub-committees. All seven graduates of the first group are serving on at least one assessment subcommittee, and one is a subcommittee chair.

Barton President Dr. Carl Heilman praised Harrington for continuing the project and offered congratulations to the graduates.

Board of Trustees Chairman Mike Johnson noted the group’s diversity, which involved various segments of the campus.

Vice President Elaine Simmons reported that Harrington is prepared to give a presentation on this project at the next national conference of the Higher Learning Commission.