TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY
TEACHING ACADEMY
PROTOCOL FOR DEVELOPING A RECOMMENDATION
FOR THE DEPARTMENTAL EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING AWARD
1) Unless changes are specified by the Executive Council (this must be monitored by the chair of the
award committee prior to February 1st of each year), the information and format posted on the Teaching
Academy website shall be considered as the operating procedure upon which a determination of the recipient
of the award shall be based.
2) Upon receipt of the dossiers from the Provost's Office, the chair of the committee or the secretary of
the Teaching Academy shall determine that each dossier meets the eligibility and criteria for review as stated
on the website. Dossiers that do not meet the review criteria shall be called to the attention of the chair of the
Teaching Academy Executive Council and the chair of the award committee for possible discussion with the
Provost's Office.
3) A meeting of the Departmental Excellence in Teaching Award Committee shall be called within ten
(10) working days of the receipt of the dossiers or within the timeframe for notification required by the
Provost's Office (whichever comes first).
4) During the interim, the committee members shall review the files independently in advance of the
meeting. Each member shall use the rating form to assign provisional numerical scores to rank the applications
according to the following criteria: a) demonstration of efforts made to improve teaching within the unit, b)
promotion of student engagement through service learning, community involvement, study abroad, internships
and undergraduate research, c) contribution to and impact on the scholarship of teaching and/or learning, d)
demonstration of the application of a variety of teaching methods and interdisciplinary collaborations in
teaching, e) demonstration of program(s) quality and mechanisms for assessment, and f) strength of plan for
use of award money.
5) All members of the DETA committee must review and rank all applications, even if they are a member of the
department, program or unit submitting the application. To counteract any perception of conflict of interest we have
instituted “Olympic scoring” in which each committee member reviews and ranks all proposals (regardless of whether
they know the authors). The DETA chair then totals the ranks, but drops the single highest and single lowest scores for
each application (Dugger, 1997; Geringer, Allen, MacLeod & Scott, 2009; Perkins & Allen, 1991). The remaining
scores are then added and re-ranked. This procedure prevents a reviewer from elevating his/her own proposal and also
prevents a reviewer from strategically devaluing a competitive proposal.
6) General discussion ensues, including reasons for votes, comparisons, explanations of how certain
departments work by those who have special expertise or insight, etc. In light of this discussion, committee
members should feel free to revise their numerical rankings. It should also be discussed at this point whether
the committee prefers to give – or withhold – the award in the current cycle.
7) Revised ranking sheets shall be collected from committee members in attendance. The results shall
be tabulated using the process outlined in item 5 above. The unit with the highest rank shall be the DETA
recipient.
8) Immediately after the meeting, the name of the department or unit considered to be the
recommendation of the Committee shall be reported to the Chair of Executive Council of the Teaching
Academy by the chair of the DETA committee for transmission to the Office of the Provost.
9) Point of clarification. The term "Department" may signify a department, unit, college, or
recognized area on campus.
References:
Dugger, R. (1997). Inter-judge reliability for the 1994 Oklahoma all-state band auditions based on
an Olympic style judging system. Journal of Band Research, 32(2), 66-75.
Geringer, J.M., Allen, M.L., MacLeod, R.B. & Scott, L. (2009). Using a prescreening rubric for allstate
violin selection: Influences of performance and teaching experience. Update: Applications of
Research in Music Education, 28, 41-46.
Perkins, D. W., & Allen, M. L. (1991). An investigation of inter- judge reliability of the Texas
Music Educators Association all-state orchestra string auditions. Texas Music Education Research, 21-23.
Retrieved from http://www.tmea.org/assets/pdf/research/Per1991.pdf