Recognition of Exemplary Teaching

The Minnesota State Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Teaching annually recognizes exemplary faculty who demonstrate the teaching mission at Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. The foundation of that mission is faculty subject matter expertise, skillful methods of teaching and attention to student learning. The award reflects the commitment faculty have to providing high-quality instruction that prepares students for their professional, scholarly and civic lives.

Since SCSU's participation in this program in 2018, 16 SCSU faculty received SCSU’s Outstanding Educator award, with 8 earning the Board of Trustee’s (BOT) Outstanding Educator of the Year award.

Email cetl@stcloudstate.edu with questions.

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2025-26 BOT Award Application Instructions

Outstanding Educators are faculty identified at a college or university who are exemplary educators, identified through a campus committee process, and who are nominated by the campus president for selection as an Educator of the Year. Board of Trustees Educators of the Year are faculty recommended by a system-wide review committee from the pool of Outstanding Educators, approved by the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs and selected by the Board of Trustees as representative of teaching excellence across the system. College and university presidents may select Board of Trustees Outstanding Educators based on numbers of instructional faculty FYE -- one per 100 instructional faculty FYE. Colleges with fewer than 100 instructional faculty FYE are eligible to recommend one Outstanding Educator.

Criteria: At the time of their designation, Outstanding Educators must be currently employed and have at least three years of full-time equivalent teaching service in their home institution prior to the year of their selection as a Board of Trustees Outstanding Educator.

Nomination Process

1. Faculty, staff and students are encouraged to nominate faculty who they believe meet the Board of Trustee Outstanding Educator criteria. Faculty may request a nomination from a colleague.
2. A representative from SCSU Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning will contact the nominees. To ensure nominees have time to complete their applications over the summer, we encourage nominations as soon as possible. All nominations should be submitted by Wednesday, August 20, 2025.

Submit a Nomination

Application Instructions

Applicants should read the 2025-26 guidelines and forms document, specifically pages 7-10, and review the Rubric that will be used to evaluate the portfolio. Additional information, portfolio examples, and rubrics are available in the MinnState 2026 BOT Award Resources. You may be asked to log in using your star ID and password.

Completed applications should include the following components and be submitted as a combined pdf. Supporting documents should be submitted as appendices using document or electronic folder formats.

1. Narrative Summary: The narrative summary comprises an overview and impact statement followed by detailed responses to the criteria outlined in the Guidelines and Forms document. Note the character limit includes spaces. Make sure responses to criteria I-VI, listed below are clearly labeled in your document. Reference the BOT Award Rubric for additional details related to each criterion.
   1. Overview/impact statement: Summarize what you believe makes you an Outstanding Educator (400-character limit)
   2. Innovative Teaching Strategies and Materials: Outstanding Educators are conscious of and reflective about their pedagogies and methods. Describe your teaching context with respect to types of courses, class size, service delivery mode, etc. Illustrate how your teaching approach aligns with your teaching context and specifically what you do to make teaching inclusive and culturally relevant. If referencing active learning strategies or high impact practices, describe specific practices and how these are innovative within your teaching context. Include methods you use to evaluate the effectiveness of your teaching methods, referencing examples from student work and performance data where possible. (4000-character limit)
   3. Standards for Assessment of Student Learning and Performance: Describe any direct and indirect forms of assessment relevant to your program, discipline, and students. Show how you have reflected upon assignment design, performances, and assessments to evaluate student learning and subsequent changes you have made based on findings of these assessments. Specific examples of assessments and assignments are useful here. It’s important to directly discuss how your assessment informs changes in courses and methods. (4000-character limit)
   4. Culturally Responsive Teaching and Pedagogy: Highlight work that actively promotes student success through equity and inclusion in your teaching. Consider how you create culturally relevant, identity affirming, and responsive learning environments for the students you serve. (4000-character limit)
   5. Service to Students, Profession, Institution, System to Advance Teaching Excellence: Identify your involvement in professional organizations and activities; involvement in teaching and learning outside the classroom; and college, university and system level service that advances excellent teaching. Reflect on your service and how it has impacted your teaching. (4000-character limit)
   6. Content Expertise and Professional Growth: Describe your ongoing scholarly or professional development as it relates to your teaching. Formal education is just one aspect of content expertise; other aspects include learning while teaching, conducting primary research on teaching and learning, interacting with colleagues, participating in workshops, attending seminars, or visiting workplaces and industry. (4000-character limit)
2. Teaching Philosophy: PDF – 2-page limit with 1” margins; 12 pt Times New Roman font; single spaced
3. Current CV or Resume: PDF—5-page limit with 1” margins; 12 pt font, Times New Roman
4. Photo/Headshot: A photo is not required for the initial application, however if you are selected as one of SCSU’s nominees for the BOT Educator of the Year Award, you will be asked to submit a photo.
5. Supporting documents:
   1. Provide documentation to support the statements made under Narrative Summary criterion II-VI (above) in an Appendix. This documentation should be clearly labeled, and it should support statements made in specific criterion. Provide the committee with a list of your documentation for each criterion.
   2. Select documentation to illustrate the strengths outlined in your narrative. Make sure to include external evidence (for example, letters of support from colleagues, students, supervisor, community partners; course evaluations; publications; awards; notable public recognition, etc.) as well as relevant course and scholarly materials (Such as syllabi, class activities/assignments, Open Educational Resources, etc.)
   3. Assessment data (e.g., course evaluations) should be presented in summary form. For example, provide summaries of teaching evaluations with representative quotes. DO NOT submit raw data or individual student evaluations.
   4. Please adhere to character limits for each narrative section. The committee is hesitant to limit the number or amount of support documents, but please make sure that any supporting documents are specific and relevant to the claims you are making under each criterion. If you are submitting over 50 pages of supporting documents, contact CETL for a conversation before submitting your application.

Note: A BOT Award submission is not a a promotion and tenure file. It is important to curate your narrative and supporting documents for readability and to create a case for why you meet criteria for this award. The SCSU committee prefers to have the narrative written in first person voice. We encourage applicants to acknowledge their strengths and use evidence to illustrate their work. 

Completed applications with supporting materials must be electronically submitted to cetl@stcloudstate.edu by 5 p.m. (CST) Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025.

2025-26 Timeline