AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider Interviewed for Radio Higher Ed
Hear AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider in an interview with the editors of Radio Higher Ed—a new venture featuring interviews with higher education leaders. Previous interviews have included David Paris, executive director of the New Leadership Alliance for Student Learning and Accountability, and Jamie Merisotis, president and CEO, Lumina Foundation for Education. Radio Higher Ed seeks to inform the public and challenge policy makers about postsecondary education policies, issues, and their implications. Schneider’s interview covers such topics as the importance of civic learning, AAC&U's work in student learning and accountability, the LEAP initiative, and the emergence of the Degree Qualifications Profile as a tool for campuses to examine academic quality. Listen to President Schneider's interview online.
AAC&U President Speaks at Ursinus Commencement About the Value of a Liberal Education in Today’s Challenging Economy AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider spoke to graduates of Ursinus College about the value of a liberal education. President Schneider stated, “When employers talk about 21st Century skills and the 21st Century workplace, they are talking about exactly the kinds of emphases, commitments, practices that you’ve experienced from the day you walked into that Common Intellectual Experience as freshmen at Ursinus. …[E]mployers are looking for people who have strong communications skills, who can write well, who can speak well, who have strong critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, who know a lot about diversity and can work with people who are different from themselves.” Read the full transcript or view a video of Carol Geary Schneider’s address.
LEAP Presidents’ Trust Member David P. Angel Explains How College Still Pays Off Clark University President David P. Angel begins blogging for The Huffington Post with the article, “Even in Bad Times, Colleges Can Make Education Pay Off.” In it, he notes that, “The transition from college to career is changing, and universities are responding in innovative and important ways. Employers are looking for proven capability on the part of college graduates they hire. The conundrum that college students face is how to build and demonstrate their 'value added' at the point of graduation, whether this is the ability to think critically about problems, work effectively as part of a team, or make informed decisions under conditions of uncertainty. At Clark University we have responded to this challenge with the launch of a new model of liberal education that we call Liberal Education and Effective Practice (LEEP). This model affords students a wide variety of new opportunities to put their education to work in the world, develop the skills and capabilities that are crucial to success in the world of work, and build a sturdy bridge from college to career.” Learn more about LEAP and the LEAP Presidents’ Trust.
PKAL Summer Leadership Institutes for STEM Faculty at the Baca Campus of Colorado College in Crestone, CO. Applications due April 6, 2012.
Institute I: July 17-22, 2012
Institute II: July 31-August 5, 2012
Featured Member News and Resources
The May issue of AAC&U News features the public service major at Rutgers University–Newark, data on the demographics and social views of college-age millennials, and the latest news about AAC&U meetings, projects, and publications. Watch in June for our next issue of AAC&U News.
This issue examines underemphasized dimensions of diversity, new research about the links between student outcomes and campus practices that promote diversity and civic-mindedness, and the historical development of the notion of "civic virtue." Also included are articles on quantitative literacy, on the place of the arts in a liberal education, on how the goals of the LEAP initiative look from the perspective of a for-profit university, and on evidence-based problem solving.
Campus leaders face a bewildering array of different assessment methods-standardized or locally designed tests and inventories, indirect methods focusing on student self-reports of engagement or gains in learning, portfolios, and other performance-based methods. This publication will help readers make sense of the broad assessment landscape. Part 1, by assessment expert Robert Sternberg and his colleagues, examines the psychological theories of learning and achievement that underlie these diverse methods and offers practical guidance on how to select among them. Part 2-five case studies-presents profiles of how different institutions are implementing comprehensive approaches to assessing student learning and the benefits of using multiple methods in combination.
