Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) is a national initiative that champions the importance of a twenty-first-century liberal education—for individual students and for a nation dependent on economic creativity and democratic vitality. Through LEAP, hundreds of campuses and several state systems are making far-reaching educational changes to help all their students—whatever their chosen field of study—achieve a set of essential learning outcomes fostered through liberal education. In numerous LEAP projects and activities, AAC&U partners with campuses, state systems, and K-12 educational leaders as they make these essential learning outcomes a framework for educational excellence, assessment of learning, and new alignments between school and college.
Launched in 2005, LEAP challenges the traditional practice of providing liberal education to some students and narrow training to others. LEAP engages the public with core questions about what really matters in college;connects employers and educational leaders as they make the case for the importance of liberal education in the global economy and in our diverse democracy; and helps all students achieve the essential learning outcomes. Through LEAP, AAC&U calls on the United States to “make excellence inclusive” so that all students receive the best and most powerful preparation for work, life, and citizenship.
Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton Makes The Case For Liberal Education
Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton was the featured speaker at the University of Wisconsin Platteville's 2010 Convocation— at the invitation of UW-P Chancellor Dennis J. Shields, who introduced Lawton as an individual who is "bright, engaging and passionate" about all things involving education. "A liberal education in my mind is the price of admission to the 21st century global economy," Lawton said. "What we really need are students who know how to navigate this growing sea of knowledge that is before us. They need the kind of intellectual and practical skills to maneuver through that and make sense of it—as well as creativity to see the possibilities."
Signature LEAP Report—Read the latest version of The Executive Summary
AAC&U has released a new version of the executive summary of College Learning for the New Global Century which now includes summaries of findings from our surveys of business leaders released in 2007 and 2008. The findings detail the skills and knowledge areas on which employers want colleges and universities to place more emphasis and how and why they value a liberal education. They also highlight employers’ views on various approaches to outcomes assessment and reveal their clear support for more qualitative forms of assessment and rejection of multiple choice testing at the undergraduate level. It is ideal for initiating discussions with trustees, boards of regents, business advisory councils, and other campus or community groups.
The LEAP campaign includes three primary and concurrent strands
of activity:
A Public Advocacy initiative for liberal
education, which is being carried out nationally by the
LEAP National Leadership
Council and regionally through advocacy initiatives
in a series of partner states;
A Campus Action Network which works with
colleges and universities of every kind from across the
country and in selected partner states to articulate high
expectations for liberal education and to transparently
connect their educational practices and assessments to these
expectations;
A research initiative detailing Evidence on Learning
Outcomes, designed to provide evidence on selected
outcomes of a liberal education and periodic public reports
on progress in helping students meet twenty-first century
educational standards.
