Register Now for Annual Meeting in Washington, DC

“Intentional Learning, Unscripted Challenges: Knowledge and Imagination for an Interdependent World” will be held in Washington, DC, January 23-26, 2008. Major speakers at the Annual Meeting include Martha Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago; Walter Isaacson, author of Einstein: His Life and Universe; and Natalie Angier, Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer for The New York Times and author of The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science. Elizabeth Kiss, president of Agnes Scott College, will deliver a keynote address at the pre-conference symposium, "No Longer Optional: Educating for Personal and Social Responsibility.”  AAC&U’s welcoming reception will follow Angier’s presentation Wednesday evening.  Registration materials are available online.

October 5 Deadline for Nominations for K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award

AAC&U is now accepting nominations for the 2008 K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Awards. This award recognizes graduate students who show exemplary promise as future leaders of higher education; who demonstrate a commitment to developing academic and civic responsibility in themselves and others; and whose work reflects a strong emphasis on teaching and learning. Recipients of the award will participate in AAC&U’s 2008 Annual Meeting.

Register for October Network Meeting in Denver

“Civic Learning at the Intersections: U.S. Diversity, Global Education, and Democracy’s Unfinished Work,” to be held in Denver, Colorado, October 18-20, will feature promising practices that creatively integrate civic, diversity, and global programs and will examine how this integration can strengthen student learning and create sustaining institutional structures. The conference will also include a particular focus on articulating the aims and learning outcomes of civic engagement programs. Registration materials and more information are available online.

ACAD and Phi Beta Kappa to Sponsor Joint Conference on “Liberal Sciences” in October

The American Conference of Academic Deans and The Phi Beta Kappa Society have teamed up for their third biennial joint conference. “Promoting the Liberal Sciences: Science as Liberal Education,” will be held October 25-27, 2007 at the Madison Hotel in Washington, DC. Conference program and registration information can be found at the ACAD Web site. For more information, please contact the ACAD offices at 202-884-7419.

AAC&U Takes Assessment to the Next Level with Launch of New VALUE Initiative

AAC&U announces the launch of VALUE—Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education, with support from the State Farm Companies Foundation. As part of AAC&U’s LEAP campaign, VALUE is designed to define, document, assess, and strengthen student achievement of the essential learning outcomes important for all of today’s undergraduate students. The project approaches assessment as an educational strategy that can help students reach higher levels of achievement on learning outcomes that most regard as essential preparation for work and citizenship. For more information, see the recent press release and the VALUE Web pages.

AAC&U Releases Three New Resources on Assessing Student Learning

The newest issue of Peer Review focuses on the challenge of effectively Assessing Student Learning and includes analyses by Richard Hersh and Trudy Banta and articles describing effective campus practices. Assessment in Cycles of Improvement, by Ross Miller, features a series of reports on how selected colleges and universities foster and assess student learning in twelve liberal education outcome areas, including writing, quantitative literacy, critical thinking, ethics, intercultural knowledge, and information literacy. A Brief History of Student Learning Assessment, by Richard J. Shavelson, offers a historical overview of testing in higher education and a proposal for a more productive approach to student learning assessment in the future. You can read excerpts from these publications online at www.aacu.org/publications.

New Leadership for LEAP Campus Action Network

Alma R. Clayton-Pedersen, vice president of the Office of Education and Institutional Renewal at AAC&U, will assume leadership of the LEAP Campus Action Network (CAN) this fall. In the coming year, Clayton-Pedersen will work with institutions in the CAN to deepen their engagement with LEAP and support their campus-based efforts to advance liberal education for their students. Clayton-Pedersen will also work to highlight the campus-based practices from the LEAP CAN that exemplify LEAP principles in the 2007-08 Network for Academic Renewal meetings. Visit the LEAP Web pages for more information about the Campus Action Network and how to get involved.

AAC&U’s LEAP Report a Top Seller

Our sales figures might not match those for The World is Flat, but College Learning for the New Global Century—a report from the National Leadership Council for Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP)—is, thanks to you, one of AAC&U’s biggest sellers.  Its message about the importance of liberal education seems to be resonating around the country. The LEAP report identifies the essential aims, learning outcomes, and guiding principles for a twenty-first-century college education and has been featured in numerous news stories over the past seven months. Since its release in January, it has been downloaded from our Web site more than 250,000 times and purchased more than 5,000 times by more than 300 colleges and universities. Based on extensive input both from educators and employers, the report responds to the new global challenges today's students face, describing the learning contemporary students need from college and what it will take to help them achieve it. For more information, you can read an excerpt, download thePDF, see anexecutive summary, or purchase copies.

Announcing New Periodical on Diversity & Democracy

Diversity education must prepare students for ethical engagement in a global and multicultural society. With this imperative in mind, AAC&U announces a new periodical covering the latest trends and resources in diversity, civic, and global learning. Building on the success of its earlier publication, Diversity Digest, AAC&U has designed a new campus resource, Diversity & Democracy: Civic Learning for Shared Futures, to support academic leaders and educators as they design and reshape their diversity programs, civic engagement initiatives, and global learning opportunities to better prepare students for principled action in today’s complex world. The inaugural issue will be posted in Fall 2007 at www.diversityweb.org/DiversityDemocracy. Print issues will be mailed to all AAC&U member representatives and associates.

Core Commitments Summer Institute Focuses on Educating Students for Personal and Social Responsibility

More than 160 participants from 23 Leadership Consortium campuses joined national experts in Burlington, Vermont, for the first of two Core Commitments Summer Institutes. Core Commitments seeks to invent purposeful, transparent, and developmental pathways for students to become more responsible to themselves and to others. Prior to the institute, teams completed an institutional matrix aimed at assessing the pervasiveness of education for personal and social responsibility across their campuses. While in Vermont, teams drafted comprehensive action plans for 2007-08. These plans include conducting campus-wide dialogues and administering a new Personal and Social Responsibility Institutional Inventory, both designed to prompt even greater breadth and depth of efforts.

Call for Human Rights Events on Campuses

AAC&U invites all institutions of higher education to consider organizing and sending us descriptions of any human rights-related activities on your campus this fall semester. We are currently working with the Council of Europe through our partnership in the International Consortium for Higher Education, Civic Responsibility, and Democracy to raise awareness about and commitment to human rights, democracy, and civic participation among college and university students, especially leading up to International Human Rights Day on December 10. Please send any information about your campus human rights activities to Lucia Cruz at cruz@aacu.org.

AAC&U Partnership with Film Your Issue Encourages Young People to Speak Up

The Association of American Colleges and Universities is proud to continue our partnership with Film Your Issue, an ambitious outreach program to encourage young Americans to engage in public dialogue about the pressing issues that affect their lives. We join FYI in inviting young people to express themselves through short films under three minutes on an issue of importance to them – to underscore the power of democracy and the difference engaged citizens can make. We encourage all college students to participate and create their own submissions. Details on the competition can be found at the Film Your Issue Web site. Questions can be directed to HeathCliff Rothman, founder and president of Film Your Issue, at heathcliff@filmyourissue.com.

Membership Section of AAC&U Web Site Gets Upgrade

AAC&U members can now visit the restructured membership section of the AAC&U Web site for updated information, a member list, frequently asked questions, and more. Visit us at www.aacu.org/membership   

Assessment in Cycles of Improvement Faculty Designs for Essential Learning Outcomes By Ross Miller

A Brief History of Student Learning Assessment
How We Got Where We Are and a Proposal for Where to Go Next By Richard J. Shavelson

Peer Review Spring 2007
Assessing Student Learning