Give Students a Compass
A Tri-State LEAP Partnership for College Learning, General Education, and Underserved Student Success
Give Students a Compass helps institutions in three state systems—California State University System, Oregon University System, and the University of Wisconsin System—build capacity to support academic excellence for all students, emphasizing the success of students traditionally underrepresented in higher education. The project has taken as a guiding framework the challenge of "making excellence inclusive" across all institutions of higher learning.
Compass partners understand the value of collaboration, especially in large systems where students are highly mobile. Accordingly, systems and campuses are working together to re-map general education, take new approaches to program design and assessment, and concentrate attention on the success of students from underserved groups.
The project is part of AAC&U’s signature initiative, Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP). The title of this project, Give Students a Compass, is taken from a set of new Principles of Excellence described in the LEAP report, College Learning for the New Global Century (pdf).
What's New
AAC&U Receives Grant to Study Impact of High-Impact Practices on Underserved Students
AAC&U has received a grant from the TG Public Benefit Grant Program to conduct a mixed-method analysis of the impact of high-impact practices on learning outcomes for historically underrepresented students. The project focuses primarily on regional comprehensive institutions that receive large numbers of transfer students from community colleges. Learn more here.
Eastern Oregon University Making Gains Engaging Students with High-Impact Practices
Through its membership in the Compass Project, Eastern Oregon University has worked over the past several years to ensure that its first-year students—more than 60 percent of whom are the first in their families to attend college—are exposed to a set of high-impact practices that encourage retention, academic achievement, and a sense of belonging. Through an integrative first-year experience, students at EOU engage in undergraduate research, linked courses, developmental opportunities for those who need them, and preparation for a long-term transfer trajectory. Read more about EOU in AAC&U News.
Compass Project Beta Campuses
Nine Beta Sites for LEAP “Give Students a Compass” Project
AAC&U announced the nine institutions in California, Oregon, and Wisconsin that will model new approaches to general education designed to increase achievement of important learning outcomes. The following institutions will receive funding to serve as pilot sites over the course of the project:
- California State University, Chico
- Sacramento State University
- San José State University
- Eastern Oregon University
- Portland State University
- Southern Oregon University
- University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
- University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
- University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Project Information
The Compass Project supports public higher education and faculty-driven reform efforts designed to strengthen the quality of student learning on campuses within each system. The broad goals of the project address AAC&U’s strategic priority to make excellence inclusive for students historically underserved—first-generation students, racial and ethnic minority students, and those from low-income families. Compass partnerships are designed to work in multiple directions within state systems—bottom up, top down, inside out, and outside in. Communication among the partner systems encourages exchange and growth.
Key Questions:
- How can state systems become generative catalysts for change that is also supported at the campus level?
- How can general education be redesigned in ways that raise the levels of underserved student success within large systems?
- How can general education become a catalyst for helping students achieve the LEAP “essential learning outcomes?” What new design principles should be applied?
This initiative is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York, State Farm Companies Foundation, Lumina Foundation for Education, and the participating system partners of the Compass project.
|
