Resources for Making Excellence Inclusive
Publications on Student Access and Success
Briefing Papers
With support from the Ford Foundation, AAC&U commissioned three briefing papers that address the work needed to comprehensively link diversity and quality and place them at the center of campus planning and practice.
Making Diversity Work on Campus: A Research-Based Perspective [pdf]
Print copy also available for purchase.
By Jeffrey F. Milem, Mitchell J. Chang, and
Anthony Lising Antonio
"Engaging diversity more comprehensively is not only consistent with our own research about effective institutional practices and change processes; it also suggests that institutions must think beyond mission and value statements in developing and implementing a plan that will make an appreciable difference."
The authors discuss recent empirical evidence, gathered on behalf of the University of Michigan Supreme Court defense, demonstrating the educational benefits of diverse learning environments. These are environments that must be intentionally planned and nurtured, where diversity is conceived of as a process toward better learning and not merely an outcome that one can check off a list. Included are numerous suggestions for how to engage diversity in the service of learning, ranging from recruiting a compositionally diverse student body, faculty, and staff to transforming curriculum, co-curriculum, and pedagogy to reflect and support goals for inclusion and excellence.
Achieving Equitable Educational Outcomes with All Students: The Institution's Roles and Responsibilities [pdf]
By Georgia L. Bauman, Leticia Tomas Bustillos, Estela Mara Bensimon, M. Christopher Brown III, and
RoSusan D. Bartee
"...we regard the challenge of narrowing the college education gap and achieving equitable educational outcomes for minority groups as a problem of institutional responsibility and performance rather than a problem that is exclusively related to student academic preparation, motivation, and accountability."
The authors discuss the responsibility institutions have to examine the impact that traditional higher education practices have on those students historically underserved by higher education, including African American, Latino/a, and American Indian students. Given the persistent achievement gap facing many students, institutions must systematically gather evidence of what does and does not work for historically underserved students and build institutional reform around such evidence. Included is one campus's process for systematically monitoring students' achievement and for addressing the inequities it discovered.
Toward a Model of Inclusive Excellence and Change in Postsecondary Institutions [pdf]
By Damon A. Williams, Joseph B. Berger, and
Shederick A. McClendon
"The discussion of diversity in higher education too often reads as though change occurs in a rational and ordered manner, in a static environment, and detached from any context [yet] rational choice and top-level mandates are only a few of the forces that enable—or disable—inclusive excellence on college campuses.”
The authors offer a framework for comprehensive organizational change to help campuses achieve inclusive excellence. Campuses must consider multiple dimensions of organizational culture in mapping out a change strategy and monitor the results that come from introducing new systems and new practices. Included is a model that helps campus leaders focus simultaneously on the "big picture"—an academy that systematically leverages diversity for student learning and institutional excellence—and the myriad individual pieces that contribute to that picture.
Monographs and Articles
Five High-Impact Practices: Research on Learning Outcomes, Completion, and Quality
By Lynne Swaner and Jayne Brownell
This monograph examines what educational research reveals about five educational practices: first-year seminars, learning communities, service learning, undergraduate research, and capstone experiences. The authors explore questions such as: What is the impact on students who participate in these practices? Is the impact the same for both traditional students and those who come from historically underserved student populations? The monograph includes a foreword by George D. Kuh and recommendations for how to improve the quality of high-impact practices.
High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter
By George Kuh
This publication defines a set of educational practices that research has demonstrated have a significant impact on student success. Author George Kuh presents data from the National Survey of Student Engagement about these practices and explains why they benefit all students, but also seem to benefit underserved students even more than their more advantaged peers. The report also presents data that show definitively that underserved students are the least likely students, on average, to have access to these practices
Making a Real Difference with Diversity
By Alma Clayton-Pedersen, et al
This publication provides readers with a step-by-step guide for implementing, evaluating, and sustaining comprehensive diversity work on campus. Drawn from a six-year diversity initiative involving twenty-eight independent California colleges and universities, the monograph offers a set of promising practices and selected quantitative and qualitative findings pertaining to efforts to enhance college access and success for underrepresented students, increase the presence of underrepresented minority faculty, and strengthen overall institutional functioning regarding diversity.
Give Students a Compass:
Can General Education Rise to the Challenge?
By Carol Geary Schneider in Liberal Education, Summer 2008
Making Excellence Inclusive: Liberal Education and America’s Promise
By Carol Geary Schneider in Liberal Education, Spring 2005
More Reasons for Hope
Honoring the late Edgar Beckham and his profound influence on higher education, More Reasons for Hope examines the trends in diversity education since an earlier AAC&U monograph published a decade ago called Reasons for Hope. The monograph features a major address by Edgar Beckham that identifies intellectual, structural, and political challenges that need to be addressed in the next generation of diversity work. It charts progress and setbacks and includes more than thirty current exemplary campus diversity programs, policies, and practices from across the country.
Draft Research Papers and Presentations
Making Excellence Inclusive: A Framework for Embedding Diversity and Inclusion into Colleges and Universities’ Academic Excellence Mission [pdf] (Rev. 8/2009)
By Alma R. Clayton-Pedersen, Nancy O'Neill, and Caryn McTighe Musil
We are seeking feedback on this draft. Please send any comments to Caryn McTighe Musil at musil@aacu.org.
Outcomes of High Impact Practices for Underserved Students: A Review of the Literature [pdf] (Rev. 3/2010)
By Lynne Swaner and Jayne Brownell
This literature review examines the known outcomes of five high-impact practices – learning communities, service-learning, undergraduate research, first-year seminars, and capstone courses and projects – for underserved student populations, namely underrepresented minorities, low-income students, and first-generation college students. There is evidence that these practices can lead to a range of positive outcomes (academic, personal, and civic) for the general population of college students as well as underserved students (see the table providing an overview of these outcomes). The strength of evidence for these outcomes, however, is weakened by the limitations of existing research. In addition, little is known regarding moderating variables for each of these practices and their impact on student outcomes.
"High-Impact" Practices: What We Know about their Impact on Underserved Students (774 KB PPT)
A presentation by Jayne Brownell at the AAC&U Diversity, Learning, and Inclusive Excellence conference, Long Beach, CA on October 17, 2008
Making Excellence Inclusive Newsletter
The Making Excellence Inclusive newsletter provides periodic updates on the work of the initiative and feature promising practices.
AAC&U News Features: Member Innovations on Making Excellence Inclusive
Highline Community College
"Making Excellence Inclusive: Community College Honors"
University of Denver
"Diversity Goes Beyond Numbers at the University of Denver"
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