2,000 Education Leaders Gather in DC; Calls for Commitment to Quality, Reclaiming of Civic Mission
Nearly 2,000 participants gathered last week at AAC&U’s 2012 Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. Among other issues, participants and speakers discussed how to build on the practices highlighted in the recently released report, A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy’s Future, and to move civic learning from the margins to the center of students’ educational experiences. As President Obama spoke at the University of Michigan on issues of containing college costs, participants also discussed how to advance ambitious goals for college access and completion without jeopardizing a commitment to improving the quality of student learning outcomes to ensure long-term student success. Podcasts of selected presentations will be posted soon. See details from the 2012 Annual Meeting and news coverage of issues and sessions.

AAC&U Announces Colleges and Universities Chosen to Test New Degree Qualifications Profile
Sixteen colleges, community colleges, and universities have been chosen to participate in the Quality Collaboratives Initiative, a new project supported with funding from the Lumina Foundation and designed to advance systemic change in eight higher education state systems. Institutions chosen to participate in the initiative will test ways to assure that students can demonstrate achievement of essential competencies across all areas and levels of learning, regardless of where they begin or end their educational journeys. This project is part of Lumina Foundation’s beta testing of the value of a shared Degree Qualifications Profile. See the press release for the full list of participating institutions.

Introduction to LEAP (ppt)

LEAP Presidents’ Trust Member Michael Roth Speaks Out on Higher Education’s Role in Addressing Our Civic Recession
In a new blog posting on Huffington Post, Wesleyan President Michael Roth makes the point that “By embracing civic learning and partnerships that strengthen communities, we can do the hard work of restoring confidence in the future. That is a core responsibility of education.” He also describes how college students are engaged in service learning in the US and around the world—for instance, “creating free schools and clean water in Kenya [where] they are using their broadly based education to engage specific and important issues out in the world.” As Roth puts it, these civically engaged college students are “pragmatists steeped in liberal learning.”

AAC&U Annual Meeting:
SHARED FUTURES / DIFFICULT CHOICES: Reclaiming a Democratic Vision for College Learning, Global Engagement, and Success in Washington, DC, January 25-28, 2012.

GENERAL EDUCATION AND ASSESSMENT: New Contexts, New Cultures in New Orleans, Louisiana, February 23-25, 2012.
Register online.

STUDENT SUCCESS: Pushing Boundaries, Raising Bars in Seattle, Washington, March 22-24, 2012. Register by February 21 for reduced conference rates.

MODELING EQUITY, ENGAGING DIFFERENCE: New Frameworks for Diversity and Learning in Baltimore, Maryland, October 18-20, 2012. Call for Proposals due February 29.

2012 AAC&U SUMMER INSTITUTES

• INSTITUTE ON GENERAL EDUCATION AND ASSESSMENT at The Hotel at Turf Valley, Ellicott City, Maryland, June 2-6, 2012. Applications due February 17, 2012.
• INSTITUTE ON HIGH-IMPACT PRACTICES AND STUDENT SUCCESS at Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, June 19-23, 2012. Applications due March 1, 2012.
• INSTITUTE ON INTEGRATIVE LEARNING AND THE DEPARTMENTS at The University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, July 11-15, 2012. Applications due March 16, 2012.
• 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

Liberal Education, Winter 2012: The Completion Agenda

This issue presents several perspectives on the ongoing national efforts to increase college completion rates, focusing in particular on the potential negative unintended consequences for educational quality. Other topics include successful models of change for STEM reform, program-level assessment, the development of liberal education outcomes at America's service academies, outcomes of global learning, school-college collaboration, and the uses of mobile technology.

Assessing College Student Learning: Evaluating Alternative Models, Using Multiple Methods

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.