For Immediate Release

Contacts:
Debra Humphreys, Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs
Humphreys@aacu.org
202.387.3760, ext. 422

Sue Patrick, Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education
502.573.1652, ext. 308

Kentucky Colleges and Universities Join Forces to Accelerate Improvements in Student Learning Outcomes and Increase Student Success

Association of American Colleges and Universities and Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education Announce Kentucky as Seventh Partner State in Liberal Education and America’s Promise: Excellence for Everyone as a Nation Goes to College

Washington, DC – December 5, 2011–The Association of American Colleges and Universities and the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education announced today that Kentucky is the seventh official state partner in its continuing national initiative, Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP): Excellence for Everyone as a Nation Goes to College.  Using LEAP resources and the outcomes frameworks developed in the initiative, Kentucky colleges and universities already have been working to clarify what common learning outcomes all Kentucky two-year and four-year college students should be able to demonstrate to ensure they are receiving quality undergraduate degrees. 

“The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education sought to become a LEAP partner state because the goals of LEAP are so congruent with our new 2011-15 strategic agenda for Kentucky postsecondary and adult education, Stronger by Degrees,” said Robert L. King, president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. “The assessment strategies and development of high-impact educational practices we will be developing and testing as a part of our involvement with the LEAP initiative will be critical to meeting our goal of increasing high-quality degree production and completion rates at all levels.”

In addition to becoming a LEAP partner state, Kentucky is also one of eight states involved in AAC&U’s new Quality Collaboratives initiative, funded with support from the Lumina Foundation.  Through that initiative, Kentucky will work together with other participating states to learn from one another and develop consensus frameworks of learning outcomes—articulated in the recently released Degree Qualifications Profile—that chart levels of competence which every college student should achieve and integrate in five areas: broad and specialized knowledge, intellectual skills, applied learning, and civic learning.

Using this framework, Kentucky and the other states will test a family of approaches that assess learning demonstrated in samples of students' actual work. This family of assessment approaches will help campuses develop educational practices that:

• Ensure that students achieve essential outcomes at appropriately high levels;
• Document students’ attainment of outcomes; and
• Facilitate students’ transfer of courses and competencies from two-year institutions to four-year institutions on their way to completing college degrees.

“Colleges and universities across the state of Kentucky already are working to ensure that graduates achieve the kinds of learning that will best position them for success in today’s turbulent global environment,” said AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider.  “AAC&U is pleased to partner with these institutions to accelerate their learning improvement efforts and shine a national spotlight on the high-impact educational practices Kentucky colleges and universities already are developing.”

About LEAP

Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) is an initiative that champions the value of a liberal education—for individual students and for a nation dependent on economic creativity and democratic vitality. The initiative focuses campus practice on fostering essential learning outcomes for all students, whatever their chosen field of study.  LEAP seeks to engage the public with core questions about what really matters in college, to give students a compass to guide their learning, and to make a set of essential learning outcomes the preferred framework for educational excellence, assessment of learning, and new alignments between school and college.

About AAC&U

AAC&U is the leading national association concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal education. Its members are committed to extending the advantages of a liberal education to all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career. Founded in 1915, AAC&U now comprises more than 1,250 member institutions—including accredited public and private colleges and universities of every type and size.

AAC&U functions as a catalyst and facilitator, forging links among presidents, administrators, and faculty members who are engaged in institutional and curricular planning. Its mission is to reinforce the collective commitment to liberal education at both the national and local levels and to help individual institutions keep the quality of student learning at the core of their work as they evolve to meet new economic and social challenges.

Information about AAC&U membership, programs, and publications can be found at www.aacu.org.

About the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Information

The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education is Kentucky’s statewide postsecondary and adult education coordinating agency charged with guiding the reform efforts envisioned by state policy leaders in the Kentucky Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997 and the Adult Education Act of 2000.

The Council on Postsecondary Education believes in the transformative power of postsecondary education. Stronger by Degrees, the new strategic agenda for Kentucky’s postsecondary and adult education system, is powering a stronger Kentucky economy and improving the lives of Kentuckians. To learn more about the Council’s work and the strategic agenda, visit http://cpe.ky.gov.