Adrianna Kezar recently sat down with Chancellor Tim White of the California State University system to discuss, among many other things, the newly released California State Graduation Initiative and what it will take to enact it. The key commitments of the initiative are: (1) hire more tenure-track faculty; (2) develop engaged advising; (3) solve…

With the cost of higher education steadily increasing, many people are wondering what, if anything, students are learning on college campuses. In this environment, colleges are facing pressure to make information about what their students learn available to a range of stakeholders, including students and their parents, policymakers, and the…

The concern about the United States' education attainment levels as compared with those of other countries, and the consequences of this poor showing, were given visibility by the inclusion of international statistics in the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education publication, "Measuring Up 2008." That concern was…

This article begins by observing that foundations come in all shapes and sizes. The mission and grant-making philosophy of any foundation are determined by an unscientific mixture of its history, changing external realities, and leaders. The article then continues by describing The Teagle Foundation, a small, philanthropic organization with about…

The Obama administration has some improbable critics: members of the Historically Black College and University (HBCU) community. What started out as carefully worded commentaries have given way to more direct criticisms and complaints about the administration's policies affecting HBCUs. Although some of these gripes can be attributed to…

A growing majority of today's college-goers are adult students, and the economic and cultural trends driving this growth are here for the long term. In some respects this is good news: Adult undergraduate students tend to earn higher GPAs and have better aptitude and psychosocial scores than do traditional-aged students. Unfortunately, adult…

This study focuses on aspects of the Changing Academic Profession survey of 2007-08 that describe the place of faculty in their institutions. The authors examine the following aspects of institutional life: (1) the faculty role in institutional governance; (2) who evaluates their teaching and research; (3) the locus of their loyalties as between…

Despite having significant knowledge of effective practices, along with curricular and pedagogical resources, efforts to transform introductory sequences have met with only modest success. While educators may know what to do, they do not know how to enact and sustain these reforms at scale. What they need is a framework for understanding STEM…

The author cannot think of a time in his career when the leaders of higher education institutions have faced so many complex issues and hard decisions, with the possible exception of the student uprisings in the late 1960s to early 1970s. Unlike that earlier time, however, the issues facing higher education today go to the very heart of who people…

The nation is in an era of policy reform aimed at improving the productivity and effectiveness of higher education. Major philanthropies and policy groups have converged around variations of the ambitious college completion goals announced by President Obama at the beginning of his administration. But at the same time, many state governments,…

Over the past year, the authors have discussed college prices, college quality, and student financial aid with elected officials and staff from several state legislatures, financial aid administrators from a variety of campuses, and policy analysts from Washington DC advocacy organizations. They have also been able to informally gain insights at…

The nation's next President will face a host of challenges, among them the economy, health care, an aging population, energy, the environment, and security at home and aboard. In this open letter, the leaders of higher education coordinating and governing boards across the country urge the 2012 presidential candidates to make improving the…

A recent study by the Higher Education Research Institute noted that virtually all faculty report that developing students' ability to think critically is a very important or essential goal of undergraduate education, as is promoting students' ability to write effectively. But even if faculty concur that students should develop critical thinking…

Although many of the recommendations in "A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education" (the Spellings Commission report) have still to be implemented, policy makers' insistence that American colleges and universities measure student learning outcomes in a way that permits comparisons seems unlikely to go away. Nor does the…

Researchers, policy makers, and practitioners share a sincere interest in improving the human condition. Academics may be tempted to fault irrationality, ideology, or ignorance for the failure of research to inform policy and practice more powerfully, but policy makers and practitioners want academics to tell them "what works" in order to find a…