No one, least of all educators, would dispute that scholarly collaboration by all players in the educational pipeline is key to the seamless, successful progression of students from pre-K to university study. In reality, mutually defining the learning expectations common to K-12 and higher education often devolves into finger-pointing and…

A few years ago, in "Student Success in College (SSiC)," the authors profiled twenty colleges and universities that were unusually effective in fostering student engagement and success, defined as better-than-predicted scores on the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and better-than-predicted graduation rates. These schools are exemplars…

The work of state higher education system boards is changing. By "system boards," the author means governing boards for all of higher education in a state, governing boards for certain kinds of institutions (such as the Louisiana Community and Technical College System and the California State University system), and state coordinating agencies…

Is college worth it? In the midst of an ongoing recovery that has not sparked large-scale job growth, some observers and analysts of higher education have suggested that it may not pay an individual to pursue a college education. There is also ongoing debate about whether the economy needs as many college graduates as currently produced. The…

The world of higher education is a world of sorting, selecting, and ranking--on both sides of the market. Colleges select students to recruit and then to admit; students choose where to apply and which offer to accept. The sorting process that gets the most attention is in the higher reaches of the market, where it is not too much to say that…

This article is written for scholars, researchers, and academic leaders who have a passion to share their knowledge outside the classroom, laboratory, or institution. They want to make a difference and believe that the information they possess and ideas they have to offer have a public importance. Based on his book "Pitch Perfect: Communicating…

The forces of globalization are finally hitting American postsecondary education. For nearly three decades, since the 1983 publication of "A Nation At Risk" launched a sustained focus on the mediocre, if not failing, K-12 system, American postsecondary education has avoided the accountability spotlight. Postsecondary policy debates have focused…

Within the United States, defining the meaning of a degree and comparing the quality of institutions on a common set of metrics is no simple matter. In fact, there is no common definition of a US college degree beyond a general consensus that an undergraduate degree generally includes about 120 credits and consists of a general education…

Now more than ever, it is urgent that colleges and universities mobilize themselves to produce graduates who are capable of being productive, creative, and responsible members of a global society. Employers want clear communicators who are strong critical thinkers and who can solve real-world problems in an ethical way. To achieve these outcomes,…

The growth over the last decade of the for-profit sector of higher education (also known as the proprietary sector) has been well documented. In 1999, for-profit colleges and universities enrolled approximately 629,000 students, or a little over 4 percent of the nation's 15.2 million students. By 2009, this sector had increased to 2.2 million…

This article explains how the authors are able to take results from a regular program of course-level assessment, use them to inform curricular changes, and then measure the learning in those revised courses to determine whether and which changes made a difference. The authors discuss why it was important for Kaplan University to implement…

Most of assessment's attention over the last two decades has been aimed at cross-cutting outcomes--critical and analytical thinking, problem solving, quantitative literacy, and communication--that are typically identified with general education. Just about everyone agrees that abilities like these are essential markers of higher learning; critical…

Spontaneity, embodied learning, active engagement in the community, boundary pushing--this is what the author could always count on when coming to Reclaiming Democracy as a student. As it was taught in the fall 2009 semester, the class was a multi-university and multi-community experience that included facilitators and students from Elon…

Providing college credit for prior learning is nothing new. The American Council on Education's Credit Recommendation Service (CREDIT), the largest national program making credit recommendations for workplace and other training, dates to 1974. Several colleges that specialize in the practice--Excelsior and Empire State in New York, Thomas Edison…

The Bard Prison Initiative (BPI), which is a part of the Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, is a prison program that operates a full liberal arts program leading to both AA and BA degrees. The students are convicted felons who are serving relatively long sentences for serious, often violent, crimes. They tend to be in their…