Clifford Adleman begins this piece with his statement that the foremost marker of student outcomes in higher education, for the enterprise, for the commentariat, and for legislators, has traditionally been institutional graduation rates. He goes on to note that whatever one thinks of the various ways that marker has been produced, it has now faded…

Through its signature initiative, Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP), the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) is promoting a vision for learning that begins in school: Starting in School . . . Rigorous and rich curriculum focused on the essential learning outcomes; comprehensive, individualized, and…

The conversation in higher education has shifted, moving from a focus on what students know to a focus on whether they know how to think and, more importantly, toward the goal of providing skills needed for living and working in the twenty-first century. In this article, the authors present national evidence regarding the impact of intentional…

When the author attended a Network for Academic Renewal conference sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in 2011, he was surprised by the level of skepticism expressed from the podium about proprietary higher education. This article is intended as a response. From his perspective as a for-profit educator, the…

Although the author has been teaching for over a quarter century, he was never trained in, nor truly understood, "outcomes assessment." He regarded it as a task to be completed for an outside accreditor that had little relation to his real "liberal arts" goals for students. Those goals include teaching critical self-awareness, developing…

It is both possible and desirable to define liberal education in "global" terms. But the author argues that no effort to provide such an education can possibly succeed without a solid curricular base, which must be the focus of any discussion of the relationship between global and liberal education. In this article, the author looks at the rise of…

Recognition of the importance of outcomes related to moral and ethical development, other dimensions of personal development, and civic engagement is a result of decades of educational reform. But have colleges and universities succeeded in helping students achieve these outcomes? In this article, the author shares his personal reflections on…

Many faculty members generally assume that their students understand the purposes of college learning and that they are aware of the assumptions about liberal education embedded in the program configurations designed to advance it. In fact, it may very well be that, as Jerry Graff (2003) has suggested, our students are "clueless" about how to…

The approaches taken by Alverno College, Clayton State College, DePaul University, James Madison University, Northeast Missouri State University, and Rhode Island College in using the results of student assessment productively are described. (MSE)

To address today's global banking issues requires the values and habits of mind that result from liberal education: integrity, critical thinking, moral values, historical consciousness, and ethical development. America's educational and business institutions are mutually dependent and require commitment on both parts. (MSE)

Faculty and students of liberal education have much to offer the corporate world, but first must get rid of inherited prejudices about business and management, learn to be more innovative, and use the powers of critical thinking more productively. (MSE)

While many businesses no longer recruit liberal arts graduates as aggressively as they once did, those graduates who really want a job in business generally get one eventually, and become assets in management through their flexibility and developed cognitive skills. (MSE)

The needs of the collective regional, national, and global society demand a universal knowledge and wisdom that careerism can not provide. Democracy, with all its freedoms and inherent dangers, requires a prolonged preparation in theory and practice that the currently narrow emphasis on careers does not accommodate. (MSE)

There is little agreement on what constitutes quality in higher education. The ideal measure of academic quality would be multidimensional, based on achievements of most or all faculty and students and not the outstanding ones alone and based on how much students learn while enrolled. (MSE)

Two generally unexamined premises about education that have contributed to recent disappointment in the outcomes of education are examined: (1) that learning is always pleasurable; and (2) that no difference exists between formal and experiential learning. (MSE)