At the University System of Maryland (USM), researchers have taken a close look at a recent series of initiatives piloting course redesign (2006-2014). The courses targeted were multi-section developmental and gateway courses with a history of high DFW rates (i.e., a high rate of students receiving a D, fail, or withdraw). The strategy was to…

To prepare a differently educated citizenry and to play meaningful roles in new forms of community-building, colleges and universities must model informed and collaborative ways of learning and working within their own institutional contexts as well as through their interactions with the broader society of which they are an integral part. The path…

This article describes information literacy as a liberal art that draws on a repertoire of critical inquiry skills. At the philosophical level, librarians believe that information literacy is a fundamental part of students' broader skill set that will help them be effective and responsible users and creators of information, both in college and…

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…

For at least two decades, educators, employers and policymakers have confronted an increasingly urgent global hunger for talent --a demand for better-educated workers and more enlightened citizens. Higher education institutions and various oversight entities at the state and federal levels have attempted to respond to this rising demand for…

At the centennial annual meeting of the "Association of American Colleges & Universities" (AAC&U) in January 2015, there was an announcement to participants of the release of the "LEAP Challenge." The key concept at the center of the LEAP Challenge is that all college students need to prepare to contribute in a world…

This article was adapted from "The LEAP Challenge: Education for a World of Unscripted Problems," a folio distributed at the opening plenary session of the 2015 annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities at which the LEAP Challenge was formally launched. Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP) prepares…

At the centennial annual meeting of the "Association of American Colleges and Universities" (AAC&U), President Carol Geary Schneider introduced the "LEAP Challenge," the next phase of AAC&U's Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP) initiative. The LEAP Challenge calls on all colleges and universities to engage…

For someone who has never been convicted of a crime, the author spends an unusual amount of time in state prisons and youth correctional facilities. She does not work for these criminal justice agencies; instead, she studies prison culture, and--in small ways-- has become a part of it. The author is a university professor trained in sociology and…

Today's college students must become adept both at interacting, cooperating, and engaging with individuals from diverse backgrounds and at grappling successfully with the kinds of unscripted problems and challenges that characterize life and work in the complex world they will enter upon graduation. Accordingly, global learning is widely…

In this article, Ira Harkavy points to the beliefs that education and schooling significantly determine the character of a society, and that higher education has broad societal impacts, including helping to shape the rest of the schooling system. It is this core idea that unites the work of Benjamin Franklin and Ernest Boyer and serves as the…

The religious dynamics of higher education are changing rapidly. College campuses have become prime sites for conflicts involving religious identity. Few issues touch more broadly or more deeply on complexity, diversity, and change in the twenty-first-century world than those related to how people who orient differently around religion interact…

A key element of a liberal education is engagement with "classic" texts, texts that often present views in conflict with our commitment to diversity and inclusion. This article will ask, although not necessarily answer, a number of important questions: Do classic texts perpetuate long-refuted and harmful ideas? Can a racist, sexist,…

What are the enduring, value-added features of small, private liberal arts colleges? Certain distinctions come to mind: broad exposure to the disciplines, focused study in the majors, and close campus interactions--all enhanced by the residential experience. However, what is (and has historically been) the value of small, private residential…

In this article, Miguel Martinez-Saenz and Steven Schoonover, Jr. are putting higher education under the magnifying glass with the increasingly expected sphere of social life being justified in terms of market efficiency. Increasingly, colleges and universities now "sell" their "product" with a promise to enhance the earning…