A Newcomers’ Welcome and Introduction to LEAP
Presented by
Bethany Zecher Sutton, Chief of Staff and Coordinating Director, LEAP
About AAC&U
AAC&U is the leading national association concerned with the
quality of student learning in college
More than 1,300 institutional members—including accredited
public and private colleges and universities of every type and
size, including community colleges
A network of more than 35,000 faculty members, academic
leaders, presidents, and others working for educational reform
We provide our members with opportunities to learn, connect,
and apply theory to practice
AAC&U’s Strategic Goals for 2013-2017
1. LEAP: Liberal Education as a Global Necessity
Build shared commitment to provide ALL college students with the high-quality learning they
need for an era of global interconnection and rapid societal and economic change.
2. Quality: 21st-Century Markers for the Value of U.S. Degrees
Promote a clear, contemporary, and capacious framework for high-quality learning and
students’ demonstrated achievement, providing an educationally meaningful compass to
guide students’ pathways to degrees.
3. Equity: Innovation, Inclusive Excellence and Student Success
Accelerate broad-scale systemic innovation to advance educational practices that engage
diversity and challenge inequities in order to make excellence inclusive.
4. Social Responsibility: Integrative Liberal Learning for the
Global Commons
Advance “big questions/global commons” inquiry and innovation across the liberal arts and
sciences and through cornerstone-to-capstone designs for general education that foster
civic learning, ethical reasoning, and engagement with diversity, both U.S. and global.
AAC&U’s Strategic Goals:
LEAP
How can we align educational outcomes,
practices, and policies with the demands of the
economy – both local and global – and our need
for more engaged public servants and citizens?
What key areas of skill and knowledge should all
students develop in college? (“Essential Learning
Outcomes”)
AAC&U’s Strategic Goals:
Quality
How should we define “quality” in the context of the push for degree
completion?
What specific competencies should be developed by students at different
degree levels? (the Degree Qualifications Profile as a framework for
quality in associates, bachelors, and masters degrees)
What educational and pedagogical practices have the most impact on
student learning (High-Impact Practices)?
How do we know whether students are achieving competence in the
learning outcomes (the VALUE rubric approach to assessment using
student work)
AAC&U’s Strategic Goals:
Equity
How can institutions “scale up” high-impact educational practices so that
all students have the opportunity to participate in them?
How can we provide students with roadmaps that engage them in their
learning and teach them to become active partners in their quest for
educational success? (The “Roadmap” project)
How can we define quality and design curricula in ways that don’t
reinforce inequities? Could general education, for example, be designed
based on the achievement of learning outcomes rather than a set
number of course credits?
Social
Responsibility
AAC&U’s Strategic Goals:
An approach to liberal education that is framed by
students’ engagement with real-world, complex, “big”
questions that have actual meaning in their lives and also
have application to our world (the “global commons”).
For example –
STIRS (Scientific Thinking and Integrative Reasoning Skills) is
developing a framework for teaching evidence-based
reasoning across both general education and the major
Clarifying Terminology
AAC&U traditionally –and particularly through LEAP—has advocated for all students to receive
a powerful and horizon-expanding liberal education
Liberal Education: An approach to college learning that empowers individuals and prepares
them to deal with complexity, diversity, and change. It emphasizes broad knowledge of the
wider world (e.g., science, culture and society) as well as in-depth achievement in a specific
field of interest. It helps students develop a sense of social responsibility as well as strong
intellectual and practical skills that span all areas of study, such as communication, analytical
and problem-solving skills, and includes a demonstrated ability to apply knowledge and skills
in real-world settings.
Liberal Arts: Specific disciplines (e.g., the humanities, sciences, and social sciences)
General Education: The part of a liberal education curriculum shared by all students. It
provides broad exposure to multiple disciplines and forms the basis for developing important
intellectual and civic capacities.
About LEAP
Launched in 2005, Liberal Education and America’s Promise
(LEAP) is a national advocacy, campus action, and research
initiative that champions the importance of a twenty-first-
century liberal education—for individual students and for a
nation dependent on economic creativity and democratic
vitality.
LEAP Promotes
Essential Learning Outcomes
A Guiding Vision and National Benchmarks for College Learning and Liberal
Education in the 21st Century
High Impact Practices
Helping Students Achieve the Essential Learning Outcomes
Authentic Assessments of Student Learning
Probing Whether Students Can APPLY Their Learning – to Complex Problems and
Real-World Challenges
Inclusive Excellence
Diversity, Equity, Quality of Learning for All Groups of Students
The Goals of LEAP
Spark public debate about the LEAP educational vision and about
what learning outcomes are essential for all students; create more
informed public support for higher education and for changes to
improve the quality of student learning
Challenge the belief that students must or should choose either a
liberal education or a practical education
Help all students understand, prepare for, and achieve essential
learning outcomes in college
Document national, state, and institutional progress in student
achievement of essential learning outcomes
How is LEAP Organized?
National Leadership Council and Presidents’ Trust - Providing advocacy
and leadership to promote the value of liberal education; building the
“economic case”
Campus Action Network - Individual institutions seeking to align their
undergraduate educational experience with the LEAP vision for student
learning
LEAP States Initiative - State systems and consortia of institutions
seeking to implement systemic reform, particularly around general
education and transfer
Grant-funded initiatives - Roadmap, Quality Collaboratives, VALUE, etc.
Why LEAP?
The World is Demanding More:
• There is a demand for more numbers of college educated
workers
• There is a demand for engaged and informed citizens
• There also is a demand that those educated workers and
citizens have higher levels of learning and knowledge, as
well as new and different skills and abilities.
Key Findings from 2013 Survey of Employers
• Innovation a Priority: 95% of employers say they give hiring preference to
college graduates with skills that enable them to contribute to innovation in the
workplace.
• It Takes More than a Major: 93% of employers say that a demonstrated capacity
to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems is more
important than a candidate’s undergraduate major. More than 75% want higher
education to place more emphasis on: critical thinking, complex problem
solving, written and oral communication, and applied knowledge.
• Broad Learning is Expected: 80% of employers agree that, regardless of their
major, all college students should acquire broad knowledge in the liberal arts
and sciences.
• Students Need Liberal and Applied Learning: Employers strongly endorse
educational practices that involve students in active, effortful work—practices
including collaborative problem solving, research, internships, senior projects,
and community engagements.
Consensus among employers is that innovation, critical
thinking, and a broad skill set are important for taking on
complex challenges in the workplace.
Strongly agree with this statement about employees/future hires
Somewhat agree
Our company puts a priority on hiring people with the intellectual and inter-personal
skills that will help them contribute to innovation in the workplace
95%
Candidates’ demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, & solve
complex problems is more important than their undergraduate major
93%
Our company is asking employees to take on more responsibilities and to use a broader
set of skills than in the past
93%
Innovation is essential to our company/organization’s continued success
92%
The challenges employees face within our company are more complex
today than they were in the past
91%
It Takes More Than A Major – January 2013 – Hart Research for
A majority of employers agree that both specific knowledge
and a broad range of skills are necessary for advancement and
long-term career success.
Which is more important for recent college graduates who want to pursue
advancement and long-term career success at your company?
Having both field-specific knowledge and skills AND a
broad range of skills and knowledge
55%
Having a range of skills and knowledge that apply to a
range of fields or positions
29%
Having knowledge and skills that apply to a specific field or
position
16%
It Takes More Than A Major – January 2013 – Hart Research for
Employers value cross-cutting skills and qualities when
hiring.
Very important that our employees have this quality/skill
Fairly important
Ethical judgment and integrity
76%
96%
Comfortable working with colleagues, customers, and/or clients from
diverse cultural backgrounds
96%
63%
Demonstrated capacity for professional development and continued
new learning
61%
94%
Interest in giving back to the communities in which our
company is located or those that it serves
71%
26%
Knowledge of global cultures, histories, values,
religions, and social systems
16%
17
55%
It Takes More Than A Major – January 2013 – Hart Research for
Employers are in agreement with a broad set of college
learning goals that extend beyond workplace preparation.
Strongly agree with this statement about the aims of college learning
Somewhat agree
All students should have educational experiences that teach them how to solve problems with
people whose views are different from their own
91%
57%
All students should learn about ethical issues and public debates
important in their field
87%
43%
All students should have direct learning experiences working
with others to solve problems important in their communities
86%
41%
All should take courses that build knowledge, judgment, commitment to communities, ensure integrity/vitality of democracy
82%
27%
All students should acquire broad knowledge in
liberal arts and sciences
80%
32%
All should learn about societies and cultures outside the
U.S. and global issues and developments
26%
18
78%
It Takes More Than A Major – January 2013 – Hart Research for
Employers believe a variety of emerging educational practices
have the potential to help graduates succeed.
Will help a lot to prepare college students for success after graduation
Will help a fair amount
Expecting students to develop the skills to research questions
in their field and develop evidence-based analyses
83%
45%
Students complete significant project before graduation, demonstrating knowledge in
major & analytical, problem-solving, communication skills
79%
42%
Students complete internship or community-based field project to
connect classroom learning with real-world experiences
78%
47%
Expecting students to develop the skills to conduct research
collaboratively with their peers
74%
33%
Students acquire hands-on experience with the methods of
science to understand how scientific knowledge is developed
69%
39%
Expecting students to work through ethical issues and debates
to form their own judgments about the issues at stake
34%
19
66%
It Takes More Than A Major – January 2013 – Hart Research for
Employer Voices
Association of Independent Colleges and
Universities in Massachusetts (AICUM) – 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yjgMwKh0XI
To Learn More
www.aacu.org/leap
To find out more about the LEAP Campus Action
Network, visit www.aacu.org/leap/can
To see the LEAP Campus Toolkit, visit
leap.aacu.org/toolkit