Give Students a Compass: A Tri-State LEAP Partnership for College Learning, General Education, and Underserved Student Success

Give Students a Compass: A Tri-State LEAP Partnership for College Learning, General Education, and Underserved Student Success brings AAC&U together with the California State University System, the Oregon University System, and the University of Wisconsin System--to strengthen student learning. The project is a collaborative: systems and campuses are working together to re-map general education, take new approaches to program design and assessment, and concentrate attention on the success of students from underserved groups.  We understand the value of collaboration, especially in large systems where students are highly mobile. Hence the metaphor for the project: We need to give students a compass so that they can navigate successfully through complex college and university systems.

The project is part of AAC&U’s signature initiative, Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP), which fosters campus action, public advocacy, and useful evidence to make the aims and outcomes of liberal education a guiding framework for all students’ educational achievement—in professional and arts and sciences fields alike.  The title of this project, Give Students a Compass, is taken directly from a set of new Principles of Excellence described in LEAP’s influential report, College Learning for the New Global Century (pdf). Compass is likewise part of AAC&U's Making Excellence Inclusive initiative.

What's New

CSU, OUS, and UWS Plan for General Education Conferences, Summer 2010. Each state system will host a statewide conference, sponsored by Compass, in summer 2010. Conferences will be open to the higher education community in each state and will invite broader participation from schools, civic leaders, businesses, and local communities.

AAC&U Announces 9 Pilot Sites for LEAP “Give Students a Compass” Project
AAC&U announced the nine institutions in California, Oregon, and Wisconsin who will model new approaches to general education designed to increase achievement of important learning outcomes.  These pilot activities are part of the Give Students a Compass project. The following institutions will receive funding to serve as pilot sites over 3 years of project work:

• California State University, Chico
• Sacramento State University
• San José State University
• Eastern Oregon University
• Portland State University
• Southern Oregon University
• University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
• University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
• University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Grant from Lumina Foundation Supports Expansion of Making Excellence Inclusive
AAC&U has received a grant from the Lumina Foundation for Education to support its work on Making Excellence Inclusive. This new funding will support the scaling up of efforts already underway as part of AAC&U’s initiative, Give Students a Compass. With the expanded support from Lumina, participating colleges and universities will build their capacity to support underserved students’ level of academic success by broadening their participation in a set of high-impact educational practices. See the press release for more information.

Compass supports public higher education and faculty-driven reform efforts designed to strengthen the quality of student learning on campuses within each system. The broad goals of the project address AAC&U’s strategic priority to “Aim High —Make Excellence Inclusive," (see the AAC&U Strategic Plan). This priority is a commitment to students historically underserved—first-generation students, racial and ethnic minority students, and those from low-income families.  The essential learning outcomes of LEAP are thus intentionally placed for all students to achieve through general and liberal education.  Compass partnerships are designed to work in multiple directions within state systems—bottom up, top down, inside out, and outside in.  Communication among the partner systems encourages exchange and growth.

Key Questions:

1. How can state systems become generative catalysts for change that is also supported at the campus level?
2. How can general education be redesigned in ways that raise the levels of underserved student success within large systems?
3. How can general education become a catalyst for helping students achieve the LEAP “essential learning outcomes?” What new design principles should be applied?

Through the Compass national project, AAC&U members are poised to lead a next generation of work on the design and practice of general education.  Just as the Greater Expectations project (2000-2006) set the course for LEAP,Compass moves us along a path toward excellence for all as a nation goes to college.  Looking ahead, we see students in the Compass project navigating from college forward into their new global century.

This initiative is funded by Carnegie Corporation, State Farm, the Lumina Foundation, and the participating system partners of the Compass project.