Give Students a Compass: College Learning, General Education and Student Success

Give Students a Compass: College Learning, General Education and Student Success is a multi-state collaborative to re-map educational aims, educational practices, and assessment strategies for general education in three public state systems: the California State University System and the state higher education systems of Oregon and Wisconsin. 

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)

What's New

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.

The project will support 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 priority to “Aim High —Make Excellence Inclusive articulated in its recent Strategic Plan. This priority focuses on building campus capacity to realize their 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 will encourage exchange and growth—and promising practices will be shared widely

Key Questions:

1. How can state systems become generative catalysts for change 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, this project 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. The Compass project tests our collective capacity to respond to these challenges.

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