Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP)

Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) is an initiative that champions the value of a liberal education—for individual students and for a nation dependent on economic creativity and democratic vitality. The initiative focuses campus practice on fostering essential learning outcomes for all students, whatever their chosen field of study. Launched in 2005, on the occasion of AAC&U’s 90th anniversary, LEAP is AAC&U’s primary vehicle for advancing and communicating about the importance of undergraduate liberal education for all students. LEAP seeks to engage the public with core questions about what really matters in college, to give students a compass to guide their learning, and to make a set of essential learning outcomes the preferred framework for educational excellence, assessment of learning, and new alignments between school and college.

What's New From LEAP

New LEAP Student Brochure

The LEAP initiative has developed a brochure for students, which introduces and explains in clear terms why the outcomes of a liberal education are important and can give them an edge in school, life, and in their future careers. It quotes CEOs who believe a liberal education is central to students' professional success, and features ten questions designed to help students construct a purposeful pathway through college. The brochure is ideal for use in freshman and student transfer orientation, first-year seminars, academic advising for students at all levels, and admissions sessions for college-bound students.

New Executive Summary Issued Including Summary of Latest Employer Survey Results

AAC&U has released a new version of the executive summary (pdf) of College Learning for the New Global Century which now includes summaries of findings from our surveys of business leaders released in 2007 and 2008. The findings detail the skills and knowledge areas on which employers want colleges and universities to place more emphasis and how and why they value a liberal education. They also highlight employers’ views on various approaches to outcomes assessment and reveal their clear support for more qualitative forms of assessment and rejection of multiple choice testing at the undergraduate level. It is ideal for initiating discussions with trustees, boards of regents, business advisory councils, and other campus or community groups.

Cal State Adopts New Gen Ed Learning Outcomes—Enacting First Recommendation from LEAP National Leadership Council Report

On July 1, the California State University system announced that it has established new guidelines for general education requirements developed by the CSU Academic Senate and based on the LEAP Essential Learning Outcomes.  This action responds to the very first recommendation made by the LEAP National Leadership Council (NLC) in its 2007 report, College Learning for the New Global Century (pdf).  In that report, the LEAP NLC recommended that a “commitment be made to foster the aims and outcomes of a twenty-first century liberal education for all college students.” 

AAC&U President and NLC member Carol Geary Schneider notes that “CSU has stepped forward to make the LEAP essential learning outcomes a frame of reference for its own educational work.  We celebrate CSU’s leadership and pledge to work with the CSU campuses—and our other partner state systems as well—to help today’s students achieve the kind of liberating education they need and deserve.”

“It is heartening to see California State University—a system that educates many first-generation college students—step up to the plate to provide to all their students the LEAP essential learning outcomes,” said NLC member and president of Education Workforce Policy, Roberts T. Jones.  “These are the learning outcomes that will ensure these students are prepared for the ever growing workplace expectations of the global economy.”

See CSU press release, their new general education guidelines, and how you can get involved with LEAP.

LEAP on YouTube

Read "How Should Colleges Assess and Improve Student Learning?" -- a January 2008 employer survey showing that business leaders are looking for improvements in learning outcomes and assessments of integrative and real-world learning. Download the report (pdf), or view the powerpoint presentation on the results.

Read College Learning for the New Global Century (pdf), a report from the LEAP National Leadership Council that identifies the essential aims, learning outcomes, and guiding principles for a 21st century college education. Download full report (pdf), or purchase printed copies. Read also the LEAP Executive Summary (with Employers' Views on Learning Outcomes and Assessment Approaches, 2008 edition) (pdf).

AAC&U has also released in 2007 the full results of national polls of business leaders and recent graduates -- "How Should Colleges Prepare Students To Succeed in Today's Global Economy?" (pdf), and examples of LEAP Principles of Excellence in Practice.

The LEAP campaign includes three primary and concurrent strands of activity:

A Public Advocacy initiative for liberal education, which is being carried out nationally by the LEAP National Leadership Council and regionally through advocacy initiatives in a series of partner states;

A Campus Action Network which works with colleges and universities of every kind from across the country and in selected partner states to articulate high expectations for liberal education and to transparently connect their educational practices and assessments to these expectations;

A research initiative detailing Evidence on Learning Outcomes, designed to provide evidence on selected outcomes of a liberal education and periodic public reports on progress in helping students meet twenty-first century educational standards.

LEAP Staff Contacts at AAC&U

Coordinating Director: Bethany Zecher Sutton
Advocacy and Public Outreach: Debra Humphreys
Campus Action Network: Alma Clayton-Pedersen
Administrative Assistant: Christina Bell