Utah

Building on years of work throughout the state of Utah, including its annual conference, What is an Educated Person?, public and private colleges and universities throughout the state of Utah have joined forces to ensure that all Utah college students achieve the learning outcomes they will need for success in a competitive global economy and for responsible citizenship and leadership in their communities. Utah formally joined in partnership with AAC&U as a LEAP State in October 2009. 

Working in partnership with the Commissioner of Higher Education, William Sederburg, and business leaders in the state through the Salt Lake City Chamber, LEAP Utah also conducts regional and statewide dialogues about how best to educate Utah students for the challenges of the 21st century.

Institutions throughout Utah have already begun educational reform efforts working with the LEAP Essential Learning Outcomes. The Utah Regents Task Force on General Education endorsed these outcomes as a guiding framework for general education reform throughout the system.

See Salt Lake Chamber video on why "Education is Key to Utah's economic future."

LEAP Utah Activities and Projects

Tuning Initiative

Utah was one of three states funded by Lumina Foundation for Education to pilot a process called Tuning, in which academic disciplines meet to discuss transfer, articulation, learning outcomes, competencies, and assessment. As part of the initial Tuning process, Utah involved physics and history faculty in all institutions in the Utah System of Higher Education, Brigham Young University, and Westminster College (Salt Lake City). These departments clarified their expected learning outcomes for each academic degree, beginning with the associate degree and moving up to the doctorate.

Utah is now expanding its work under a grant from the Lumina Foundation. The next phase, which began in July 2011, has three major foci: (1) assessing the learning outcomes for history and physics degrees in Utah, (2) tuning elementary education with public and private institutions of higher education in Utah, and (3) tuning general education mathematics throughout the state.

For more information, please contact Phyllis "Teddi" Safman, Assistant Commissioner for Academic Affairs, Utah System of Higher Education, Board of Regents, at psafman@utahsbr.edu; or Norm Jones, Prof. and Chair of History and Religious Studies; Director of General Education and Curriculum Integration, Utah State University; and Chair of the Utah Regents' General Education Task Force njones@hass.usu.edu.