campus partner(s)

Bates College

Bowdoin

Colby College

Middlebury College

Smith College

Trinity College

Wellesley College

and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges

state(s)

CT, MA ME, VT

amount

$300,000

initiative

Outcomes and Assessment

award date

05.2005

project director

Jill N. Reich

Bates College

Grant Summary

$300,000 over 36 months. Seven highly selective liberal arts colleges and a regional accrediting agency will undertake a collaborative project that enables faculty to compare the ways that students make key educational decisions, engage the curriculum, and learn. To produce the data, which build upon an earlier pilot study, the colleges will investigate student learning at points when students make choices that influence the scope and quality of their education as well as prepare them for what they do when they graduate. Their experience indicates that data about student learning, especially when it contains comparative information, motivates broad interest among our constituencies. The study is greatly enriched by the number and range of institutions that are taking part. They plan to use the data gathered at each step of the project to reflect back to faculty information about student experiences at their own colleges and at others as part of a continuing faculty development effort. The intense faculty exchange that marks this project will increase both the value and the vibrancy of the work and strengthen the nature of the unique student learning experiences they provide. The proposed study also continues the foundation for future research collaboration among the colleges.