Investing in Success: Cost-Effective Strategies to Increase Student Success
Jane Wellman; and Rima Brusi

Teaching Eval Shake-Up
Teaching Eval Shake-Up Flaherty describes recent changes in the tenure and promotion processes at two institutions, the University of Southern California and the University of Oregon, involving discontinuing the ...

Refining the Paradigm: Holistic Evaluation of Faculty to Support Faculty and Student Learning
Refining the Paradigm: Holistic Evaluation of Faculty to Support Faculty and Student Learning The authors present a holistic approach to evaluating faculty work that includes an integrated perspective on teaching, ...

Competency-based education: A study of four new models and their implications for bending the higher education cost curve
Donna M. Desrochers; Richard L. Staisloff
In this report the authors assess CBE programs at four institutions by considering business models, costs, etc. and what is required from institutions to 'get to breakeven'. The four institutions anticipate breaking even with their programs by the fifth year, and they project that by the sixth year these programs will be operating at half the cost of the traditional academic programs. The article describes how an evaluation of the competency- based education business model must include considerations regarding price, efficiency (academic delivery structure, staff ratios, and compensation), and scale (student recruitment, enrollment, and retention).

Does teaching advance your academic career?
Does teaching advance your academic career? Table: Examples of evidence that could be included in a promotion case for each level of teaching achievement, structured within four evidence domains. This table, taken ...

A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas
National Research Council

Career Framework for University Teaching: Background and Overview
Career Framework for University Teaching: Background and Overview This report provides a template for universities to guide and measure faculty members' teaching successes and achievements, with the goal of ...

Instructional quality, student outcomes, and institutional finances
Jessie Brown; Martin Kurzweil
A report from the American Council on Education exploring the question of whether improving instructional quality can increase an institution's revenue. Principal Conclusions (p.22): As the cost of college grows and sources of funding of decline, college and university leaders face mounting pressure to find effective and efficient ways to improve their core business: educating and graduating students. Numerous studies show that research-based pedagogical practices and participation in faculty development can help institutions achieve these goals by increasing student learning, engagement, persistence, and degree completion. There is also evidence that improvements in retention increase revenue and have a positive return on investment. Other interventions—including remedial course redesign, increased course-taking in the first year, and more comprehensive first-year curricular and co-curricular reforms—have been shown to improve cost per degree.

How UT-Austin's Bold Plan for Reinvention Went Belly Up
Lindsay Ellis
This article provides a cautionary tale about large institutional efforts to redesign undergraduate education and the challenges of measuring what works. In 2016, UT Austin pledged to revamp undergraduate education, adding state-of-the-art online classes, redesigned curricula, and short courses, among others, to produce less expensive degrees, teach practical skills and expand access via technology. Dubbed "Project 2021" it also committed to measure what worked and adjust accordingly. By 2019, the project was deemed too ambitious and lacked support to continue. Several lessons about the impact of changes in undergraduate teaching are useful. For example, implementing regular quizzes in large classes narrowed grade disparities between students from different socioeconomic groups. Massive online classes modeled after late-nighttalk shows were hailed as a national model for using technology to deliver remote instruction and billed as next-generation undergraduate programs. Yet, while students rated the online courses highly, evaluations of student learning showed no advantage to the course delivering mode, and the cost for the heavily produced studio quality courses was high. Key conclusions from the project evaluation is that it was very complicated and lacked direction, got caught in bureaucratic processes, and was expensive.

The Future of Undergraduate Education: The Future of America
The Future of Undergraduate Education: The Future of America This report provides a comprehensive national strategy, based on three practical and actionable recommendations, for supporting student success in the ...