Fostering inter-institutional learning to understand quantitative skills support ecosystems

In a 2009 article, "Change in Higher Education: Not enough, or too much?", Adrianna Kezar argues that multiple initiatives at an institution, with overlapping interests but without coordinated efforts, reduce progress towards making changes or achieving goals. For example, at liberal arts colleges like ours, initiatives to support students in the transition from high school to college, to foster quantitative reasoning across the curriculum, and to make STEM fields more inclusive of individuals with diverse backgrounds are often separate efforts with related interests and concerns. One shared concern is the wide spectrum of quantitative skills that students have when they arrive at college, due in part to disparities in secondary educational opportunities and experiences. Often different initiatives develop different approaches to address this challenge, and the result is piecemeal or overlapping efforts that might be more effective and efficient if they were coordinated, but supporting stakeholders in taking a slightly larger scale perspective is difficult. Through discussion with faculty and staff stakeholders at eight different liberal arts colleges, we have developed a model of the ecosystem of quantitative skills support at different institutions, including bridge programs with a quantitative component, advising and student placement, and peer support for quantitative skills development in the introductory courses. This ecosystem model has the potential to help campus leaders coordinate and consider changes to quantitative skills support efforts.