LEAP at the Five-Year Mark
By: Stephen Langendorfer
Would it be an exaggeration to suggest that in its first five years the Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) initiative has become the single most influential program ever created by AAC&U? This claim may be debatable, but the accomplishments of LEAP at its mid-point mark are truly remarkable. LEAP has promoted multiple programs in campus action, public advocacy, and authentic evidence. The Campus Action Network and Partner States initiatives are bringing the existence and adoption of the Essential Learning Outcomes to the forefront on college campuses across the country. The periodic Hart Research Associates surveys conducted for AAC&U are documenting that employers indeed value the achievement of the Essential Learning Outcomes in those they hire. The newly published Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE) rubrics are providing, for the first time, a national basis for assessing the Essential Learning Outcomes and offer a realistic alternative to standardized testing.
In 2005, LEAP’s lofty goals—sparking public debate about essential learning outcomes for all students, promoting liberal education and its broad benefits; and documenting the degree to which students were achieving liberal education outcomes—must have seemed daunting at the very least to the AAC&U leadership and membership. Looking back over LEAP’s brief history, these goals, like the Essential Learning Outcomes they spawned, are well on the way toward achievement. As Carol Geary Schneider proudly pointed out in the opening plenary session of AAC&U’s 2010 annual conference, the chief academic officers at AAC&U member institutions report that 63 percent of their campuses have learning goals that address the essential learning outcome of integrative learning, while 89 percent of campuses address the essential learning outcome of writing skills.
But while LEAP has made remarkable advances, a number of AAC&U members gathered at the membership meeting discussed ways to address the fact that an estimated 3 out of 5 undergraduate students (and perhaps faculty as well) do not know most of their institution’s learning outcomes. Members suggested a number of plausible ways that their institutions could raise awareness of their learning outcomes to students, faculty, and stakeholders. A few ideas included imbedding the learning outcomes intentionally within the first year and general education curricula, expanding the publicity of learning outcomes through brochures or on campus homepages, adding them to the use of assessment of the learning outcomes through e-portfolios, and including them within professional development efforts for faculty and student affairs staff.
Will LEAP have as much impact during its second five years as it has had during its first five? The mark of a truly transformative initiative will come from its continued positive trajectory and the energy that is sustained across its full decade. If the focus on liberal education, student-centered learning, and authentic assessment of student learning outcomes has changed at least as much from 2010 to 2015 as it has since 2005, the answer will certainly be affirmative.
Stephen Langendorfer is director of the BG Perspective (general education) program and professor of kinesiology at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio. As an Associate member of AAC&U, he has participated in a Greater Expectations Institute and the VALUE rubric project.
