The Problem
The Critical Need for Teaching Excellence
Close to 40% percent of all students enrolled in a postsecondary degree program do not complete a degree within six years of enrolling. 1
Reframing Student Success
Improving Outcomes Through Elevating College Teaching & Learning
To address this problem, higher education experts, funders, policymakers, leaders, faculty, and staff have increasingly focused on “Student Success.” This movement has succeeded in many areas of student experiences—including improving academic advising, building data systems to track and respond to students who need extra out-of-classroom support, and shifting budgets to support retention initiatives. These new efforts have produced important strides in the areas of student access and ensuring greater student success in the past decade.
Yet, the quality of teaching has been a missing, or at least, an under-emphasized, piece of the puzzle to improve outcomes for all students. The student success agenda remains unfinished because the classroom has been largely left out of efforts to improve student success, develop workforce readiness, and provide credentials of value.
Capitalizing on Momentum
For decades, researchers have worked to understand which evidence-based teaching practices empower students and lead to success.
Recent scholarship from education, the learning sciences, and disciplinary-based education research shows that strengthening teaching would improve student outcomes, including graduation rates, employment, and civic engagement. However, the evidence base is not widely known. Improving knowledge of evidence-based teaching practices and creating support for the implementation of these practices holds strong promise in advancing the student success agenda.
Now is the time to catalyze this effort. A newly released report from the National Academies demonstrates that improving college teaching yields stronger student outcomes, giving nine principles of effective teaching practice. There are newly researched and validated measures of teaching effectiveness that can be used in faculty evaluation from the TEval project. Comprehensive research describes organizational policies to support teaching improvement. Several national higher education organizations have prioritized teaching improvement, as seen in the Boyer 2030 report. There is public support for college teaching excellence, creating a pathway for improved public trust in higher education.
The ABTC will be providing briefs synthesizing research on the connection between college teaching excellence and:
- Student retention/graduation;
- Employment, salary, and workforce development; and
- Civic engagement in a pluralistic society