The future of liberal education in the United States, in its current form, is fraught but full of possibility. Today's institutions are struggling to maintain viability, sustain revenue, and assert value in the face of rising costs. But we should not abandon the model of pragmatic liberal learning that has made America's colleges and universities…

As many as 41 million Americans live in "higher education deserts" -- at least half an hour's drive from the nearest college or university and with limited access to community college. Many of these deserts are in rural America, which is one reason so much of rural America is less prosperous than it deserves to be. The lack of higher…

This paper outlines the result of an innovative program to develop a competency-based curriculum and a work process to engage students in energy assessment of small commercial buildings in their community. Throughout the resulting course, "Leadership in Building Energy Efficiency (LBEE)," students were trained to gather buildings'…

Pennsylvania Intermediate Unit 8 (IU8) seeks to scale innovations that are evolving as local solutions to educational challenges in rural school districts. Consistent with its mission of creating customized solutions, IU8 seeks to make the innovations better, meaning more learner centered and community focused. IU8 is evolving the Getting Better…

The lingering economic downturn has affected virtually every American institution--perhaps none more significantly than the nation's higher education system. These days, facing significant revenue shortfalls that are widely recognized as the "new normal," state-supported colleges and universities are looking, sometimes desperately, for…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine existing learning innovation systems and propose a systematic methodology of delivering educational innovations in the right amount, in the right place and at the right time. Design/methodology/approach: Higher education is not effectively incorporating new discoveries in cognitive science and human…

This report concludes that for the U.S. to prosper and compete in the 21st century, the education system will need to change its goals and practices so all students may succeed. That is, as information has become ubiquitous, schools need to emphasize 21st century skills such as analyzing, synthesizing, and creating along with understanding and…

Graduate programmes in instructional design/educational technology are, by their nature, continuously being updated and improved. As a most recent iteration of the ever-evolving graduate experience, an experimental programme at Pennsylvania State University's Instructional Systems programme takes as its centerpiece a research apprenticeship in…

Is the United States getting it wrong when it comes to educating tomorrow's innovators in critical fields? It has been known for years that the only way to compete globally in information technology, engineering, nanotechnology, robotics and other fields is to give students the best educational opportunities possible. But do individuals have a…

Strategic Programs for Innovations in Undergraduate Physics (SPIN-UP) set out to answer an intriguing question: Why, in the 1990s, did some physics departments increase the number of bachelor's degrees awarded in physics or maintain a number much higher than the national average for their type of institution? During that decade, the number of…

This paper presents findings of a study that evaluated the impact and institutionalization of Project READ/Inquiring School, a school-reform project for systemic change. The product of collaboration between the University of Pittsburgh and several school districts in western Pennsylvania, the project's goals are: (1) to help schools build literacy…

Third-year outcomes of Re:Learning, a national collaborative effort to redesign the total school system, are presented in this report. The introduction describes the rationale underlying the preparation of the status report and describes the project. The next section describes the 1990-91 activities of Pennsylvania's nine Re:Learning development…

This article presents evaluation findings on an innovative field placement agency that extends the traditional social work internship by incorporating principles of service learning and civic engagement. Qualitative and quantitative student outcome data are presented on the learning experiences of MSW students placed in traditional agency field…

A charter school is an autonomous educational entity operating under a contract negotiated between the organizers who manage the school (teachers, parents, or others from the public or private sector) and the sponsors who oversee the provisions of the charter (local school boards, state education boards, or some other public authority). The…

Alternative education programs for disruptive and at-risk students in Pennsylvania were studied to determine the characteristics that make such programs successful. This report presents the results of the analysis and lists model programs and other operating programs in Pennsylvania. Suspension and expulsion are stopgap solutions that relieve the…