Aug. 29, 2005
By Alvin P. Sanoff, Special for USA TODAY
Every college in America seems to appear on some kind of "best" list. There's the U.S. News rankings of "Best Colleges," Princeton Review's top "Party Schools," Kiplinger's "Best Values In Public and Private Colleges," and that's just for starters.
Now a group of higher-education researchers has come up with a new list, one that parents and prospective college students might find especially instructive: 20 schools that create a campus culture that fosters student success. The list is not a ranking; it's an effort to identify diverse institutions that do an especially good job of educating students.
"They all add value to the student experience," says Indiana University professor George Kuh, who led a team of 25 researchers to compile the list.
The 20 schools run the gamut from large public research institutions such as the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and the University of Kansas-Lawrence to small private liberal arts institutions such as Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., and Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pa.
What sets the schools apart, researchers say, is that when factors such as the academic quality of the students they admit are taken into account, the institutions have above-average graduation rates and do an outstanding job of involving students in their education. Research shows that student involvement is a key component of academic success.
Kuh says data showed the schools "were all places where something good was going on." Three to five researchers visited each school twice for a total of up to six days to determine why students at the schools succeed. Kuh and his colleagues have published their research in a new book, Student Success in College: Creating Conditions That Matter (Jossey-Bass).
Focusing the spotlight on these institutions, Kuh says, provides a road map for other schools.
Despite significant variations in size, admission standards and student demographics, the 20 schools shared a number of characteristics. All had clearly articulated educational purposes and aspirations -- and a coherent philosophy that guided their programs, policies and practices.
Though every college has a mission statement, for these 20 schools it constitutes far more than just words on paper, Kuh says. The schools translate their words into practice. For example, at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., a philosophical commitment to innovation translates into extensive use of technology to foster collaborative learning among undergraduates.
The institutions also share what Kuh calls "an unshakeable focus on student learning" and create environments designed to promote student success. Most colleges claim to do this and often point to the establishment of living-learning communities in dormitories, freshman seminars and other initiatives to document their efforts.
But it is how well the initiatives are implemented and how broad-based they are that makes the differences, Kuh says.
Not all the initiatives are grand in scale. For example, Ursinus redesigned space and added tables, chairs and laminated whiteboards to create "interaction areas" near faculty offices and classrooms where students could work in small groups.
Finally, the 20 schools all have clearly defined pathways for student success and make success a shared responsibility of the campus community. The institutions all have multiple safety nets that include early warning systems calling attention to students in academic trouble. These safety nets typically involve faculty, counselors, administrators and even peers.
Kuh says the University of Michigan stands out because while it lets students know that they are "entering an academic boot camp" with tough challenges, "it has more student support and services in place than any school we saw. The university understands that if people hit a bump in the road, that doesn't mean they should get thrown out of the car."
Kuh says the information gathered in the course of the study "is not something that is found in most college guides. Yet these are the kinds of things that are important to student success." He advises parents and prospective students who visit a school to ask not only such questions as "What kind of support services are here?" and "How accessible are the faculty?" but also to probe deeper to get beyond the invariably positive answers colleges provide.
"Parents should ask, 'What is the basis for saying you are above average? Where are the data?' " Kuh says.
The 20 schools that Kuh and his team selected were chosen from among 700 four-year colleges and universities that participated in the National Survey of Student Engagement from 2000 to 2003. The survey is an annual effort to assess the degree to which students on a number of campuses are actively involved in their education.
Many elite institutions, including the Ivy League schools, are not survey participants. Some of those institutions do their own research in areas covered by the survey, such as the academic challenge on a campus, the degree of student-faculty interaction, and the extent to which the campus environment is supportive.
Researchers found that in many respects, the 20 schools are similar to successful corporations. They are never satisfied with their performance, and many continually collect data to see how they are doing.
"These are not perfect places," Kuh says. "But they share a desire to be better than they are."
In alphabetical order
Alverno College (Wis.)
California State University at Monterey Bay
The Evergreen State College (Wash.)
Fayetteville State University (N.C.)
GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
Gonzaga University (Wash.)
Longwood University (Va.)
Macalester College (Minn)
Miami University (Ohio)
Sewanee--University of the South (Tenn)
Sweet Briar College (Va.)
University of Kansas
University of Maine-Farmington
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of Texas-El Paso
Ursinus College (Pa.)
Wabash College (Ind)
Wheaton College (Mass.)
Winston-Salem State University (N.C.)
Wofford College (S.C.)
