P3 Collaboratory at Rutgers University-Newark in action

Last week, our friends at AASCU convened 22 provosts for its prestigious Student Success Institute (SSI), a year-long leadership program led by Sova with support from Ascendium. ACUE was delighted to spend time with these leaders, share insights from years of partnership with AASCU-member Rutgers University-Newark (RU-N), and take provosts through a holistic approach to faculty engagement and evidence-based teaching, leading to student success and equity.

Dr. Sherri-Ann Butterfield, Executive Vice Chancellor, showcased the teaching and learning transformation well underway at RU-N. In 2014, with new leadership from nationally-recognized President Nancy Cantor, RU-N updated its strategic plan and put effective teaching at its core.  

Butterfield emphasized that students were instrumental to the process. “They helped us recognize that we weren’t just the most culturally diverse campus in the country, but that they have diverse learning styles, too.” Through conversations with colleagues, full- and part-time faculty, and students, the new plan was “organic and built from the ground up.” Butterfield added, “One of the clearest priorities was investing in our faculty to help strengthen their teaching.” 

The convened provosts were particularly interested in RU-N’s P3 Collaboratory, a result of the new strategic plan developed in partnership with ACUE. It brings together pedagogical development, professional and career development, and public-interest research (the “three p’s”) under one roof and, as Butterfield pointed out, shows that “research and teaching are not mutually exclusive.” It’s a timely reminder, given recently announced efforts to overhaul higher education’s hallowed R1 and R2 classifications.   

Some RU-N faculty were concerned if they’d truly be rewarded for investing in their instruction, given how little attention has been paid to teaching historically. So, RU-N built teaching into its reward structures. The result: a change of culture around tenure and promotion, with teaching portfolios getting greater consideration. Peer-recognition awards continue to matter, as does an annual ACUE pinning ceremony and reception for newly certified RU-N professors. “It matters to people,” Butterfield underscored.  

Evidence of change has also been key to sustaining momentum. In 2019, the Center for Advanced Study of Education at the CUNY Graduate Center examined the effects of evidence-based teaching at RU-N. Principal Investigator Dr. Deborah Hecht found that success and learning were stronger: among students taught by ACUE-certified faculty, 93% percent passed their courses, compared with 85% of students among comparison faculty; average grades also improved from 3.27 before instructors enrolled in ACUE coursework to 3.41 after instructors earned their certificate. 

Inspired by RU-N’s progress and Butterfield’s passion, AASCU’s provosts then rated their own institutional efforts. The exercise used a new toolkit, “Success & Equity through Quality Instruction: Bringing Faculty into the Student Success Movement,” developed by ACUE and Sova and published by the Education Commission of the States through Strong Start to Finish.  

With facilitation by ACUE’s Aaron Bolton, Petra Kohlmann, Penny MacCormack, Laurie Pendleton, and Jodi Robson, the provosts looked holistically across five key domains: their strategy, their focus on equity, the comprehensiveness of their approach, the extent to which the work is evaluated, and the intentionality of impact to campus culture—all through the lens of faculty, teaching, and learning. The toolkit’s practical suggestions left the provosts with ways to make progress at their institutions.

“Faculty are key to student success,” said Dr. Jonathan Gyurko, ACUE’s President and Co-founder, who led the session. Gyurko added, “We’ve seen that simply offering more professional development isn’t enough to transform a campus to see evidence-based instruction in every class as a key lever of stronger student achievement and equity.” Rather, “it takes the holistic approach that RU-N exemplifies, that the toolkit recommends, and that ACUE’s partnership, academic, research, and communications teams deliver.”   

Nor does the work end. “It’s a constant iterative process,” added Dr. Butterfield, who also thanked ACUE for its ongoing collaboration that continues to make an impact on student success and equity. 

A new two-year study from ACUE and The University of Southern Mississippi shows how investments in quality teaching lead to higher student retention, strengthen achievement, and narrow equity gaps.

Five years ago, The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) faced big challenges. In gateway courses, first-year students struggled to pass, and large gaps existed by race and Pell status. On top of that, USM academic leaders say, there lacked an instructional culture rooted in evidence-based teaching and student success. 

In response, USM launched the ACUE Faculty Development Institute to equip faculty with evidence-based teaching practices and build a community centered on student success. 

“The consequence of this faculty development initiative was really the beginning of a sea change on campus around teaching and learning,” Dr. Amy Chasteen, USM’s Executive Vice Provost of Academic Affairs said at a press conference to announce new research findings showing that investments in quality teaching lead to higher student retention. Over the last several years, more than 200 faculty have participated in the ACUE Faculty Development Institute. One out of every four full-time faculty is now ACUE Certified. 

‘Quality teaching is leading to increased retention.’

Research by USM and ACUE tells a data-driven story behind that faculty transformation and the impacts seen for students: higher retention and stronger, more equitable outcomes. According to an analysis of outcomes for 3,982 first-year students over two academic years (2017-18 and 2018-19), students taught by ACUE faculty were “significantly more likely to return to USM in the subsequent academic year” compared to students who took no courses taught by ACUE faculty.

The analysis, which included 32 ACUE faculty and 821 non-ACUE faculty, found an estimated additional 80 students returned to USM than would have otherwise.

“What we have found is that quality teaching is leading to increased retention of students and persistence at the institution,” Chasteen said. “We can imagine that with so many ACUE Certified faculty across the campus, there are likely hundreds more students being retained as a result of effective teaching.”

In presenting the research findings to date, Chasteen added that retention is only one benefit of USM’s investment in quality teaching. “We’re seeing stronger achievement, and we’re also seeing sustained improvement over time. DFW rates are lower in subsequent courses for students who took gateway courses with ACUE-credentialed faculty.”

More ACUE Faculty, Stronger Achievement

“We also are seeing an effect of multiple ACUE instructors on student success,” Chasteen said. “The more classes students take with ACUE-certified faculty, the higher the GPA, the greater the course completion, and the higher the pass rates. Again, the impacts are larger for our students of color. So, it’s very important to us, given our equity mission.”

As the most diverse university in the state of Mississippi, USM has made quality teaching a critical strategy for closing equity gaps. USM Provost Dr. Steven Moser said that investing in faculty has led directly to more USM students persisting and graduating, adding that this progress is “the result of a very deliberate, institution-wide investment through our ACUE Faculty Development Institute.” 

A Data-Driven Partnership

The results are the latest findings from a series of longitudinal studies conducted by USM and ACUE researchers. Studies published in summer 2021 will be presented in two sessions at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

“From the start of our partnership, we have worked closely with ACUE to lead high-quality, large-scale research because we wanted to measure the impact of what we were doing,” Chasteen said.

“USM’s institutional commitment to being data-driven has made this collaborative work possible. Their commitment is exemplified in their dedication to measuring the impact of any and all of their initiatives that are designed to improve student outcomes and close those equity gaps,” said Meghan Snow, ACUE’s chief data officer, who was joined by ACUE senior research associate Dr. Theo Pippins, the lead author of the report.

Broader Implications for Student Success

The USM findings prompted a series of responses from higher ed leaders, who praised the student success outcomes and discussed implications for the future of the student success movement. 

Dr. Yolanda Watson Spiva, president of Complete College America (CCA), a leader of the higher ed reform movement, commended USM’s leadership “in surfacing important data focused on faculty impact on postsecondary student success.” 

“These retention findings on first-year students are an indication of the student-focused, student-first attitudes of ACUE faculty, combined with sound knowledge of the disciplines and quality teaching methods,” she said. “We are proud of ACUE’s work and share their dedication to creating more equitable student outcomes by eliminating institutional performance gaps through structural reforms of faculty teaching and learning.”  

For Scott Durand, CEO of ACUE, the analysis is another strong validation of ACUE’s mission to ensure student success and equity through quality instruction.

“The evidence is clear: ACUE Certified faculty retain more students, measurably improve achievement, and close equity gaps,” said Durand. “This new finding is a powerful example of how when colleges and universities invest in their faculty and equip them with evidence-based practices, they can tackle the enrollment and completion crises head-on and drive real student success outcomes.”

Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education (ACE), praised the USM retention rate findings and said they underscored ACE and ACUE’s shared mission.

“Effective teaching matters. It is gratifying to see ACUE’s work with the University of Southern Mississippi produce such positive results toward strengthening student learning and persistence.”

Watch the press briefing.

An all-star team of researchers at ACUE is responsible for working with partner institutions to conduct large-scale studies to evaluate the impact of ACUE’s courses on faculty and students at partner institutions. To date, ACUE has published 18 studies that have established an incontrovertible link between the evidence-based teaching of ACUE-credentialed faculty and improved grades, higher completion rates, and closed equity gaps by race, ethnicity, and socio-economic status. 

The team’s data-driven work is one of the reasons that ACUE is now leading a major national study to examine student success outcomes in gateway courses, an initiative made possible through a $1.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 

One of the researchers on this talented team is Theo Pippins, who recently earned his PhD. His degree, in the Economics of Education, is from one of the most prestigious programs of such study in the United States–Teachers College, Columbia University. His dissertation examined important issues of equity in education among Black adolescents. This year he’ll be presenting two papers at AERA this year. 

We asked Theo to share some insights about his research and work at ACUE. 

Tell us about your dissertation. What topic did you study and what did you learn?

My dissertation focused on the potential for policies, interventions, and curricula to improve transitions to four-year colleges and universities in the U.S.  I conducted a novel investigation of New York City’s adoption of SAT School Day (SSD), which provides universal access to college entrance exams for high school juniors. In addition, I published a systematic review and meta-analysis of 19 studies on the causal impact of late pre-college advising interventions, which aim to connect juniors and seniors with pre-college advisors to guide them through the complex college application process. The studies focused on identifying the causal effect of these interventions on postsecondary enrollment outcomes for historically underrepresented students. Finally, I present a correlational study that uses transcript data from a statewide community college system to estimate how well GPA, credit accumulation, and course taking at community college predict upward transfer and baccalaureate completion.

Taken together, this work highlights the importance of academic preparation and advising within transitional pathways.

What is one big thing you want people to know about the ACUE research team’s work?

The biggest thing I want people to know about the ACUE research team’s work is that it is conducted by a genuinely dedicated group of individuals. Our work is simply a reflection of that dedication. We approach our work with thoughtfulness and are consistently trying to improve upon it. This is one reason why we have been successful at being accepted at conferences like AERA.

What does the ACUE’s role in leading a national study on student success in gateway courses mean to you? 

The Gates grant presents a great opportunity to further ACUE’s reach and demonstrable impact. I am just excited to be collaborating with faculty, administrators, and researchers who are dedicated to creating more equitable educational experiences. I cannot wait to dig into the data, learn from the findings, and share the story.

Learn more about the ACUE Impact

College students are struggling to persist through their “gateway” courses. A new $1.5 million study funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will examine faculty impact on student success and equity through evidence-based teaching.

Last summer, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation asked to learn more about the link between evidence-based teaching and improved student outcomes in college.

What followed was an exhaustive review of the ACUE impact, which included numerous and independently validated studies showing that students earn better grades and complete courses in greater numbers – more equitably with their peers—when taught by ACUE-credentialed faculty.

“We took them on a deep dive,” said Scott Durand, ACUE’s Chief Executive Officer. “It was our honor to share compelling findings that ACUE-credentialed faculty close equity gaps and measurably improve student outcomes.”

The $1.5 million grant will support a major national study involving more than 1,500 educators nationwide to examine the relationship between evidence-based teaching practices, faculty mindset, and student outcomes. As part of this, up to 700 faculty will have the opportunity to earn the full ACUE Certificate in Effective College Instruction, endorsed by the American Council on Education (ACE).

A Shared Mission: Evidence-based Strategies to Improve Student Outcomes

To dramatically improve student outcomes and ensure that race, ethnicity, and income are not predictors of postsecondary success, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation put students at the center of its philanthropic strategies. A guiding principle for the world’s largest charitable foundation is that evidence is essential for guiding improvement in student outcomes.

Durand said that ACUE’s evidence-based mission and shared commitment to measurably demonstrating impact has made the announcement even more meaningful.

“This major national study was granted on that basis, to further explore the transformative impact faculty can have on student success when equipped with evidence-based teaching practices and digital tools,” Durand added.

The study is being designed to expand higher education’s understanding of how Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Pell-eligible students enrolled in gateway courses can benefit from evidence-based teaching. Participating institutions include:

• Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York
• California State University, Northridge
• Georgia Southern University
• Ivy Tech Community College
• North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
• Ohio Association of Community Colleges, including Cincinnati State, Cuyahoga Community College, and Lorain County Community College
• University of Hawai’i at Manoa
• University of Houston

Passing gateway courses, which are required to earn college degrees, is pivotal to a student’s academic success. Yet too often it is where students encounter early challenges and struggle to persist.

Meghan Snow, ACUE’s Chief Data Officer, said that the study will have a specific focus on examining the link between evidence-based teaching and improved grades, higher completion rates, and closed equity gaps in gateway courses.

“With this new study, we can investigate these relationships in gateway courses—which are so consequential in a student’s academic career,” Snow said in a press release announcing the study.

Learn more: Review our 18 research briefs and partner impact stories showcasing how ACUE Certified faculty are making a measurable impact at colleges and universities nationwide.

By Amy Sliwinski

The “C’s get degrees!” mindset is a nod to a less cheery truth about students’ perceptions of college grading practices: A 70% is good enough. A traditional teaching approach might be to provide the grade along with some written feedback. Then it’s on to the next topic. But instructors know that the grade represents a clear gap in understanding. If it doesn’t get addressed, it will likely lead to greater challenges later in the course and stifle persistence.

How can we ensure students persist? 

Offering students opportunities to learn from their mistakes and improve their work has been one of the most impactful strategies I learned about while earning a Certificate of Effective College Instruction from the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE). In the module on Helping Students Persist in Their Studies, we learned how to provide thorough, timely, and specific feedback, and offer more revision opportunities.

A coworker in my ACUE cohort shared his approach to offering revision opportunities. Students in his classes have an opportunity to resubmit assignments for up to 50% credit of any lost points. I was struck by the brilliance and simplicity of this practice. It provides students a clear opportunity to learn from and improve on their mistakes. Just as importantly, it supports a culture in which effort is more praised than ability.

Connecting to Career Skills

I also appreciate the intentionality of the module’s recommendations for showing students how assignments connect to career skills.

As a former academic advisor and director of an Atlanta-based internship program, I have seen firsthand how the power of support, encouragement, and the opportunity to learn from mistakes can change a student’s trajectory. The struggling student stereotype assumes “laziness” as a characteristic. More often, I found that fear, insecurity, lack of understanding or lack of belief in their own abilities hindered students. Instructors who normalize mistakes help students to keep moving forward and to see their own potential.

Providing Targeted Feedback

In online teaching, student engagement is a challenge. Interaction is often limited to writing, so it can be a mystery whether or not students are even reading your feedback. In-person interaction can also help provide a sense of support and encouragement. Without it, students may get discouraged when they lose points or have trouble understanding content. ACUE inspired me to be very intentional and transparent with my feedback to avoid this kind of confusion. Here are some feedback practices that I now incorporate:

• First, highlight what the student did correctly or point out at least one thing to celebrate in the submission.
• Explain specifically what resulted in point deductions.
• As often as possible, comment on some element of the assignment’s content, like posing a thought-provoking question.
• Provide resources or suggestions for revisions and improvements.

For example, if they had formatting issues, I might direct them to our online library portal for a Word document template in an appropriate format. I also, as often as possible, comment on some element of the assignment’s content and try to provide a thought-provoking question in response.

In my weekly announcements to the class, I also try to include some personal shout-outs with mentions of content from student submissions.

For example, I’ll highlight a student’s insightful comment on a key concept from the previous week. Or I’ll provide additional thoughts and resources on a particularly popular discussion post. I always try to use student names as a way to show them I am actually reading their work, which can help motivate them to put more care and effort into their assignments.

A ‘great vehicle’ for motivating students

Students may prefer different settings to discuss their work, so I also offer 1:1 opportunities and group Zoom sessions to offer a classroom-esque context.

In the second week of a course, I send a personalized “check-in” email to each student to ask if they have any questions, needs, comments or concerns about the course so far. This has become a great vehicle for interaction and connection and has helped struggling students become motivated to work to catch up in the class.

Many students say it’s made a big difference. It has become a trend for students to comment on how appreciative they are of my intentionality, my personalization, and the depth and detail of my feedback. I have also had a handful of students that have reached out to further discuss class concepts or even personal matters for fun as a result of the intentional efforts I make at connection. As ACUE highlighted, encouraging students and creating opportunities for them to learn from their mistakes has truly resulted in increased engagement, persistence, and student success.

Amy Sliwinski is the Academic Operations Coordinator and an ACUE-credentialed adjunct professor of Human Diversity and Leadership courses at Southeastern University, a private Christian liberal arts university in Lakeland, Florida.

“When I think about how our country can become more equitable, it’s the work you do,” said Dr. Penny MacCormack, Chief Academic Officer at ACUE, at the San Jacinto College Assembly in her keynote address to hundreds of educators. “Every interaction you have with students is important.” 

In fall 2021, 82 San Jacinto College instructors and staff participated in ACUE’s program, successfully completing a microcredential in Inclusive Teaching for Equitable Learning (ITEL). Among them: their Chancellor, Brenda Hellyer. 

“It was a very powerful experience,” Dr. Hellyer said. “I wanted to understand more about myself and how I can be a better leader.” In the self-reflection exercises, in particular, she found a greater level of empathy for her students, while also recognizing her own privilege. “It helped me dig a lot deeper.” 

As Dr. MacCormack explained in her keynote, ITEL is designed to provide educators and non-instructional staff with proven strategies to create a more equitable and just learning environment. Modules focus on implicit bias, microaggressions, stereotype threat and imposter phenomenon as well as creating an inclusive learning environment and designing equity-centered courses. It includes expert insights, demonstrations of practices in authentic settings, testimonials from faculty who have used the practices and seen their impact on students firsthand, as well as Observe and Analyze videos to prompt conversations between cohort members who are learning alongside their colleagues. 

ITEL’s design coincides with SJC’s mission to serve its diverse populations by providing access to quality education that advances the success of students from all socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.​ Guided by the question, “How does this affect equity and opportunity for our students and our community?” San Jacinto College has not only embraced ACUE’s ITEL course, but is now preparing to equip more instructors with effective teaching practices presented in ACUE’s additional course offerings. 

“There’s a myth that you’re either born with the characteristics to be an effective teacher or you’re not,” Dr. MacCormack noted. “That’s damaging to faculty and students,” adding that “in order for students to succeed — and feel a sense of belonging in college, which is critical to their perseverance — they must be engaged with quality-based instruction. And faculty, in turn, must be equipped with the tools to engage students in learning.”  

With 40 years of research and learning science informing it, Dr. MacCormack said, the ACUE framework encourages instructors to engage students at deeper levels, and ultimately narrow and close equity gaps. 

In a panel following Dr. MacCormack’s presentation, educators spoke about their experience completing the course and implementing new practices in their classrooms.  

Tammi Rice, a Math professor, spoke about experiencing imposter phenomenon and how completing the program led her to have more compassion for both her students and herself. “I went in with the goal of being better for my students but also for myself,” she said. “I think I’m much more complimentary than I ever had been. Now I have more robust insight into who my students are.” She added, “the course solidified the direction I was going in. I had solid research to go back to and didn’t feel so alone.” 

“We want to feel like we’re part of a community,” Crystal Higgs, a Biology professor, agreed. “When we express [our vulnerability] to our students, it helps them feel engaged and closer to us. Don’t be afraid of sharing your fears.” 

Now, Higgs uses a more intention-based method of instructing her students. During group work, for example, she assigns groups with an eye on the different skill sets students have, thanks to the lessons she learned from ACUE. 

“The most important element was the self-reflection for me,” Robert Flynn, an English professor, said. “I come from a position of privilege in this society. While there was a casual understanding of that, the reflection enabled me to increase my own level of self-awareness.” 

The ACUE program, he explained, helped him “reflect on how other people learn from me. That’s going to live the longest for me with this course.” 

Learn more about ACUE’s microcredential course Inclusive Teaching for Equitable Learning.